Human-animal Hybrids?

Originally Posted by Seadog Driftwood

More power to you, Maniac626.

Thank you. I feel special now.

[Arthax]

Originally Posted by maniac626

Sorry. I'm one of them.
It helped gave a man who couldn't move his body from the neck down be able to use a computer again.

This particular thing I have no problem with, but we also need to realise that in the future the control could work both ways, and there are many people in positions of power trying to bring about that sort of thing.

I refer to the Borg on Star Trek or the Nazgul in the LotR as fictional parallels, if you want to understand my concern.

I'm all for technological progress -as long as it doesn't give megalomaniacs the power to control minds.

[Ironhorse]

There is nothing wrong with giving megalomaniacs control of your body and mind, so long as I am that megalomaniac. [in deep basso voice ] "Do not worry, for I am kind".

[Arthax]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

There is nothing wrong with giving megalomaniacs control of your body and mind, so long as I am that megalomaniac. [in deep basso voice ] "Do not worry, for I am kind".

LOL, see what I mean? They're everywhere.
I don't think Humanity will go down that road, though. We've all seen the Borg (even people who don't like post-Kirk Trek, such as myself), so I think we're wise enough to avoid that.

EDIT: not to mention the fact that nobody has a clue on how to either insert or read thoughts from a brain. It may not even be impossible.

Weee! This is my first post here.
Okay this sort of thing is something I'm really happy about. The more we learn about genetics the sooner we'll be able to determine what (if any) particular genes control intelligence. THEN, we ramp it up baby! Maybe figure out if we can give mentally retarded children a chance at living life. And the whole ending of old age thing is something I look forward to
In the end its the same argument as nuclear power. Good or bad, it's the people in charge that determines its use.

Oh btw! My uncle is ex-cia. Ummm.. just so you people know, we already have chemicals that can be used to place suggestions into peoples heads. It probably requires intensive conditioning for unwilling subjects but it can be done. Probably has something to do with suspending the critical factor or something. My least favorite quote from my uncle was this, "I know how to make you shoot your mother in the head then forget about it by the next morning." Unpleasant.

[Arthax]

Hmm, very interestng. Are you sure he was being entirely serious about that last bit?

[TF-Viewer]

That last part was complete BS.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

I've kind of ignored this thread... but it's worth saying that the project as it stands doesn't represent human/animal hybrids in the sense of catgirls/anthromorphs etc. any more than driving to the shops represents going to the moon. The Chimeria's in question are 99.9% human genetically and in the unlikely event one was birthed, it would probably be outwardly human.

People seem to think that mapping the human genome was some great achievement... well, in many respects it was but all it's actually done is highlight the depth of work we've yet to do. The more we learn about DNA, the more we learn how incredibly complicated it is. It's not like a computer program. It's more like the schematics for the computer, all the programs and the instruction manual all rolled into one.

Not just that, it's not as if any single gene can really be looked at in isolation. While some genes do specific things, it's almost never as simple as a clock where you can say "Cog A turns Spindle B". It's a very complicated system that really needs to be considered hollistically.

Even if you get that kind of understanding, it would still be hard to actually do something like... genetically alter an adult so they could have cat ears or a forked tongue or something because somatic alterations are quite difficult... and really, if you want to make germline alterations... I mean, how many people would say "Yeah, how about making my son a catboy!"

I think it's more likely that cosmetic procedures will advance sufficiently to allow for the growing of things - like ears and tails - which can then be attached... of course, even that is probably a ways off.

As to the uncle in the CIA... I'll side with TF-Viewer on that. The notion is pretty laughable as it's entirely possible to condition people without the use of chemicals. Go read about Pavlov's dogs.