Superhuman

[Ender]

Sci-fi is littered with superhuman/transhuman beings, from theSpace Marines to the Bene Gesserit to the Heroes. The ideas and abilities attributed to them range from the normal to the absurd. So the idea of this thread is to figure out what is the actual best one could do.

Caveats:

-- No paranormal powers. (They have to obey all the laws of the universe as understood, so pyschic abilities, flight, x-ray vision, etc are out unless you can work them in.)
-- Externally Human (They must be able to pass in normal society, at least to casual inspection)
-- Biological Materials (They are not a robot or an artificial being; he's made of cells coded by DNA. No cybernetic implants or enhancements)
-- No Immortality. (That discussion will sidetrack the thread, so I'm just going to rule it out straight off the bat. Lifespans are limited by the natural maximum)
-- Born Natural (These supermen are not the result of augments when they are adults, they will have to be born and grow into them, so if you want your doubled brain capacity you need to be able to pay the calorie price growing up and squeese that noggin out at birth.)

What can we do?

[Admiral Valdemar]

Why no immortality? The concept and its cause are quite well understood and given superior genetic engineering there is no reason why we cannot boost the age limit or even postpone it indefinitely.

As for what we can do, I would start big first with many general engineering issues such as the bio-mechanics of the skeleton i.e. correct the pelvic issues, strengthen joints and so on. The eye would be totally rewired to avoid retinal disconnect and to increase clarity. Metabolic functions would be addressed, such as boosting the efficiency of mitotic division to aid in tissue growth should damage be incurred. The ability to regenerate any tissue would be useful if a way to maintain ESC capabilities in adult cells was found, the likes of the p53 gene and other genes for inhibiting cancerous growth would be looked into. Not much point in having the ability to regrow a limb if it also then kills you with a massive tumour to boot.

You could then go into more exotic areas, like finding a better polymer for muscle tissue to increase strength, finding a way to rest one hemisphere of the brain at a time to allow constant operation without death and even more efficient neurological functioning via a more vascularised head to aid in thermal dissipation for any extra processing. The circulatory system could be reinforced and re-plumbed to avoid any trapping of arteries or issues where the system shuts off unnecessarily as can happen with certain wounds, even if this can be a valuable feature normally.

I should think there could be a way to enable such autonomics be consciously controlled to allow for hormonal control of certain functions like in the Culture, though this would be even more tasking than tinkering with the genome given hormone signalling pathways.

The short answer is, Wesker from Resident Evil: Code Veronica X.

[Ender]

Why no immortality? The concept and its cause are quite well understood and given superior genetic engineering there is no reason why we cannot boost the age limit or even postpone it indefinitely.

Because every thread we have where it comes up turns into a discussion of immortality rather then the topic at hand. And because I said so, so nyah.


Personally, I'm thinking

- Enhanced muscel density, like what chimps or gorillas have. My supermen won't swim as well due to being denser, but so what.

- Redesigned digestive system. The current GI tract is only 20% efficient at extracting energy from what we consume. I think that we could do a lot better then that. I'd also tweak it to expand what we can eat - my supermen should be able to live off twigs and grass for a while if needed, though I admit I'm not sure what tradeoff that would be. I'd replace the stomach fauna we have with built in bits that do the same thing. Toss in a few refinements to handle toxins better, and manufacture more vitamens rather then having to ingest them (again, not sure if thatis plausible)

- No allergies

- Improved vision - greater spectrum range, rearrange things so that there is no blind spot/minimize the blind spot. Throw in a nicitating membrane for protection.

- Regenration. Not Wolverine style, but like what lizards, wroms, and amphibians can do.

- Natural antibiotics. Komodo dragons have something that lets them be damn near impervious to infection (evolved due to the nasty stuff that lives in their mouth). Give them something similar that.

- Restore the sense of smell. The human sense of smell is the part that is most damaged from our roots as I understand it, restore it so that it functions again.

- Rewire the brain to accept all the new sensory inputs, increase memory abilities, raise the IQ. Basically all the good stuff.

- Make teeth decay resistant. Maybe have them constantly replacing, like sharks? Not sure what difficulties that would cause

- Concious control of skin color, like octopi. Camoflage is always nice, plus it lests kids be rebellious without actually going out and getting tattoos.

- Optomize the skeleton. There are a few engineering flaws with it that could be fixed.

- Better UV protection for the skin.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Some ideas :

Regeneration like a salamander, from any non-fatal wound. I expect that brain damage would wipe out memories or other learned qualities, but functions should be restorable; a salamander can heal from having segments of it's brain cut into cubes and randomly switched.

The ability to consciously switch on adrenaline-boosted strength. With the previously mentioned improved healing, it's not nearly as important if you damage yourself in the process.

