Leave it to the Chinese!

[Tha_Pig]

I think these scientists have got their morals completely backwards. I find the killing of human-animal hybrid embryos just to harvest their stem cells morally objectionable. But the fusing of human and rabbit cells would be a noble endeavor is it were done with the view to one day creating a decent bunny girl.

It is not the scientists. If you let them alone, they would be creating all kind of cool stuff right now. The problem is the politicians (which ultimately are the ones who decide if the scientist is going to get any money for their research) which are themselves influenced by religious groups.

Usually the scientist is more or less amoral. His curiosity will impulse him to investigate and try everything. But politics will keep him from playing god. It is sad, because some of the greatest discoveries of science could never exist if they had stopped at moral issues.

Pasteur experimented in humans, but he also invented the vaccines that saved millions. If he had lived in our times, his methods would be considered horribly unethical.

I wonder how many great discoveries and awesome inventions are gathering dust in some drawer just because religious moralists won't let the world know of them.

[WhatMeWorry?]

Gah! This is almost as bad as that "animal rights" bullshit..

My policy here is simple. Since we are intelligent and have moral sense we should be above harming animals for fun.
Food - ok.
Medicine - ok.

Screwing with DNA in humans or animals to create something new... Not good. You never know what may happen down the track if you screw too much with nature! Adding animals traits to humans may be ok but I certainly dont like the idea of creating brand new species.

although, if we do modify the genetic structure of human-beings then what happens if the modified people are deamed 'dangerous' or 'unnatural' by other people.. How many will die senslessly. How many children will be rounded up into concentration camps and tortured and disected because of possible mutant strains... And is it really worth the results when we aren't sure of them?

Every time some loser in a bar finds a bigger loser in the bar and they go procreate without protection somewhere you have people messing with the gene pool and mixing the genetic structure of humanity in unknown ways. Now yes, messing with DNA certainly speeds up the process a bit. But... that's not necessarily a bad thing either. Sometimes it is good to see where things are headed before it's the whole human race headed that way.

And yes, I know this is different from splicing animal and/or plant DNA with humans and certainly the ability for us to "naturally" combine our DNA with other lifeforms is limited or unavailable, BUT

My point is that just because we are doing it haphazard and chaotic and much more slowly does not mean we haven't been "playing god" and "fucking with mother nature" for millenia already.

I personally am looking forward to the crazy years ahead with human DNA manipulation, plenty of negatives will occur and plenty more positives and the human race will go on and people will cope with the changes because they have no choice...


and don't even get me going on what I feel about human-robot crossing the line... 8)

[LostNgone]

My post was about making furries.

All you furry haters stop trying to use the morality of tinkering with human DNA card.

JUST COME OUT AND SAY YOU HATE FURRIES!!!

[Happypeepeehead]

My post was about making furries.

All you furry haters stop trying to use the morality of tinkering with human DNA card.

JUST COME OUT AND SAY YOU HATE FURRIES!!!

lol@internet.
you win.

[Irish Witch]

Yeah, I was talking about a holocaust as well. Franky if mutation occurs naturally there's is a bigger chance of acceptance, but not after hundreds are killed or disected just to find out why and how... And super powers unlikely. Mutation / DNA alteration would most likely be to incorperate animal abilities into the human structue. Enhanced vision, agility etc..
And in my experience whenever humans encounter something different they get scared. Then angry. Mutation would mean 'civil war' between the mutants and the humans. And since mutants would be the smaller number they would either be overcome and put in concentration camps and experimented on - or else be forced into some styalized war.

[Infinity-Iz-Blue]

I think maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves here. for crying out loud people, this is 2005, not 2505. The Human Genome is huge, and there are no guarantees that any tinkering we do will even take effect noticably. Obviously there are more subtle and rewarding uses for Genetic research anyway, like the destruction of the sickle-cell genes, or even the tired-old cure to cancer. Still, maybe we can do those things, I'm no scientist...

[AkaneJones]

The Coma, a cammle Llama hybrid, looks like a cross between a cammle and a llama. So a bunny-girl hybrid could be much closer than you think. Although what one would look like exactly and how intellagent it'd be is any ones guess, plus the incorperation of rabbit DNA in to humans to produce human-hybrids correctly would take far more work. Though I don't know how close rabbit DNA is to humans to get an effective viable hybrid is could be more divergent, though rat DNA is saposed to be surprizingly close.

