Some Intelligant "Re"-designing.

[Ford Prefect]

Curtis Saxton pointed out to me once that the human body has reached an evolutionary dead end with regard to th development of brain size, because infants must pass through the female's pelvic bone on the way out. It limits the size of a baby's brain and skull, and we have already adapted as much as feasibly possible with soft floating plates in the infant's skull that allow it to temporarily "squeeze" on the way out.

That's rather interesting, actually. I'd never really thought about it before, but it does make sense.

On the topic of redisgning humanity, I can see trying to get eye beams into the human genome or something odd like that. Or more seriously, so defense against the sun. I burn far too easily.

[Winston Blake]

Why the fuck do we have hair? Maybe head-hair for warmth, and nose hair for catching dust and bacteria, but in other places, what good is it? Get rid of that bullshit.

Don't forget eyebrows to keep water out of our eyes. IIRC hair in armpits and groins help reduce friction, and like the hair on arms and legs, help keep out insects/parasites.

Two legs seems very inefficient. I'd spring for an extra two for balance and speed. Of course, we'd have to redesign the human brain, else we'd all be disgusted with ourselves for looking so ugly; and we'd have to redesign vehicles and buildings to accomodate the new design.

Supposedly, it offers better efficency over very long ranges - assuming a healthy person of the right shape, they can eventually outrun a horse. I'd have to look for this one though.

Zulu Impi soldiers could outrun a horse and cover 80km a day on foot, with no shoes (they stamped on thorns regularly to toughen their soles).

A physical revulsion to killing your own species. Don't tell me it can't be done. We have a physical revulsion to things like blue or purple food, or insects, or certain colours, and I've read that it's a built-in defense mechanism.

I'm sure many people don't have an innate repulsion to those things. People can condition themselves not to be repulsed by repeated exposure (e.g. working in a slaughterhouse) or by mentally classifying their enemies as sub-human. Once you have a few mutants or outliers who have no problem with killing people, they could gain power in gangs and the like and condition others to be unmoved. If the police force of the pacifists find it very difficult to use any potentially lethal force, they'd get killed by the ruthless factions. You'd need a GM or drugged population in a very stable society with advanced less-lethal tech.

Oh yeah, a physical defense mechanism for women against rapists. Preferably something that chews off the guy's dick if the woman doesn't consciously turn it off somehow.

I'm sure that would reduce the number of rapes somewhat, but there are ways around it, e.g. "I'll kill/torture you if you resist" or rape with an inanimate object.

If that's not possible simply make an overwhelming physical revulsion to being raped, some kind of nauseating smell women emit if they're afraid or pissed off or angry.

"I'll kill you if you go skunk", gas masks, natural immunity (in a society without birth control this trait gets passed on).

---

I would take every suggestion in this thread and make many populations of every combination to varying degrees such that in pretty much any environmental conditions, humans would be able to adapt and thrive. Think of the wide physical variance in dog breeds, but with humans.

[Lord Zentei]

Two legs seems very inefficient. I'd spring for an extra two for balance and speed. Of course, we'd have to redesign the human brain, else we'd all be disgusted with ourselves for looking so ugly; and we'd have to redesign vehicles and buildings to accomodate the new design.

Supposedly, it offers better efficency over very long ranges - assuming a healthy person of the right shape, they can eventually outrun a horse. I'd have to look for this one though.

I have heard this also: in fact I saw it on a National Geographic documentary. The Bushmen of the Kalahari still use the hunting method used by our remote ancestors, which is this: they run down the antelope. I couldn't beleive it when I saw it. It was like, "wow, we rock after all..."

Curtis Saxton pointed out to me once that the human body has reached an evolutionary dead end with regard to th development of brain size, because infants must pass through the female's pelvic bone on the way out. It limits the size of a baby's brain and skull, and we have already adapted as much as feasibly possible with soft floating plates in the infant's skull that allow it to temporarily "squeeze" on the way out.

More densely packed / efficient neuron arrangements.

[LaCroix]

Would telepathy accomplish that? Feeling the other person's thoughts as he or she is dying would definitely make killing in any form uncomfortable...

Or even mor of a joy. Don't forget the sadistic part of humanity. Actually feeling the pain of the victim would make Manson's day!

[Rye]

Maybe a marsupial pouch would be better, birthing in humans is just ridiculous. Overly dangerous, overly gross.

I'd get rid of body hair, and I'd make head hair self-untangling.

