Intelligently Design a Human

[Lagmonster]

Fun thought exercise: Creationists like to tell us that we're designed by a being capable of assembling and animating matter at will, and in a 'perfect' sort of way to boot. Just for fun, rather than looking at the reasons why the human body *isn't* intelligently designed, let's do the opposite: Intelligently design a being to take our place as masters of god's unique little life-bearing planet.

What it should be:

1) The laws of physics apply. No arbitrarily saying "I'm God, therefore I alter the universe to suit the needs of the organism so that it cannot die". Biblically speaking, the universe was here first and man was 'designed' to live in it.

2) It must be capable of reproducing itself. "Go forth and multiply" being a primary responsibility of said life form.

3) It should be capable of doing anything we can. This kind of goes without saying, that we're looking for something intelligent and emotional, that's capable of both art and science.

4) It should not require divine intervention or pre-existing infrastructure to survive. After designing it and letting loose a reasonable population of these things, we go hands-off and let it do its own thing. No answering prayers, no intervening to help certain people win wars, no being awesome and smiting anyone, no screwing with reality to annoy primitives, no giving them textbooks and pre-fab cities. They go to earth naked and alone.



(I'll leave it up a few hours while I go to work, and then add my ideas in later)

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Let's start with the simple things:

- Eyes with retinas oriented correctly. No blind spot.
- Eyes capable of seeing into near-UV. Couple this with skin that reflects much more UV than it absorbs, reducing the risk of skin cancer.
- A spinal column properly designed for bipedalism, instead of a quadruped's back adapted to it through hundreds of millions of years of trial-and-error.
- Properly designed knee joints for bipedalism.
- A brain that is designed more like an avian brain, where processing occurs in the brain's volume, rather than on its surface area. This will allow the brain to be smaller, and you can fill the freed volume with fluid as the ID human ages (allowing for smaller skulls at birth, and making head injuries much less lethal.) You could also slightly expand the internal nasal structures to give these ID humans a better sense of smell.
- Replace the appendix with a structure that isn't as likely to suffer blockage (it seems to serve as a place for beneficial gut microorganisms to live; and the place they repopulate the rest of the gut from when illness nukes the fauna already there.)
- Engineer testes which can function at core body temperature. Keep them inside the body, removing a source of trauma and a source of hernias.

[Starglider]

For simple stuff that's broken even if you hold the basic human form sacrosanct (which creationists do due to the whole 'in god's image' notion), see The Catalog Of Correctable Omnipresent Human Flaws.

[Lord of the Abyss]

- A spinal column properly designed for bipedalism, instead of a quadruped's back adapted to it through hundreds of millions of years of trial-and-error.

And a spinal column that doesn't have the body's central nerve cord inside it. So that if something breaks the spine, it's just a broken bone or bones and not major damage to the nervous system; any spinal cord(s) shouldn't be part of anything load bearing.

* Valves on all larger blood vessels, to reflexively restrict bleeding.

* Greater decentralization; as many organs as possible should be distributed as smaller organs throughout the body. and those that need to be in a central location should be segmented so that damage to part of the organ doesn't ruin the whole thing.

* The use of fibers with strength on the order of the stronger spider silks ( since we know that organic life can do that well ) for structural purposes, reinforcement and under skin armor. Since such silk is strong enough to work as bullet resistant material, you should be able to make bullet resistant creatures. An intelligent designer, unlike nature would know such weapons will be invented, and plan accordingly.

* Bones made of something better than calcium. Perhaps a lightweight metal like aluminum or titanium? I understand that both metals are fairly common, just hard to extract; a symbiotic plant could be included in the ID package that collects such a metal from the soil as it grows and is then eaten by the creature.

[Starglider]

- Eyes capable of seeing into near-UV.

What specifically do you want to use this for? Adding color channels (beyond the standard three) complicates visual processing, so it isn't something you should do on a whim.

A brain that is designed more like an avian brain, where processing occurs in the brain's volume, rather than on its surface area.

