This was also part of a campaign in 2014/2015 in HK to stop people from leaving chewing gum on bus stop benches. [1]
The Virginia-based company then used its Snapshot DNA Phenotyping Service to extract strands of DNA from the trash and identify the person's "sex, ancestry, pigmentation (skin color, hair color, eye color, freckling), and even face morphology." That information was then used to create some insanely creepy 3D renderings of what each litterbug looked like. Parabon created 27 facial composites using 24 DNA samples collected from Hong Kong's streets and 3 from volunteers.
DNA is only a blueprint, it exists along with epigenetic footnotes, and a noisy variation tolerant production process. add exosomatic contributions, during the course of development [ones lifetime] and you have a thing called phenotypic plasticity. this means multiple variations occur when using the same code but different system configurations.
This isnt quite like phrenology, but the mentation seems approximate.
There's a sucker born every minute, and there's an entire Valley full of con men waiting to pounce with grand claims of "AI" and "genetic breakthroughs". Many of the latter are congregated right here!
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The Virginia-based company then used its Snapshot DNA Phenotyping Service to extract strands of DNA from the trash and identify the person's "sex, ancestry, pigmentation (skin color, hair color, eye color, freckling), and even face morphology." That information was then used to create some insanely creepy 3D renderings of what each litterbug looked like. Parabon created 27 facial composites using 24 DNA samples collected from Hong Kong's streets and 3 from volunteers.
[1] - https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2015...
This isnt quite like phrenology, but the mentation seems approximate.
Really? Phrenology was utter bullshit - a methodology based on genetics can answer some questions correctly, and others within statistical bounds.
Incorporating understanding of epigenetics would improve the model, but the failure to do so does not invalidate the model completely.
As far as morphology is concerned, sex hormone levels are probably a significantly more important unconsidered factor.
Sure, but can this? Just because the underlying mechanisms have validity doesn't mean any specific practical application does.