A limiter on the amount of suffering, emotional or physical, you can feel. We need negative stimuli to function, but anything more than a fairly low amount tends to impair judgement. And even mild negative stimuli is capable of driving people just fine; I don't need agonizing pain to make me put on a coat when it's chilly.

Spider silk is supposedly quite strong; replacing or augmenting the various fibers in the body with some analog to it should increase durability, and possible potential strength as a side effect of that durability. One could also grow such fibers in a three-dimensional weave throughout the body's soft tissues, making them more durable. A layer beneath the skin could make the person bullet resistant; spider silk has been proposed as a material for bulletproof vests in the past.

A significant increase in strength should be possible, judging from apes.

The calcium in bones could be replaced with something better; stronger and even more important I think not brittle. Organically deposited iron should be possible, or perhaps titanium or aluminum. Even if iron is the best you can do, if one can increase strength, heavier bones shouldn't be a problem, and they can be made hollow.

Seperate the spine into two components; an outer spine which is solely for load bearing, and an unseen, inner, much thinner one that's for armoring the spinal cord. That way a broken back would have a chance of not severing the spinal cord.

The heart and other single organs should be doubled or more, for redundancy. Like kidneys are.

Add an organ or tissue capable of producing oxygen from CO2; perhaps modified plant tissue fueled by the bodiy's own chemical energy instead of the sun. That way, being underwater or smothering or choking would only wear you out faster instead of killing you. You could suffer a pair of collapsed lungs and drive youself to the hospital. And for extreme exertion, the oxygen produced by this organ can augment what you breath in.

Broader spectrum vision. Animals can see into the ultraviolet and see the polarization of light, so it can be done. Infrared would be harder thanks to the body's own heat, but the ability to see strong IR sources should be possible - no more grabbing boiling hot metal without realizing it.

A much wider frequency range for hearing, a much better sense of smell should work.

The ability to sense electromagnetic fields should be possible, and useful in a technological society.

It should be possible to increase the speed of nervous impulses, allowing for faster reflexes.

Move the brain into the chest cavity, where the heart used to be. Besides greater durability, this will allow much larger nasal cavities for smelling, while keeping a human appearance. Or to be more exotic, one could add a small secondary brain, perhaps of dog-level intelligence. It would keep watch while you sleep, or be capable of performing simple tasks while you do so, and be hardwired to be overrideable by the main brain.

[Teleros]

Hmm, couple of others you can add.

-Much faster eyesight adaptation to light / dark conditions.
-Ability to instinctively count more than just the 3 or 4 objects at once normal people can.
-Superior muscle control - ie you can hold a sniper rifle or paint brush steadier than any normal human.
-Ability to regenerate even severely damaged DNA. Some bacteria can survive thousands of times as much radiation as humans, in no small part because they can repair the damage caused.

[Covenant]

I had a similar thread here, where I asked what the most powerful superdude you could make via organic means. Limits of Genetic Engineering. The main conclusions were that regardless of how far you went, mechanical means would essentially be better, but some good points were raised.

It would be more viable to state what the goal is, as piling on every advantage is not going to do your guy a lot of good, especially as calorie requirements start going way up and you end up violating the caveats (like natural birth, which was also one of my caveats).

[Zor]

Do Ghost in the Shell type cyborgs composed of a cybernetically enhanced human brain inside a robotic prosthetic body count?

Zor

[Covenant]

Do Ghost in the Shell type cyborgs composed of a cybernetically enhanced human brain inside a robotic prosthetic body count?

Zor

No, they violate two of the caveats:

-- Biological Materials (They are not a robot or an artificial being; he's made of cells coded by DNA. No cybernetic implants or enhancements)
-- Born Natural (These supermen are not the result of augments when they are adults, they will have to be born and grow into them, so if you want your doubled brain capacity you need to be able to pay the calorie price growing up and squeese that noggin out at birth.)

The idea is to be able to create, theoretically, a sort of superman who can reproduce other supermen, essentially, in the exact same way as the rest of us producing normal people. No implants, genetic tweaks, 'infusions' of anything at the age of 18... if he's gonna have it, he's gotta make it on his own.

[Molyneux]

Regeneration. Not Wolverine style, but like what lizards, worms, and amphibians can do.

Look up the MRL genetically-altered mouse line. They've got a pretty neat ability, though they're still trying to figure out how to dissociate it with a condition roughly akin to lupus.

[Mayabird]

One that hasn't been mentioned: Being able to synthesize Vitamin C. Superhumans shouldn't have to deal with scurvy, and many mammals can make their own vitamin C just fine (such as dogs). While we still technically have the gene for it, it got broken somewhere down the ancestral line but it could be fixed with a little tweaking.

[Ender]

Do Ghost in the Shell type cyborgs composed of a cybernetically enhanced human brain inside a robotic prosthetic body count?

Zor

I guess I was unclear. When I say "No cybernetic implants or enhancements" I mean that you are not allowed to have cybernetic implants or enhancements. Not that they are ok. I hope we are clear now.