Birds have a large number of superior biochemical features as well, such as a more efficient mechanism for mopping up free radicals.

And a spinal column that doesn't have the body's central nerve cord inside it.

It's in there to protect it. If the main nerves ran outside of the spine, ordinary stab wounds would have a much higher chance of paralysing you. I would use a redundant switched data processing network, but that really requires a nervous system based on electronic conduction, rather than ionic depolarisation.

Valves on all larger blood vessels, to reflexively restrict bleeding.

This is something else to go wrong; if one of the valves closes pathologically, the affected area will necrotise and the organism will probably die. Using more smaller blood vessels is possible but at the cost of more energy expended on pumping.

The use of fibers with strength on the order of the stronger spider silks ( since we know that organic life can do that well ) for structural purposes, reinforcement and under skin armor.

Extruded silk only has to last for days to be useful (to spiders). Continual renewal within an organism might be difficult.

Bones made of something better than calcium. Perhaps a lightweight metal like aluminum or titanium?

Bone already has a strength-to-weight ratio comparable to a good steel alloy. Large quantities of metal are difficult to handle with biochemistry. Carbon fibre is a much better idea; both stronger and chemically easier to handle.

[Lord of the Abyss]

And a spinal column that doesn't have the body's central nerve cord inside it.

It's in there to protect it. If the main nerves ran outside of the spine, ordinary stab wounds would have a much higher chance of paralysing you.

You can still have a separate armoring for the cord; the point is to remove it from inside a load bearing and therefore break-prone part of the skeleton.

[Broomstick]

- Eyes capable of seeing into near-UV.

What specifically do you want to use this for? Adding color channels (beyond the standard three) complicates visual processing, so it isn't something you should do on a whim.

Insects definitely use UV for navigation (bees use it to locate the sun and use it as a reference on cloudy days). Some birds may do so as well.

Actually, the human retina can detect "near-UV" - it's the human lens that filters it out. Post-cataract surgery people frequently note a change of color perception on the blue end of the spectrum, as artificial lenses do not filter UV unless specifically designed to do so.

Bones made of something better than calcium. Perhaps a lightweight metal like aluminum or titanium?

Bone already has a strength-to-weight ratio comparable to a good steel alloy. Large quantities of metal are difficult to handle with biochemistry. Carbon fibre is a much better idea; both stronger and chemically easier to handle.

As it happens, my Other Half has had most of the bone replaced in one lower leg with titanium. There are issues with it expanding and contracting in weather extremes. An ID human might also have such issues. There is also the problem of getting the metal atoms/molecules to interact with an organic creature. Our bone structure actually works pretty good, all things considered, and usually self-repairs given a chance. Carbon fiber might be good, but a lot of the stiffness in modern "carbon fiber" materials actually comes from the resin that surrounds and holds the fiber, the fibers themselves are pretty flexible outside of a binding matrix. Most such matrices we currently use are toxic to living creatures, you'd have to design a biochemically based matrix to do this.

[Razaekel]

I'm curious as to how the knees would be redesigned for bipedalism, and how the bird's brain is volumetric instead of surface-based. Also, changing from a ionic depolarization to a electrical conduction network could possibly expand the brain to be distributed under the skin of the ID human, which when added to the volumetric brain would result in some very highly intelligent creatures. Another addition would be that of a Tapetum Lucidum, for better night vision, as well as cones in the green/yellow and infrared portion of the spectrum, besides the UV portion as suggested above. There is previous evidence of an expanded color gamut in humans in the form of tetrachromatic females, having different variants of the gene for green- or red-sensing cones in the two X chromosomes.

Also, using carbon fiber in bones would most likely not be successful, since carbon fiber is strong in tensile strength, but weak in compressive strength, whereas bone is the opposite. You'd be better off using concrete than carbon fiber, IMHO.

[General Soontir Fel]

1. Gills, gills, gills. Falling into water should not be a death-threatening hazard.

2. A prehensile tail. Bonus: biioluminescent tip.

3. A digestive system capable of utilizing cellulose.

4. A cooling mechanism that doesn't waste water.

5. SKIN THAT DOESN'T SUNBURN! We've evolved on this planet, with UV radiation. We should be able to handle it.

[Drooling Iguana]

Interchangeable, easily replaceable components.