[Infinity-Iz-Blue]

Apparently, we share 50% of our genes with the Banana plant, so as far as mammals go there should be huge similarities. But how, scientifically speaking, could you make a Human-animal hybrid biologically viable? Take the rabbits as an example, we only wnt the noticable characteristics that we find endearing in the rabbit, like th' ears. Human ears are 'hunter' ears, which means we've got a very specific auditory capacity, whereas rabbits have 'prey' ears, which are very much more general-purpose, so they can hear, and run away from, anything in the vicinity.

How do you reconcile the two?

[AkaneJones]

Humans actually have generic ears of omnivors, hunter ears would be those rotateable thing on the top of cats and dogs heads. Still I don't know how you'd actually get the ears up there on a human skull.

[Infinity-Iz-Blue]

Sorry, omnivore ears. Although some of us have the capability to move our ears, sometimes as far as half an inch, which could aid a hunter.

As for fitting ears to the top our heads, that would take some serious remodelling of the skull.

[Squidflakes]

As I posted earlier, we're right around 90% common with all the other mammals on the planet as far as genes go. We're in the 99% range with other primates.

As far are getting the ears on top of the skull, it would be quite a bit of reconstruction.

Additionally, you know where are cabbots running around a few labs right? Genetic crossbreeds of cats and rabbits? They aren't just for Tenchi anymore.

[Meteo]

I wonder if they're as cute as the Cabbots of anime...

This whole conversation about genetically modified humans and the (very likely) oppression of said humans reminds me of a Sci-Fi book by David Brin and Gregory Benford: Heart of the Comet. I recommend checking it out.

[Kingofthemorlocks]

Sorry, omnivore ears. Although some of us have the capability to move our ears, sometimes as far as half an inch, which could aid a hunter.

As for fitting ears to the top our heads, that would take some serious remodelling of the skull.

I can move my ears nearly three-quarters of an inch.

[Captain Tylor]

I can move my ears nearly three-quarters of an inch.

But does it do anything for your love-life?

[Kingofthemorlocks]

Actually, yeah, because I'll wiggle them while Christine's stroking them, which makes her laugh. Making her laugh is high on my list of priorities.

[Infinity-Iz-Blue]

Well there you are, wiggly ears as an aid to relationships. Go forth and wiggle those ear's people! make the one you love laugh, just like KOTM does and your life might just improve!

[Irish Witch]

Mutant wise - making general cross-bredes is relitively erasy. They've already identified the main DNA strands responsible for the basic human form the problem is quite simple. The human form has many more DNA components then a rabit. The bits it has look very similar to bits in the rabbit because most of the innards are based on a similar concept it's just a matter of making the bits that dont match connect into the right places in the human DNA. I think somebody said there was 72 Genome pair structures of something for a human and rabbits probably come in around 30. Where do you make the joins??

And I think I can safely say that where the joins are will effect the intelligence level. The quicker bet would be to find someway of bypassing the gene checking in the sperm/ova system so you can fertalise a human egg with a rabbits sperm and let it sort out the difference. The result would be pretty dumb and you would most likely have to shave it to make it look human, but it could still be passible!

[Infinity-Iz-Blue]

I suppose the real problem is getting the results you want, as oppsoed to the bits that fit best...

[Tha_Pig]

I suppose the real problem is getting the results you want, as oppsoed to the bits that fit best...

I always remember how the killer bees were made. They wanted to mix the regular honey bees with African bees to get the best features of each species.

Instead they got the opposite; a bee that has all the aggressively of the African bee but none of the productivity.

So... Imagine you want to make a cat girl (woman's body with feline features and human intelligence) but instead they get a thing with a furless cat body and big human head.

[Irish Witch]

Hence my alternative. Since humans have the most DNA strand pairs compared to cats / rabbits etc the human DNA will be dominant. Humaoid form.... Just a slight question as to facial bone structure, amount of furr and intelligence level.. May also have problems with claws etc but basically humanoid... Get my drift?