Bio-Tech: Uses and Abuses

scoops

scoops

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bmunroe.roestudios.com
Be creative. Let's hear some of the good uses of bio-technology (including genetics research, obviously) and some of the blatent misuses of it.

Use: Once there are generations born in space/on other planets, it would seem to make sense to give them certain attributes that would ease their living in these environments that humans weren't specifically designed for.

Misuse: Engineering bulls-eyes into the flanks of deer.
 
I would think that's bad BC. Don't you want a little variety? I'm all for legions of hotties, but you should switch it up a bit.
 
Yeah, although she's very attractive, it would get pretty boring pretty quickly.

Use: Growing protein based "steaks" and whatnot in labs en masse and selling those to the public instead of keeping animals in the appalling hells we call "farms".

Misuse: Engineering a body bomb. It is a conceivable possibility that one day a terrorist organization would be able to produce an entire generation of people who are literally designed to be suicide bombers. Their organs would include independant sacks of volotile fluid. When the bomber takes a certain drug, which induces the mixture of the sacks' contents, well ... boom, I guess. And they could go anywhere and avoid detection.
 
Yeah, but think of the good uses of a "body bomb". It would eliminate personal violence, because you never know if, when you hit or stab someone, they might explode.

How about genetically engineering wheels instead of feet. That would be awesome. And giving a dog hands so it could go get you a beer.

Oh, oh! We could genetically combine Katie and b---

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Wheels would be a huge challenge. They don't occur in nature as far as I know, so we'd be working from nothing. (Last I checked, my smart fortwo didn't have DNA).

Hands on dogs? Why, just manipulate monkeys to be cleaner and more loyal.

And make miniature tigers and such. I'd get one of those. So cool!
 
basilmunroe said:
Wheels would be a huge challenge. They don't occur in nature as far as I know, so we'd be working from nothing. (Last I checked, my smart fortwo didn't have DNA).

Hands on dogs? Why, just manipulate monkeys to be cleaner and more loyal.

And make miniature tigers and such. I'd get one of those. So cool!
Click to expand...

wheels do occur in nature. there are several organisms which roll into balls specifically for rolling down hills to avoid being eaten. one of which is a lizard, i believe.
 
Aha, balls yes, wheels, hardly.

A wheel implies a hub or a castor. The only way I can think to do it is to have a completely exposed ball joint, which would be a weak spot, not to mention unsightly.
 
Nah, we'll give genetic illnesses to all of the dumb people, who we have identified through genetic testing. That will give us an excuse to segregate them.

And seriously, there's no such thing as too much Laetitia Casta. If you think it would get boring, just remember that there would be Laetitia Castas at all different age and, um, "experience" levels.
 
And different personalities.

Actually, that would be a fascinating experiment. Take women and men of the full range of personality type and attractiveness, then make them all beautiful. See if the ones who were average looking with great personalities turn at all into image focused, materialistic prima-donnas. I bet they might, at least a little.
 
Just think - swarms of Oded Fehr, Hayden Christensen, Alan Rickman, and Colin Firth. Can you genetically engineer accents?
 
ok, this discussion crossed Biotech and went directly into Sci-fi...

all the speculations of what can be done will never be done in our lifetimes, or the next. We have the ability to manipulate the genome, but the majority of our manipulations render the coding fragile or down right cancerous afterwhich. As we're all aware of, the genetic structure is 85% filler, but that filler has massive affect on protein coding, etc. It's why we share 90% of our genes with any given mammal...history combined with evolution.

most of the trials you'd read about in Scientific America, Wired, etc. are an means to a futuristic end. When they say that they want to put wheels on people, they're only working on finding the spaghetti genes, exons, proteins, etc. that produce toenails...or something along those lines.

God, am I glad I quit the labs...talking about this stuff makes my hands hurt from years of pipetting

Oh, and the double-helix, is a marketing ploy. Zeus rules all!
 
Basil, scientists will have to go to Tallon IV and study the plant-life there, because everything seems to have evolved an explosive mechanism. </MP reference>

The ability to regenerate limbs and nerves would be cool. Also, hibernation (in the short term). Both of those are found in the animal world.
 
Yes! I'd love to be able to hibernate! I hate the winter so much!

I'd also like to be able to fly. I've worked out a way that winged humans are theoretically possible. OK, you'd have to be pretty lean to begin with, but hey, if we're growing you wings, we can sure as hell bump your metabolism.

1) make you lean
2) replace your skelaton (heaviest part of your body) with something akin to aerogel (if you haven't heard of it, look it up, it's awesome)
3) grow wings from your shoulderblades.

Making the skelaton less dense is key. Human beings are far too massive (in the strictest sense) to be capable of powering their own flight. It would be possible on the moon at our current mass, but not anywhere else. Give us extremely porous bones, however, and we're airborne.
 
Not to spoil the fun, but...seeing as this isn't game related, shouldn't this go in the Off Topic section? :duck:
 
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