Parahumanity - Yay for more seriousness!

[GothmogII]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/The_Young_Family.jpg

The above is a concept sculpture of a human/animal hybrid by Patricia Piccinini.

The question: What do you guys think of the idea in general? Is it immoral? Just another step in the chain? And what happens when/if such a being is created, or more so, what if it's sentient? Would it's status as a non-human mean that we could do whatever we like to it? Even kill it if we thought it an abomination? (This of course assuming it would be healthy in the first place.)

I mean, as for how it would be treated...I can't help imagining alien visitation in the media. If they aren't invaders, and just visitors, you know some shady government men are going to try and capture and dissect it. Regardless of any state of sentience. But maybe that's just the media, although I can't help but think it holds a grain of truth to it. Without bringing religion into it too much, I will state that I'm personally non-religious, however, when I think on it, there's still plenty of things science does that just seem plain wrong. Whether this is different I think, all depends on how any actual hybrids are treated should they arise in the future.

And, that might not be too far off, some of you may recall that human/bovine embryos have already been created, of course, none of the extreme sci-fi imagining as seen above, but nonetheless, it's a step. Think about it, we've already gone a fair bit into cloning itself already, who knows what's next?

 

[Amnestic]

If it means I get to have sex with a catgirl, what's the harm?

Heh. In all seriousness though, why not? If we can remove and improve upon some of humanity's flaws, I say we should. People are always banging on about how we "rent the Earth from our children." and how "Children are the future" and yet these are the same people who are against trying to give them better lives. We should push forward and make our own evolution rather than waiting for nature to take its course.

 

[Lord Krunk]

Um, I'm okay with anthropomorphism, but don't judge me when I say that this is disgusting.

At least make a sculpture that's easier on the eyes.

EDIT:

Spoiler: In some cases, probably not safe for work.

http://jollyjack.deviantart.com - A bit like what this guy does.

 

[Killerbunny001]

Although sex with a catgirl is somehow appealing I do believe this is the biggest abomination I heard of in quite a while.

Even if such things were possible imagine what that will bring into the world. Remember we are not quite over the fact that some of us are white, others brown ....

 

[Brett Alex]

I'm completely in support of parahumanism and transhumanism in general; in fact, it's an area which I would like to research. However, I'm not confident that other people feel the same way I do - while, as I have expressed open support for cybernetic research, people have not objected, I do feel that if these parahuman experiments were performed using some sort of biological means, that people would be frightened out of their minds.

Note the reaction by the media and thus the public towards stem cell research and the process of cloning. This is more natural than the obviously mechanical means that I would suggest, and yet people feel disgusted with it. I feel that the human race is too arrogant to accept competition by another sentient and sapient species, so much so that they probably would regard it as an abomination.

I, on the other hand, see nothing wrong with this, but I have, as I mentioned above, a progressive attitude towards transhumanism. I intend by the time of my death to be so wired up that there'll be difficulty telling the machine from the man.

So one day you really will be the Mobile Autonomous System?

 

[FireFly90]

If it means I get to have sex with a catgirl, what's the harm?

Seconded . I think we regrow our tails back, then it would be easyer to climb trees in the event that global warming floods the earth.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Only if they are hot catgirls... that sculpture however is fuck ugly

 

[GothmogII]

Although sex with a catgirl is somehow appealing I do believe this is the biggest abomination I heard of in quite a while.

Even if such things were possible imagine what that will bring into the world. Remember we are not quite over the fact that some of us are white, others brown ....

A fair enough stance on it, or rather, one that I'm sure a lot of people would share.

But, let's say for point of argument, that, after massive public outcry that orders the destruction of such a hybrid. You are the person in charge of killing it. It realises what you are about to do, and begs you not to kill it. Could you do it?

I don't know that I could personally, as, it holds two things for me: one, that I couldn't under any normal circumstances harm an animal, this is despite the fact I consume many throughout my life, and two, that, although we tend to place ourselves above animal kind in terms of our mental faculties, in this case, the being is above animal, but 'below'* humankind, sentient, but not wholly human. But enough that, it would understand, and probably be fearful of what is happening to it.

*(I put a star beside 'below' in quotes simply because although such a hybrid could indeed be more advanced than a human being, it would still most likely not be treated as such, more a subject than a being in it's own right.)

 

[glambo]

if such a creature was sentient (and lets hope not) how could we possibly give it human rights when we cant even go a day without bombing someone or getting bombed ourselves? sorry, but we dont care about human rights, just human agendas. the thought of a monster like that and its terrible life in a cage is alot scarier than its twisted face could ever be.

/shudder

 

[Whiskyjakk]

I'm against it, but not on squeamish or moral grounds. We've confused up our evolution enough as it is just by altering our environment faster than our bodies can evolve. Fight or Flight reaction when you have an argument with your boss at work? Bad idea. Getting stomach ulcers because of the constant levels of stress we are exposed to? Equally bad idea. These are throw back behaviours to life in a different environment.

