Mass uplifting of animals, and the ethics thereof

[Starglider]

Why would you want to try to change cats and dogs (or any other 4-legged animal) into bipedal animals? You're going to have to give them opposable thumbs too, right? Not to mention needing to engineer their forelegs to some degree for more flexibility. Seems like it would just be better to raise up other primates, if we were to go this route at all.

Giving primates bigger brains will produce something quite close to a human psychologically. Something based on cat/dog DNA will have very different psychology even if it is physically very close to human (e.g. catgirl close). As I pointed out in the upgrading thread, in the long run psychology matters a lot more than physical form does (at least, given the basic ability to use tools). We should not be uplifting animals for physical diversity, I am sure self-modifying humans will more than cover that angle, we should be doing it (if it is done at all) to create new kinds of mind and hence new kinds of cultural value. Although, as you might guess, I'd be highly tempted to skip messing about with biology at all and do it in simulation (as detailed in Greg Egan's Diaspora - one polis simulates a whole civilisation of dinosaur-derived sapients). Much more control, much easier to monitor, much less risk all around.