Strange argument last night...

[Gamblerjoe]

I understand what you are saying. Disregard everything we know about dragons' motives, mannerisms, and intelligence, and just take their physical characteristics. Then say for arguments sake that we genetically engineer one. One would at least have to entertain the notion that they could be a dangerous and unhinged threat to humanity.

I dont think that the military would actually waste their limited funding on this(I know its a lot, but it still finite, and military R&D is expensive.) But for the sake of a really really hypothetical conversation, your thought are not crazy at all. The fact that he's comparing you to Glenn Beck is totally out of left field and has nothing to do with any part of the argument.

I had a friend like that who I just had to cut off. Some people just completely lose their heads when you do anything short of bowing to them and telling them they're right about everything. We had an argument about DnD one time. He thought that intermediate gods were more powerful than greater gods. I told him the definition of the word intermediate, and he told me that that had no bearing on the conversation (though he said it in a profoundly less intelligent manner.) Then he freaked out and told me I was an asshole, which is pretty much what he did every time I ever tried to introduce logic into a discussion. His mother did a real number on him.

 

[hazabaza1]

To be honest, I gotta agree with him. Having a dragon would be fuckin' cool.

 

[Womplord]

I find his reaction to be unreasonable but I think you're argument was dumb all the same. Really? Creating dragons to kill people? I'm sure that there would be far, far more efficient methods of killing people by the time we could make a dragon from scratch, and far better creatures for killing than dragons. Not psychopathic, but still just pretty ridiculous to be honest.

 

[hooksashands]

Facebook: Making people un-friends since 2004.

 

[Tonythion]

Dragons are actually laid back creatures unless you threaten them. So as long as we didn't fuck with them we should be alright. But like you said knowing humans one dickweed will go around abusing them, they get pissed and kill us all. Or the military decides to make Dragons the knew, cooler, scarier fighter jets.

DRAGONS WHERE/ARE REAL NOT LISTENING TO YOU LALALALALALA.

How do you know this?

OP is so ridiculous, I don't know where to begin.

The book of the Dragon of course! and some old Dragon folk tales...

If we're even going to have this conversation about made-up creatures, you should get it right. Dragons are self-absorbed, high and mighty pricks (even the nice ones) who don't give a shit about lesser creatures like humans.

I never said anything about them being NICE or SELFLESS or even HUMBLE its actually as you said since they don't give a damn about humans they don't go out of their way to kill us. If you try to kill them or steal their loot they'll kill you.

If you try to trick them you have to tell them how great they are or how beautiful. I never said anything about them being nice creatures.

 

[FilipJPhry]

I imagine that if it were to happen, it might wind up like this

Well, your friend kinda overreacted, but let fuck that guy.

 

[the rye]

So my friend (well, I guess former friend now...) and I were arguing over something on Facebook. He made a post stating that, sometime in the future, it would be possible to genetically engineer a dragon. I commented saying that it would be too dangerous. Seeing our past and how human nature works, one of these 3 things would happen.

A) The scientist who finds this out would get power hungry and would want to make bigger and better dragons to try and keep popularity that end up getting out of hand and killing many people. B) The secret to making a dragon would be spread throughout the world, so even if the scientist never became power hungry, someone out there in the world would be stupid enough to make an unstoppable dragon. C) The military takes things not meant to kill people and finds a way to kill people with it, constantly. I think a prime example is the Maxim Gun, the first machine gun. The most the original creator, Harim Maxim, wanted it to do was to scare off trespassers and natives. Of course, we now have many different types of machine guns that are used for the sole purpose of killing things. The same thing would be for a dragon. Maybe the scientist who found out only made Puff the Magic Dragon, but the military would take this and make a giant weapon out of it to try and "kill them terrorists" or "kill them commies" or whatever the hell the military wants to kill at this point in time.

He called me a deranged psychopath comparable to Glenn Beck that needs a lobotomy. He kept on saying I only looked at the worst case scenario, and that I'm stupid for "not understanding how cool it would be to have a pet dragon". I would respond by saying that I'm not looking at the worst case scenario, you're looking at the best case scenario.

I don't believe that humans, considering our track record, would only make the Dragon Tales dragons and nothing else, it wouldn't happen, it's human nature. One person would lose control of one and thousands would end up dead. But what would you do, escapists? Would you be willing to risk thousands of deaths to have a pet dragon? or would you say "I don't want the weight of thousands of deaths on my back for the rest of my life...assuming I survive..."?

Oh yeah, he ended up deleting me because of this, which I find to be fairly ridiculous, as I was just trying to have a conversation, but I guess he just took it to heart for whatever reason (over dragons? really?) and got pissed off. whatever, someone who can't go into an argument without getting pissed off and leaving is no friend of mine, in my opinion.

tl;dr: dragons could be made in the future, I don't find that to be safe, he gets pissed, what do you think?

The entire thing is too speculative, things could go bad thing could go good who the fuck knows. Even if dragons were genetically engineered they would not be sold as pets to the public. Your talking about a fantasy creature so there is no knowing for sure how it would impact life. But if scientists did want to genetically engineer a dragon i say go for it. Science isn't about why it's about why not.

 

[Captain Ben]

No good can come of having a giant fire breathing sky demon. Some might desire one, but the people who don't have the foresight to recognize what this beast would do should not be allowed to own one anyways.
Your friend was an idiot, you are better off without him.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Obviously a very very very bad idea.

 

[Tonythion]

'Laid-back' implies they wouldn't just up and eat you just because you failed to greet them in the correct way. Which is what your average dragon would do. Your average dragon is a total ***** if you ask me. I think they're way overrated.

Of course this whole conversation is pointless since they don't actually exist.

Well from the books and tales I've read/heard I haven't heard of a Dragon that would eat you for no good reason. They just tend to ignore what they don't deem important. But obviously we've read different stories so shall we agree to disagree?

Dragons exist(ed)! LALALALALALALALALALA I don't care what you say!

 

[ACman]

What weird argument to get worked up about.

1) Genetic Engineering does not work that way. You can add genetic codes for protein expression. You cannot add wings to things that don't have wings.

2) A real flying lizard wouldn't be shaped like a dragon they would be more like birds.

3) Everybody knows that dragons would be used as a form of renewable energy not as weapons. We've already got drones aircraft who need unreliable magical animals to fight wars. Duh!