Legitimate: why be furry, why be part animal?

[asfargone]

i don't think i can, all i can say is that just about the only thing i want to talk about is developing ideas, and it takes a good deal of skill and credibility not to be or feel threatened by the possibility that one wrong word can land me in a bad place, like being kicked off the forums or being considered some kind of psycho. thinking so often and not expressing myself can actually make me psycho, just watch castaway and you'll see what i mean. OOOC om nomnom

[Rachel]

Vagaries are for Mystics and Con men, if you want to be taken as a wise Figure like Aristotle you need to be specific and pedantic about what language means. Have the mind of a Philosopher, the eyes of a Scientist and the Tongue of a Lawyer, lest the tongue be made out of silver. The eyes out of wool, and the brain made of air. Say it like you mean it and don't be afraid:

You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by. Man, when I was young I shoved my ignorance in people's faces. They beat me with sticks. By the time I was forty my blunt instrument had been honed to a fine cutting point for me. If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn.

Also making and socialising with a coconut is actually healthy behaviour. v.v When faced with exterme circumstances that is, isolation and lonliness can drive one as you say "To go psycho". although as an ex-mental patient, I can't say I'm too happy with that wording. But don't worry about that, I know what you mean, .. this time.

[arinot]

Kinda odd if you think about it...
Humans would be wiped off the Earth if Furries appeared as they are imagined. With our intellect and their physical proweress, Humans would stand no chance.

Really, it would be awesome to have that... but it won't happen for a while...

It is definately 100% possible... and the tech needed is likely to show up in the next 20 years. With gene therapy already in mid stages of research, it'll happen...

I myself don't really see myself as a Furry... but I'd definately take the serum to become one if but for the fact that I'd suddenly be able to use the abilities of such animals... The appearance would just be a side-effect of all that of course.

I'd be garunteed to take it if I could get wings that worked on me out of the deal

[Rachel]

When I think of hybrids, I think "We be less, when you can be more?"

Why be an animal? When you can be more Human? One that's surpassed the previous boundaries, One that over it's obstackles and One that achieves more than one could dream of?
Why be less, when you can be More? Why be an Animal when you can be Neitzsche's dream into reality? Why be unnatural, when you can be augmented to be superiour than your normal self?

Why risk being crippled by genetic problems through your own genome or that spliced with an animal, when we can balance out the odds of survivial? Why have a broken arm, when we can reinforce the bone? Why let life decide when you should die, when you can live longer till you choose too?

H+

[arinot]

I mean, we'll probably have furs before we get superhumans.

This is because we'll have to start off with genes we already know exsist and can be transplanted... kinda like coding

We'd rather use functions another person made than write our own. One is much harder than the other.

as for wings... I mean really... They're WINGS!

[Rachel]

Actually, no. We'd have superhuman first, because it's easier to measure the effects of the genes, rather than mixing two together.

But rather than having wings, you'd could end up crippling yourself, and developing 32 different types of cancer* due to the mismatching genes.
*That's just the tip of what could possibly go wrong. (I've already mentioned how you could increase your risk for cancer but I'd look for studies to confirm if it's true or not, all I have is the theory.)

[arinot]

...jellyfish lumination genes in rats...
Glowing rats
nuff said...

[Rachel]

nuff said...

Your understanding on the benefits of Genetic enhancement/therapy appears to be lacking. Primaily because having glowing rats, is actually going to be counter productive to their survivial, not that Cat's need the extra-advantage to see mice in dim to dark lighting. To make glowing rats, is simply a vanity thing humans are going to do because they think it just looks fucking cool. v.v;

Do you even know the wing span you'll require, or the mass of muscles you'll need on your back for you to have functioning wings? Or that you'll require so much ATP just to flap around in the air for ten minutes? Ignoring the idea, that wings are evolved ARMS and HANDS*, there's still a lot of problems with the idea, that makes it unfeasible.

*The idea here, is that your either going to have wings, or your going to have hands that can use fine tools and open doors and type at the keyboard. (Although, yes you could type with a beak, but I'd feel bad for watching/laughing.)

[asfargone]

i believe i made my answer, whether or not it registered with this site, but anyway: thank you all for lending your ears, but i do believe that this topic started at the ceiling of reasonable conjecture. see you on the other side of he moon (*phrase for i'm done with this.)

[arinot]

nuff said...

Your understanding on the benefits of Genetic enhancement/therapy appears to be lacking. Primaily because having glowing rats, is actually going to be counter productive to their survivial, not that Cat's need the extra-advantage to see mice in dim to dark lighting. To make glowing rats, is simply a vanity thing humans are going to do because they think it just looks fucking cool. v.v;

Do you even know the wing span you'll require, or the mass of muscles you'll need on your back for you to have functioning wings? Or that you'll require so much ATP just to flap around in the air for ten minutes? Ignoring the idea, that wings are evolved ARMS and HANDS*, there's still a lot of problems with the idea, that makes it unfeasible.

*The idea here, is that your either going to have wings, or your going to have hands that can use fine tools and open doors and type at the keyboard. (Although, yes you could type with a beak, but I'd feel bad for watching/laughing.)

... erm... the glowing rats just means that current genetic modification just uses other genes...

As for wings, I bet there'd be a way to modify it to grow outta my back or something... hopefully...

And Why'd I need a beak?


Anyway, point is that genetic changes will start using other genes already known. I have a good idea of this from a friend interning at NIH and my own work...