[Solauren]

What I would do

Reasonable/Feasible;
First, elminate all heridatary disease and genetic disorders, etc
everything from Alzimhers Disease to Bad Eyesight to Teeth not growing in straight (if the teeth part is feasible)

Next, I'd make it so we are basically silver back apes that look like humans. We'd be that strong, and probably faster. Increase all organ capabilities to match. There would also be a general size increase to. Average height for men would be about 7', woman 6'6 - 6'9 or so, with porportions maintained.

As for increasing our mental capacity, as Mike as pointed out, without some redesign of the human pelvix bone. With a general size increase, this does increase the size of the human brain, so that should put up minimum and average intelligence. I'd increase the density of the tissue of the human mind, and make people use more of it. I'd want an IQ of 140 to be considered average.

If feasible, maybe redesign the female pelvix bone to be a bit like a snakes jaw, so if need be, unhinging could be done so smarter babies can be delivered.
I do like the idea of a pouch however. Males and females could have them. (Ala a Sea horse)

Semi-Feasible
I'd be tempted to add retractable claws, and overdevelop our jaw muscles a little to give use more powerful hand to hand and bite attacks.

Tougher but as soft skin also comes to mind.

I'd also be tempted to give us sonar capability (ala a Bat) and other animal senses we know about (i.e some snakes have a limited form of Infravision)

A membrane to let use breath water comes to mind, as well as something to give use good sight in the water.

Pushing the Envelope into SCI-FI
All known Mutant and Superpowers (if we could) and the like, short of stuff like Shapeshifting and that.

[NecronLord]

Oh yeah, a physical defense mechanism for women against rapists. Preferably something that chews off the guy's dick if the woman doesn't consciously turn it off somehow. If that's not possible

Have you considered that we don't work that way? Humans learn by doing. The species is going to die out really quickly if women accidentally bite the dick off the first guy who fucks them. Then there's the problem of climax not exactly being conducive to steady muscular control in the genital region

simply make an overwhelming physical revulsion to being raped, some kind of nauseating smell women emit if they're afraid or pissed off or angry.

Yeah, that's going to make the society work really well. Every time a stressed woman walks past you on the road, you're on the floor, chucking your dinner. And that's not even counting the number of women who'd just use this autonomic method of control to attack men. You could make a very successful career out of walking up to men and having them drop to the floor hurling while you clean their pockets.

Hell, why not make women have a codeword to kill men? That'd stop hetrosexual-male-rapists cold. It's about as practical too. Preventing the weaker (yes, physically) sex being abused by making them inordinately stronger is not exactly a good way of preventing abuse. It's just giving the whip-handle to the other side. You'd have far more success if you just gave both genders equal physical strength.

[petesampras]

Oh yeah, a physical defense mechanism for women against rapists. Preferably something that chews off the guy's dick if the woman doesn't consciously turn it off somehow. If that's not possible

Have you considered that we don't work that way? Humans learn by doing. The species is going to die out really quickly if women accidentally bite the dick off the first guy who fucks them. Then there's the problem of climax not exactly being conducive to steady muscular control in the genital region

simply make an overwhelming physical revulsion to being raped, some kind of nauseating smell women emit if they're afraid or pissed off or angry.

Yeah, that's going to make the society work really well. Every time a stressed woman walks past you on the road, you're on the floor, chucking your dinner. And that's not even counting the number of women who'd just use this autonomic method of control to attack men. You could make a very successful career out of walking up to men and having them drop to the floor hurling while you clean their pockets.

Hell, why not make women have a codeword to kill men? That'd stop hetrosexual-male-rapists cold. It's about as practical too. Preventing the weaker (yes, physically) sex being abused by making them inordinately stronger is not exactly a good way of preventing abuse. It's just giving the whip-handle to the other side. You'd have far more success if you just gave both genders equal physical strength.

It's worth making the point, that a lot of these things, if introduced, would likely revert back to where they were due to evolution. If women could emit a smell which incapactitates men, a mutation which made men immune to this would be potentially advantageous, so you'd expect it to flourish. A mutation which blocks out a certain smell would seem one of the easier things to spring up within a reasonable number of generations.

Most of the things here are pretty silly. I mean fix the inverted retina so our eyes are less vunerable, sure. However, sonar, retractable claws, gills. Everything has a cost as well as a benefit, and the benefits need to outway the costs.