What makes us think that we have the wisdom and ability to alter our bodies without getting even more out of sync and psychologically messed up. Often when we try to mess with complicated natural systems that we don't really understand properly we screw things up (look up the introduction of Achatina or E. rosea snails to Tahiti)

 

[Steve Dark]

Something else to consider, if hybrids were possible, how long do you think it would be until some government somewhere gets the bright idea of Hybrid Super soldiers? Would Human rights apply to a being whose sole purpose in life is to Kill?

 

[Killerbunny001]

Although sex with a catgirl is somehow appealing I do believe this is the biggest abomination I heard of in quite a while.

Even if such things were possible imagine what that will bring into the world. Remember we are not quite over the fact that some of us are white, others brown ....

A fair enough stance on it, or rather, one that I'm sure a lot of people would share.

But, let's say for point of argument, that, after massive public outcry that orders the destruction of such a hybrid. You are the person in charge of killing it. It realises what you are about to do, and begs you not to kill it. Could you do it?

I don't know that I could personally, as, it holds two things for me: one, that I couldn't under any normal circumstances harm an animal, this is despite the fact I consume many throughout my life, and two, that, although we tend to place ourselves above animal kind in terms of our mental faculties, in this case, the being is above animal, but 'below'* humankind, sentient, but not wholly human. But enough that, it would understand, and probably be fearful of what is happening to it.

*(I put a star beside 'below' in quotes simply because although such a hybrid could indeed be more advanced than a human being, it would still most likely not be treated as such, more a subject than a being in it's own right.)

I couldn`t kill those... things... but I`m pretty sure that a lot of people will. It is rather hard for a lot of humans to see and respect degrees of intelligence between subspecies.

 

[GothmogII]

Something else to consider, if hybrids were possible, how long do you think it would be until some government somewhere gets the bright idea of Hybrid Super soldiers? Would Human rights apply to a being whose sole purpose in life is to Kill?

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri to the rescue:

My gift to industry is the genetically engineered worker, or Genejack. Specially designed for labor, the Genejack's muscles and nerves are ideal for his task, and the cerebral cortex has been atrophied so that he can desire nothing except to perform his duties. Tyranny, you say? How can you tyrannize someone who cannot feel pain?

And a good point too, we see little problem with a weapon designed for war, but, a tank cannot think, a tank is also inflexible, it is only as useful as it's crew. But, a genetically engineered soldier? One that can not only think and make decisions on the field, but would also follow orders without question, scary thought no?

 

[Shadow-Knight]

I'm alright with parahumanism as long as they look more human then that photo, that weirded me out. I see scientists improving sight, smell, hearing and other properties through this. But if the result is something like the picture, no matter if its sentient or not, it should be stopped. I have no problem with people trying to improve the human race, but they should make it so that we are not change so much that we can't even be considered human anymore. If we go and make another race like in the photo, aren't we playing god?

 

[gothic_dragon]

I am all for human hybridization,
On the basis that we should change ourselves to suit the environment, not change the environment to suit us. Speed up evolution (as mentioned before) is also how i look at it.

I also think that it would be cool to alter our body's in such a way or grow something that is parahuman, hell i would be one of the people that would want to get to know it / them, it could come in handy to know such a guy.

I personally can't wait for the day that i can have wings and a tail.

 

[Chiasm]

It worked out great in, "Island of Dr Moreau" But really I think the science behind something like this is and wont be possible, I mean we haven't even gotten fully to point of our own Genomes yet to the point we cant alter our finger length and bone structure, Yet some people think were ready to start putting wings and cat ears on us now?

 

[Amnestic]

Nice to see my jokey catgirl comment get such loving attention. Apparently people on the internet are as twisted, sexually, as I am!

And a good point too, we see little problem with a weapon designed for war, but, a tank cannot think, a tank is also inflexible, it is only as useful as it's crew. But, a genetically engineered soldier? One that can not only think and make decisions on the field, but would also follow orders without question, scary thought no?

If you were to do such a thing to a 'person' (using that term loosely now you understand), then they would become little more than a fleshy meatbag of a robot. I'm not sure if you could truly define them as human anymore. While it may be an initially scary thought, I don't actually see a problem with this. It'd probably be safer than having robots do our menial labour for us. Perhaps. It depends how much freedom we give them. I'm a little wary of the idea of robots doing manual labour, the Animatrix episodes on the Uprising have left me somewhat scared by the whole idea.

I'm not quite sure what it says about me, but the idea of genetically engineered 'people' to become labour workers doesn't bother me that much.

As for the transhumanism point (alongside my catgirl comment), I can see fur as being helpful. Oh it's technically a devolution I suppose, but I'd prefer having fur to have to buy new clothes all the time. Though I suppose I'd also have to deal with shedding issues and invest in more vacuum cleaners.