[Lord of the Abyss]

An idea shamelessly stolen from Illegal Alien; valves in both arteries and veins, that can stop bleeding by clamping down reflexively.

[Admiral Valdemar]

An idea shamelessly stolen from Illegal Alien; valves in both arteries and veins, that can stop bleeding by clamping down reflexively.

The human circulatory system can already do this. It just sucks if you happen to need that limb or your brain when it clamps down on the artery.

[Lord of the Abyss]

An idea shamelessly stolen from Illegal Alien; valves in both arteries and veins, that can stop bleeding by clamping down reflexively.

The human circulatory system can already do this. It just sucks if you happen to need that limb or your brain when it clamps down on the artery.

It doesn't work very well, or people would never bleed to death. And if the blood vessel in question is severed, the head or limb in question wasn't getting any of the blood in the first place.

And as I recall, arteries don't have actual valves; they have muscular walls that can clamp down some. Probably not as effective as a real valve. And veins have valves, but they are only passive things that keep the blood flowing one way, so they can't stop blood loss "downstream".

[andrewgpaul]

I had once toyed with the thought of rapid-response tanning. Something like what a chameleon or cuttlefish can do, except it happens automatically under intense sunlight. Whether or not that's a useful ability, I leave to you

Then there's the little things, like fixing the plumbing; separate the tubes used for urination and ejaculation (or do away with the latter entirely, if you're not bothered about your supermen being able to breed naturally), and route them round the prostate, not through the middle. Same with the throat; separate tubes for eating and breathing. Move the nerve running through the elbow, getting rid of the 'funny bone', and same with the knee.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I recently saw an article about a two-year-old who had runaway muscle growth. He was pretty much a RIFTS Juicer waiting to happen, in terms of relative strength and calorie consumption.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Fertility should not only be under conscious control for both sexes, but the default state should be "off". No accidental pregnancies.

I think that limited, slow shape changing should be possible. Nothing too dramatic, but it should be possible to make this or that body part grow or shrink, to make hair grow or stop growing, and so on. And by "slow", I mean at around the same rate as any other growth.


It might be possible to set up many of the body's tissues as competing populations of cells, instead of a collection of clones, in order to tap the benefits of evolution. For example, as you work your muscles, the more efficient strains of muscle cells would be selected for, and the less efficient killed off. There would need to be some sort of extra nerve network ( perhaps a modification or augmentation of the pain network, since it goes almost everywhere already ), with some biochemical method of telling the cells what to do. There'd be an extra segment of the brain, with a built in model of what each type of tissue is supposed to do, so it could "judge" which bit of tissue is doing better than the one next to it.

Now that I think about it, individual cells are probably too small for a practical nerve network to deal with on an individual basis, so instead the unit of selection will be a microscopic segment of the organ in question. Each segment would be genetically the same throughout itself, from the same mother cell, but each segment would vary from the others. In essense, the idea is to turn the person into an adaptable ecology of cells, instead of a static collection of clone cells.

[seanrobertson]

I recently saw an article about a two-year-old who had runaway muscle growth. He was pretty much a RIFTS Juicer waiting to happen, in terms of relative strength and calorie consumption.

A little German boy, IIRC -- a human version of a bully whippet or Belgian Blue. His body severely limits production of myostatin, a protein which, in turn, limits muscle growth.

Aside from creating mutants, mad scientist-types could always give their Übermensch myostatin-inhibiting drugs. I understand Wyeth Laboratories is working on one now called Stamulumab (MYO-029), though it's testing is limited to trials with muscular dystrophy patients. If it promotes muscular hypertrophy in healthy individuals remains to be seen, but I predict the stuff will be big (no pun intended) in athletic circles by the end of the decade.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Another idea. Have the body grow some sort of biomechanical and/or biochemical fasteners or plugs in stategic parts of the body. The idea being that instead of having to cut a nerve or major blood vessel or muscle, you can simply unplug the thing and move or remove it. Apply the right physical manipulation or chemicals, and they just come loose. And when you are done, put it back and refasten it. It would make surgery much easier and less traumatic, as well as transplants.

Another useful ability would be hibernation. Space flight or surviving a famine would be easier if you could just hibernate for a few months.

[Johndug]

How about intellectual/psycological alterations.

Eliminating the human unconscious so that you are aware of every thought, every train of reasoning, that you have and the reason you have it. Essentually reordering your brain in the same manner as someone today goes on a diet.

[mr friendly guy]

What about the ability to switch on and off certain genes for different environments.

For example in a high altitude (low oxygen) environment your superhuman would need more red blood cells to carry the oxygen. Thus increase red blood cell synthesis and increase iron absorption (for RBC synthesis). Otherwise when they don't need it, they run the risk of problems with blood flowing due to increase viscosity (from excess red cells) and haemochromatosis.