[Molyneux]

Oh yeah, a physical defense mechanism for women against rapists. Preferably something that chews off the guy's dick if the woman doesn't consciously turn it off somehow. If that's not possible

Have you considered that we don't work that way? Humans learn by doing. The species is going to die out really quickly if women accidentally bite the dick off the first guy who fucks them. Then there's the problem of climax not exactly being conducive to steady muscular control in the genital region

simply make an overwhelming physical revulsion to being raped, some kind of nauseating smell women emit if they're afraid or pissed off or angry.

Yeah, that's going to make the society work really well. Every time a stressed woman walks past you on the road, you're on the floor, chucking your dinner. And that's not even counting the number of women who'd just use this autonomic method of control to attack men. You could make a very successful career out of walking up to men and having them drop to the floor hurling while you clean their pockets.

Hell, why not make women have a codeword to kill men? That'd stop hetrosexual-male-rapists cold. It's about as practical too. Preventing the weaker (yes, physically) sex being abused by making them inordinately stronger is not exactly a good way of preventing abuse. It's just giving the whip-handle to the other side. You'd have far more success if you just gave both genders equal physical strength.

It's worth making the point, that a lot of these things, if introduced, would likely revert back to where they were due to evolution. If women could emit a smell which incapactitates men, a mutation which made men immune to this would be potentially advantageous, so you'd expect it to flourish. A mutation which blocks out a certain smell would seem one of the easier things to spring up within a reasonable number of generations.

Most of the things here are pretty silly. I mean fix the inverted retina so our eyes are less vunerable, sure. However, sonar, retractable claws, gills. Everything has a cost as well as a benefit, and the benefits need to outway the costs.

How about just giving humanity an innate flair for bioengineering, then?

[Magnetic]

Total adversions to:

Murder
Rape
Bad attitudes
Disrespectfullness
Greed
Malice
Hate
War
Lust
Stealing
Discontentment

Just think, if THOSE issues weren't a problem with humans, how much more funds would we have to fix a lot of things in our world? If we didn't spend so much time/money on protecting ourselves against the guy down the street/culture across the world, how many of our diseases would have been cured by now? How well would we have known how to advance things, some of which are on a few of the 'wish lists' above?

Bottom line is, our own human nature is our worst trait.

[petesampras]

Total adversions to:

Murder
Rape
Bad attitudes
Disrespectfullness
Greed
Malice
Hate
War
Lust
Stealing
Discontentment

Just think, if THOSE issues weren't a problem with humans, how much more funds would we have to fix a lot of things in our world? If we didn't spend so much time/money on protecting ourselves against the guy down the street/culture across the world, how many of our diseases would have been cured by now? How well would we have known how to advance things, some of which are on a few of the 'wish lists' above?

Bottom line is, our own human nature is our worst trait.

A lot of those traits confer an advantage to the individual. Remove them and they will find a way to come back again, unless you stop the process of evolution in humans.

[Patrick Ogaard]

Curtis Saxton pointed out to me once that the human body has reached an evolutionary dead end with regard to th development of brain size, because infants must pass through the female's pelvic bone on the way out. It limits the size of a baby's brain and skull, and we have already adapted as much as feasibly possible with soft floating plates in the infant's skull that allow it to temporarily "squeeze" on the way out.

Two engineered fixes (aside from the obvious "alternative birth canal") for that might be the following:

1) Implement distributed processing. The primary brain stays the same size, but it acquires dumb companions that it can farm minor tasks out to. Small subsidiary processing nodes, each about the size of a marble, along the spine would be one way to go, another would be to increase the density of the nerve web surrounding the gut to a level useful for minor thinking.

2) Make human gestation a two-stage process. The mother gives relatively painless birth somewhere around the equivalent of the beginning of the second trimester, but the birth is of a largely sedentary, practically brainless critter that amounts to nothing more than a gastrointestinal tract and a womb carrying the actual embryo. Keep the womb critter clean, fed and comfortable for about a year and then watch it shrivel up and burst open, releasing the actual infant.

[Molyneux]

Come to think of it, actually?

I'd probably scrap humanity altogether and switch over to something resembling a chakat. Those just seem more elegantly designed, as well as multifunctional.

[General Zod]

Total adversions to:

Murder
Rape
Bad attitudes
Disrespectfullness
Greed
Malice
Hate
War
Lust
Stealing
Discontentment

Just think, if THOSE issues weren't a problem with humans, how much more funds would we have to fix a lot of things in our world? If we didn't spend so much time/money on protecting ourselves against the guy down the street/culture across the world, how many of our diseases would have been cured by now? How well would we have known how to advance things, some of which are on a few of the 'wish lists' above?

