Some Intelligant "Re"-designing.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I guess mankind is not yet ready for a prehensile anus.

Wow, now THERE is Siggy Material if I've ever seen it.

[b00tleg]

I'd personally like to see a redesign in humans that allows more access and activity in dormant areas of the brain. I'd increase memory retention, comprehension and recall to 100% I'd also give humans the ability to access, interact and ponder their subconcious at will.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Ooooh....could I please get a link to any articles or anything you've got about that? I very much want gloves of that kinda material when it hits the market.

Google for the terms such as "gecko pad gloves" and the like. I think that's how I checked last time, but I originally read about it in a scientific journal. It's not something you'll be buying just yet.

Anyone thought about making the gestation process shorter? Having a shorter birth and growth period, as opposed to nine months in the womb and 18 years of growing, we could perfect the metabolism to get the type of times we normally see in other animals. There are mammals out there that can grow to a few times the mass of an adult male human in less than it takes for said human to be full grown. It would be a boon for anyone wanting a workforce or clone army.

[wolveraptor]

^Increased metabolism would be perfect. We have the access to the food (unless you're poor, but then nobody cares about you) to make it happen, and we could drastically increase performance.

[Molyneux]

^Increased metabolism would be perfect. We have the access to the food (unless you're poor, but then nobody cares about you) to make it happen, and we could drastically increase performance.

How about conscious control over metabolic rates? In times of famine you could dial it down yourself quickly to minimize wasted energy, and when you need more energy, just turn it up a few notches...

[wolveraptor]

Control over your brainstem? Say, there's an idea. You could even control your heart rate and metabolism separately. Of course, our metabolisms already go down during times of famine (unless we force ourselves into hard labor, like most poor people), but they don't go up when we're living the life of luxury, much to the dismay of fat, rich, bastards.

[Darth Servo]

^Increased metabolism would be perfect. We have the access to the food (unless you're poor, but then nobody cares about you) to make it happen, and we could drastically increase performance.

How about conscious control over metabolic rates? In times of famine you could dial it down yourself quickly to minimize wasted energy, and when you need more energy, just turn it up a few notches...

We DON'T have conscious control over those things for a reason. Our conscious mind isn't aware of what our body needs and how much of it. You would die in your sleep if you had to consciously tell your heart to beat.

[Shogoki]

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).
[/quote]

More recently:

In 1927, the Tarahumara Indians from Mexico thrilled the Relays fans with an unprecedented show of distance running excellence. Running barefoot on gravel highways, the men covered more than 89 miles from San Antonio to Austin in a shade under 15 hours.

Two legs are good, but we need better metabolism, a better back and

[Shogoki]

Damn it, i ment to press preview to check if it was right, if a mod can please correct that.

[wolveraptor]

We DON'T have conscious control over those things for a reason. Our conscious mind isn't aware of what our body needs and how much of it. You would die in your sleep if you had to consciously tell your heart to beat.

During periods of sleep or coma, the brain could involuntarily turn over such functions to the brain stem.

[Molyneux]

^Increased metabolism would be perfect. We have the access to the food (unless you're poor, but then nobody cares about you) to make it happen, and we could drastically increase performance.

How about conscious control over metabolic rates? In times of famine you could dial it down yourself quickly to minimize wasted energy, and when you need more energy, just turn it up a few notches...

We DON'T have conscious control over those things for a reason. Our conscious mind isn't aware of what our body needs and how much of it. You would die in your sleep if you had to consciously tell your heart to beat.

I don't deny that - autonomic systems are good. I would just like the *capacity* to exert conscious control over them.

Anyone who meddles too much with the settings and kills themself will just end up cleaning some stupid from the gene pool.

[Darth Servo]

I don't deny that - autonomic systems are good. I would just like the *capacity* to exert conscious control over them.

For what reason? They already do a good job of regulating everything without conscious input.

Anyone who meddles too much with the settings and kills themself will just end up cleaning some stupid from the gene pool.

Don't we have enough people winning Darwin awards already?

[wolveraptor]

For what reason? They already do a good job of regulating everything without conscious input.

Easy. This way, you can gorge and lose weight effortlessly. Also, you can keep warm in colder temperatures.

[wilfulton]

I guess mankind is not yet ready for a prehensile anus.

