From: Kevin Osborne (kevin.osborne@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Feb 02 2006 - 09:30:55 MST
...yet more copying/pasting/palsying in order to be OT
have we previously considered genetically modifiying other mammals to
achieve a greater level of global intelligence?
(http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site:sl4.org+%22mammals%22
to http://sl4.org/archive/0511/12595.html , but this is a _very_
different question)
Big Cats, Dolphins & Elephants (others anyone?) all have certain
faculties that are almost certainly more highly evolved than ours
(Elephant memory as a possibly-junk-science example)
This snip from the archive:
> think it's implied by evolution that the difference between humans
>and other higher mammals as far as absolute intellectual ability can
>be traced back to small, specific differences between us and
>chimpanzees
has a flipside; if we tweak those small differences to the way humans
evolved, do we end up with 'higher mammals' with humanlike
intelligience?
these 'lower' mammals could show great promise in being genetically
modified to talk, think and have usable digits or (possibly
bio-mechanic/electronic) actuators. Also, we can do this modification,
including cloning, without breaking any kind of law or statute as is
the case with genetically modifying humans.
It could be that a super-intelligent talking Tiger could be
genetically predisposed to solving FTL; That enhanced dolphins could
be quantum-math savants, and that elephants could be unparallelled
estimators and correct-judgement perceivers.
We all have kidneys, right? Would it be so hard so 'hoist' them? Could
the payoff be worth
it? surely the more heterogenous the thought spectrum the greater the
chance of breakthroughs? And yes, I want to boink leopard-head girl
:-)
ps. I think some day soon people in secure estates like those in the
US are going to have GM Rottweilers the size of Humvees patrolling
no-mans-land sections within inner/outer walls. Let's be sure not to
give _them_ too much of a clue :-)
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