Bottom line is, our own human nature is our worst trait.

So basically you want to turn us into incredibly dull and boring Vulcans without the pointy ears?

[Crossroads Inc.]

Come to think of it, actually?

I'd probably scrap humanity altogether and switch over to something resembling a chakat. Those just seem more elegantly designed, as well as multifunctional.

Arn't those those wierld Hermaphriditic Furry-Taurs?

Flaws it may have, I like Humanity...

[Magnetic]

Total adversions to:

Murder
Rape
Bad attitudes
Disrespectfullness
Greed
Malice
Hate
War
Lust
Stealing
Discontentment

Just think, if THOSE issues weren't a problem with humans, how much more funds would we have to fix a lot of things in our world? If we didn't spend so much time/money on protecting ourselves against the guy down the street/culture across the world, how many of our diseases would have been cured by now? How well would we have known how to advance things, some of which are on a few of the 'wish lists' above?

Bottom line is, our own human nature is our worst trait.

So basically you want to turn us into incredibly dull and boring Vulcans without the pointy ears?

Hey!! The Vulcans are a noble and proud race!!

Really though, take away some of those traits, . . . . and you WOULD have a better world. My post was just my thoughts on why we as a race haven't advanced further. Too much idiocy thwarting advancement.

[Darth Servo]

Curtis Saxton pointed out to me once that the human body has reached an evolutionary dead end with regard to th development of brain size, because infants must pass through the female's pelvic bone on the way out. It limits the size of a baby's brain and skull, and we have already adapted as much as feasibly possible with soft floating plates in the infant's skull that allow it to temporarily "squeeze" on the way out.

Two engineered fixes (aside from the obvious "alternative birth canal") for that might be the following:

1) Implement distributed processing. The primary brain stays the same size, but it acquires dumb companions that it can farm minor tasks out to. Small subsidiary processing nodes, each about the size of a marble, along the spine would be one way to go, another would be to increase the density of the nerve web surrounding the gut to a level useful for minor thinking.

2) Make human gestation a two-stage process. The mother gives relatively painless birth somewhere around the equivalent of the beginning of the second trimester, but the birth is of a largely sedentary, practically brainless critter that amounts to nothing more than a gastrointestinal tract and a womb carrying the actual embryo. Keep the womb critter clean, fed and comfortable for about a year and then watch it shrivel up and burst open, releasing the actual infant.

A dramatic increase in c-sections would probably allow larger brains as well.

[Molyneux]

Come to think of it, actually?

I'd probably scrap humanity altogether and switch over to something resembling a chakat. Those just seem more elegantly designed, as well as multifunctional.

Arn't those those wierld Hermaphriditic Furry-Taurs?

Flaws it may have, I like Humanity...

Indeed they are; aside from the problems of larger size and correspondingly increased environmental requirements (food, air, and water), they seem to be superior in physical design to humans in every regard.

[NecronLord]

Total adversions to:

Murder
Rape
Bad attitudes
Disrespectfullness
Greed
Malice
Hate
War
Lust
Stealing
Discontentment

Just think, if THOSE issues weren't a problem with humans,

We'd be the ultimate slave race, with no desires of our own? And if you take away discontent, then there will be absolutely no progress of any form ever-after. As for lust, I think you'll find, poetry aside, that it is the foundation of romantic love.

[wolveraptor]

Don't forget eyebrows to keep water out of our eyes. IIRC hair in armpits and groins help reduce friction, and like the hair on arms and legs, help keep out insects/parasites.

Eyebrows yes, but parasites thrive in groin hair (crabs), and we already sweat more in those areas, so friction shouldn't really be a problem. Better yet, we can be built like centaurs so that our legs are so far apart, we don't need any friction-reducing bullshit. Horses don't have to deal with that crap, so why should we? Plus, we could run faster.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

If we rewired humans in this way, we'd have a species that would be extinct within several generations. All of the negative traits you will list have deep-set bases in the human psyche. They also have positive flip-sides.

Total adversions to:

Murder

Murder is an extension of several basic behaviors related to survival. Defending self and clan, or hunting for food, as an example. People who murder make up a small fraction of the population, and we have measures in place to deal with them already.