Maybe, but that doesn't stop them from behing prehensile assholes.

[Max]

Is there any animal on the planet that would be considered "intelligently" designed? Something that is just so well adapted/suited to it's environment that it would be considered almost perfect? Would a great white shark fall into that?

[b00tleg]

Is there any animal on the planet that would be considered "intelligently" designed? Something that is just so well adapted/suited to it's environment that it would be considered almost perfect? Would a great white shark fall into that?

A fictional animal that could be considered intelligently would be the alien from the Alien movies franchise.

[TheBlackCat]

I'd personally like to see a redesign in humans that allows more access and activity in dormant areas of the brain.

There are no dormant areas of the brain. The brain has a "use it or lose it" thing going. If any area of the brain is not used, it will be co-opted by other areas of the brain that are being used.

[wolveraptor]

A fictional animal that could be considered intelligently would be the alien from the Alien movies franchise.

It loses gallons of water to the unnecessary drooling every day. How is that efficient? Also, it's outer jaws appear to be useless: they aren't used as weapons.

[Instant Sunrise]

One thing that I wondered from this thread is how would society develop around these kinds of changes, assuming that we were like that from the start.

[Molyneux]

A fictional animal that could be considered intelligently would be the alien from the Alien movies franchise.

It loses gallons of water to the unnecessary drooling every day. How is that efficient? Also, it's outer jaws appear to be useless: they aren't used as weapons.

They exist completely for the purpose of making H.R. Giger go "Ooh, sexy!"
If they make him think they're sexy, he gets horny and draws more of them, which make him think they're sexy, which makes him draw more of them...and the cycle of 'life' continues.

[b00tleg]

A fictional animal that could be considered intelligently would be the alien from the Alien movies franchise.

It loses gallons of water to the unnecessary drooling every day. How is that efficient? Also, it's outer jaws appear to be useless: they aren't used as weapons.

Whatcha talking about Willis? Just because an alien hasn't been directly observed using its outer jawa in the movies dosen't mean they aren't ever used. While yes the Alien does have a drooling problem, I've never seen that affect it. Its a species with an aggressive reproductive cycle...(egg, face-hugger, embryo implanted in host, chestburster). And during the course of the alien's life cycle between chestburster to fully mature drone, it eats and metabolizes food so efficiently it grows to full size in approx 12hrs.

On top of that, its infamous acid for blood not only serves as a wicked defense mechanism, but also allows the alien to surivive in extreme conditions such as vacuum, incredibly cold and extemely hot areas.

On top of that, if the alien has the capability to transform its vicitims into eggs without the need of a queen (as seen in deleted scenes from the movie Alien) then it can reproduce on the spot.

In my opinion I'd say the alien exhibits more charaterstics of being intelligently designed as opposed to being evolved. But then, it is movie monster and not much more then that.

Also, you can find the info about the alien plus more in the Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I'd recommend the acclaimed Anchor Point Essays too which go in depth about the physiology of the "xenomorph" too. It is, most likely, a bioweapon that the Space Jokey race was transporting and which got set loose accidentally or via sabotage during a voyage in a cargo ship. I'll be damned if something that perfect can evolve naturally.

[wolveraptor]

Whatcha talking about Willis? Just because an alien hasn't been directly observed using its outer jawa in the movies dosen't mean they aren't ever used.

You're right, but I should point out that they're probably not used by most xenomorphs in any situation we've yet observed in movies. This includes multiple combat and predatory scenes. I would hazard a guess that they're used to groom the queen.

The fact that the alien's drooling doesn't affect it is stupid, but it's true, so I suppose that's not a disadvantage. Another implausible thing is the rapid growth rate of chestbursters without any major food source, but again, it is an intelligent feature.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The chestburster feeds on just about any organic or inorganic carbon or other source needed for cellular metabolism. It can, obviously, digest the ore on the Nostromo hence why it was able to grow so quickly and evade capture in the cargo holds. It's not a stretch to believe they are lithotrophs able to digest minerals normally not edible to macro-organisms.

[wolveraptor]

I think the fact that it has such an ability when no other creature on earth has been observed to evolve such a talent (even when it would be highly beneficial) points to the theory that it was designed. Though we can do something similar with salt. [/i]