[asfargone]

wow this discussion really got rolling. thanks elmy, you hit the nail on the head. sorry i just figured out this little secret about there being "pages," but i still think this discussion has to move somewhere else now, like where can this go wrong and where can we stop it, hypothetically. there are so many scifi films where something gets screwy because we weren't being responsible enough. For instance, when i read about the wings idea it sounded like maximum ride, where even fictionally they're turning into piles of goo (well, character overdevelopment= either a stupid death or some kind of god-power) genetics requires something like 104% accuracy to do things like cloning or direct manipulation of DNA. what we're looking at here is something like quantum mechanics. (i have no clue but it sounds right) AND we have to deal with the whole baby ethics dealio since conventional modification requires change before birth and will likely involve stem cells.

I understand the issue here, seeing how if you create a new being it is not nominally a human, and as such might have different ideas about right and wrong than you do. at the same time the term 'human' is really screwed up, since we refer to it as either good and kind or self-serving and corruptable. we have huge potential as it is, we simply have to excercise our faculties while removing natural faults and limiters such as complacency, greed, and self annihilating logic. (nihilism, apathy, to name a few) the idea i go by in my book is to make the animal dna into a self- assimilating virus. essentially it becomes a part of the human dna, kind of like a two tine fork. in this way it acts a bit like dormant dna and puts you through a process a lot like puberty. I was concerned about the energy problem, as mentioned with sitting all day just so you could fly ten minutes. my solution is that the mutagen can recess partially, like how pores and blood vessels open and move so you can cool off, or your hair stand in the cold. the trigger for the mutagen would be adrenalin, since that's when it would be important to be part animal.

that's all that can really be gained from being part animal, a new perspective on life, mad strength and reflexes, and emlaidp haawnetssowmael ksienxg

[Skunky von Angst]

@ Arinot: those are 'minor' changes. Sure, it'd be easy to have a human grow a tail, even fur. But I'd be leery about tinkering with genetics.
One of the things that make evolution occur is non-random mating (if genes are worthy of success, they'll come out on top - no need to artificially allow them to).

Do you even know the wing span you'll require, or the mass of muscles you'll need on your back for you to have functioning wings? Or that you'll require so much ATP just to flap around in the air for ten minutes? Ignoring the idea, that wings are evolved ARMS and HANDS*, there's still a lot of problems with the idea, that makes it unfeasible.

Not to mention needing lighter, hollow bones.

[Rachel]

... erm... the glowing rats just means that current genetic modification just uses other genes...

You mean that it is possible after about a hundred attempts. v.v

As for wings, I bet there'd be a way to modify it to grow outta my back or something... hopefully...

You'll be needing a gene for extra arms, which would be common in insects and arachnids, as much as that piques my interest (Hoping to study Entomology but with a forensic bent.) this is adding more genes to the mix, and likely to trial and error.

And Why'd I need a beak?

Because you'd have no hands to type with, unless you modify yourself again with multi-limb genes. However this was a cruel joke I'll admit, but thinking you could use a stick that you bite and tap keys, or you could train yourself to use your feet/talons to type.

Anyway, point is that genetic changes will start using other genes already known. I have a good idea of this from a friend interning at NIH and my own work...

You don't need a friend at NIH (I'm assuming a University, as I don't know what NIH stands for.) to tell you that, standard grade biology they teach at High School mentions it. Such as the division of Cells and the re-combination of Chromosomes, like what happens in the early stages of a Zygote developing. However Genetic enhancement is still possible, without using genes taken from other animals. ^.^

[asfargone]

i hate to be stern, but i think you can understand at this point where i was trying to go with this. the forum title is 'why be furry, why be part animal' now angstskunk did answer the question of why be furry, but i still think being part animal would be really cool. like a priest speaking to the choir i admit that in fact not only do i want to be such, i think there's a really good reason for this, we just have to find it. while it is true that messing with nature almost always has nasty results, and the times it doesn't its because we're kinda perverted. BUT we do know that technology relentlessly moves forward with each fool, tool, and savant that steps into the grinder. (i being among them, i reluctantly believe) as such it is easy to assume that there will be a day when we can take a healthy red pill and see things in a new and possibly better way.

the reason i contend with is that there are a gerat many people in the world that have somehow become sad, be it dissillusionment, a bad childhood, or some other tess of d ubervilles dealio. the fact is that more often than not these people cannot trust anything like religion, cannot recieve medical care, are beyond the hope of any comparable girlfriend, and all in all have no hope whatsoever. each of these poor souls has something great to offer the world, i'm sure, yet every day without some dramatic change is just another reason not to live. here, a simple paravirus, a dose of mutagen, whatever it may be, could be bought at a reasonable price, and deliver said person's salvation. now this is not to make it sound like some kind of drug, no, it's more like a new coat, a friendly placebo, red tinted shades.

seperate elephants walking from emlaidp haawnetssowmael ksienxg

[Skunky von Angst]

i hate to be stern, but i think you can understand at this point where i was trying to go with this. the forum title is 'why be furry, why be part animal' now angstskunk did answer the question of why be furry, but i still think being part animal would be really cool...etc etc

Yeah, it would be cool if I could be my skunk fursona. It'd also be cool to telekinetically throw stuff and drive a battle-mech. But, its not quite possible*.
Its fun to do in movies, graphic novels and other media but thats about it. Don't read too much into it.

And could you please, uhm, type a bit more clearer? Half of the stuff I didnt understand (no, not because it was "over my head", but because it didnt clearly relate). Make the paragraphs less blocky and capitalize. Please?

*this could be likely, depending on if someone would/could build one (and have it work properly) but still I digress.