Rape

Rape is an extension of the human sexual drive, regardless of everything else that sits on top of this basic foundation. Where do you determine the end of sex drive and the beginning of sex drive with a heaping serving of aggression and control issues? You need some aggression coupled to sex drive for people to successfully court each other and produce other little humans. Rapists tend to make up a very small fraction of the population and we already have adequate ways of dealing with them.

Bad attitudes

This is much too general to be anything but dangerous. What if it was decided that a "bad attitude" involved someone who didn't accept Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and savior? Can you imagine how many of us on this board would be culled as a result?

Disrespectfullness

See above.

Greed

Extensions of basic behaviors meant to enhance survival and the promotion of one's own genes. Not to mention if you remove greed, you destroy the foundations of any free-market society, as anyone who participates in such a system is motivated on some level by greed. You also remove some of the motivation for people to generate improvements and advancements.

Malice

Redundant, see "Bad attitudes" and "disrespect."

Hate

Redundant, see "Bad attitudes," "disrespect," and "Malice."

War

War is just one possible end result of several other things you've already mentioned.

Lust

Now we go from trying to disentangle reproductive and sexual urges from excessively aggressive motivations to just doing away from reproductive and sexual urges altogether. Humans will have to be birthed from tanks in this scenario, and human population growth will have to be computer-controlled, since humans won't have the urge to make more humans anymore under this scheme.

Stealing

Without some motivation to 'steal', a free-market, competitive system falls apart. Consider that looking for a free lunch or going bargain-hunting is a vanilla expression of the urge to steal. After all, the perception is that you're getting something fo a lot less than you think it's worth. Outright stealing just carries this concept all the way down to "free."

Discontentment

Again, way too general to be anything but dangerous. I refer you to the example given for "Bad attitudes" and "disrepsectfulness," and a couple others you've mentioned.

Just think, if THOSE issues weren't a problem with humans, how much more funds would we have to fix a lot of things in our world? If we didn't spend so much time/money on protecting ourselves against the guy down the street/culture across the world, how many of our diseases would have been cured by now? How well would we have known how to advance things, some of which are on a few of the 'wish lists' above?

Bottom line is, our own human nature is our worst trait.

Virtually all these traits you've listed are expressions of behaviors aimed at ensuring our continued survival. These traits are the negative sides to basic human urges which have some very positive flip-sides. The point being that regardless of the application, they all tie to the same basic drives. Kill those, and you'll likely kill the good too . . . throwing out the baby with the bathwater to borrow a tired old phrase.

And if you believe that humans would be better off completely not being human then, by all means, sign up for the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement and do your part not to bring another human into this world.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I would think one should focus less on the "Humanity" part of humans and more of the nuts and bolts so to speak... You can talk till your blue in the face about the Mind aspects of HUmanity and how to 'improve' it.. But we are what we are... I don't want to mess around with it. Sure we are greedy, agressive, and can be idiots... But we can also be better then those things...

Trying to get rid of those basic urges is the path to several Sci-Fi distopia stories.

[Turin]

Scientific American did a brief article on this a while back, where they pointed out that humans were not "designed" by evolution to survive extended periods into old age (due to the fact that by the time old age sets in, your children are adults and don't need you to take care of them anymore). So there's a lot of "bad design" for old age. They had a freaky-looking illustration with the following improvements, among others:

1. Backwards-facing knees, which are less prone to injury via hyperextension.
2. Overall shorter stature with heavier bone structure in the spine and pelvis. This would reduce neck/spinal injury, reduce the load on the heart, provide extra bone to prevent osteoporosis.
3. Larger eyes and ears to mitigate the negative effects of old age on hearing and sight.
4. Flipping-around the arrangement of the windpipe and digestive opening so that food doesn't have to pass over the windpipe to be swallowed.

[Lord Zentei]

I would think one should focus less on the "Humanity" part of humans and more of the nuts and bolts so to speak... You can talk till your blue in the face about the Mind aspects of HUmanity and how to 'improve' it.. But we are what we are... I don't want to mess around with it. Sure we are greedy, agressive, and can be idiots... But we can also be better then those things...

Trying to get rid of those basic urges is the path to several Sci-Fi distopia stories.

The fact that such distopias have been described by science fiction does not mean that they scenarios or the fears raised there were realistic, of course.

Besides, antisocial tendencies, particularly those which lead to (self) destructive behaviour could very well be removed without threatening humanity's humanity.

[Magnetic]

Wow. . . . . . Never thought that my post would have gained negative responses to it. I guess there's always a flip side to issues.