[Zixinus]

1. Gills, gills, gills. Falling into water should not be a death-threatening hazard.

It isn't unless you were never taught how to swim. And anyone who lives in contact with water can be taught fairly easily, children especially.

Gills cannot be added easily: our brains combined with out body size means that we would need an increasingly large alternative.

Besides, gills are troublesome and we are better adopted to land to begin with.

2. A prehensile tail. Bonus: biioluminescent tip.

Why would we need such a thing? It would likely screw with our hips and our hands are far better at grasping things, and a tail is not likely to just as easily hold a 5-15 kilo monkey than a 50-100 kilo man or woman.
And biolumisient lightning is not preferable: it takes a lot of energy to make for little gain. Modifying the eye to be able to take in more light is a better alternative.

3. A digestive system capable of utilizing cellulose.

Why? Wouldn't it be enough just for our digestive system to get rid of it?

4. A cooling mechanism that doesn't waste water.

We do have one: our skin naturally radiates heat away. Our ears in particular are more and more filled with hot blood the warmer it gets.

Besides radiating and evaporating, what other cooling systems are there?

5. SKIN THAT DOESN'T SUNBURN! We've evolved on this planet, with UV radiation. We should be able to handle it.

I think that sunburns are really only a problem for europids like me. For Africans with their black skin, its less of a problem.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Alright, starting from the ground up. The goal is to retain brain-power and manual dexterity while creating adaptability to as many environments as possible, as 'go forth and multiply' implies exploring and populating these environments. This isn't going to be pretty...

1) Better protected vitals. The brain, particularly, would be located in the deepest part of the body-mass, as opposed to on the other end up a highly vulnerable neck. You want to brain someone? You're going to have to carve through a foot or two of flesh, muscle and bone.

2) Redundancy. All the main vitals would have backups. A smaller heart, backup lungs, even a cluster of nerves that allow the body to do basic tasks (feeding and reproducing) in event of braindeath. All backups would be located away from the main parts and always ready to come 'online' in case of mortal injury.

3) Insulation. A sleek fur coat, not too thick. Capable of keeping warm in the cold, but also functional as a cooling system in the heat, and also capable of keeping the sun off the skin.

4) Better protected senses. You see clearly in dim light, but when the sun gets to bright, your vision gets polarized and is protected. Ear canals that naturally seal up in reaction to loud noises, etc.

5) Backup infrared 'vision'. Humans, as they are, are naturally really bad with the dark, this ought to help with that.

6) No vital extremities. The only bits of the human body that stick out and can easily be chopped off should be those that, in a pinch, the body can live without. Everything else should be kept deep within the body mass.

7) Highly variable metabolism. Depending on availability of local resources, the body can either be operating at full tilt, or lowering stages of metabolic activity until a hibernation-type state can be reached during times of scarcity.

Granted, this design will likely have problems with overheating and probably be a huge resource hog, but the former can be solved with a well-applied cooling/circulation system and the latter is all the more reason to 'go forth and multiply'.

[Formless]

5. SKIN THAT DOESN'T SUNBURN! We've evolved on this planet, with UV radiation. We should be able to handle it.

I think that sunburns are really only a problem for europids like me. For Africans with their black skin, its less of a problem.

On the other hand, at the latitudes Europeans and their progeny are adapted to you don't get enough UV for vitamin C (?) production without doing away with so much pigment. Therefor, the best solution for our ID human is some kind of chameleon skin that gets progressively darker or lighter as you increase or decrease latitude. Bonus points for eliminating skin color as a racial identifier, which would make racial prejudice just a bit harder.

[Singular Intellect]

Is there a reason we cannot simply bypass the entire biological aspect and dependency of current human forms? Why not jump straight to full technological beings with all the advantages and none of the weaknesses?

Unless I'm mistaken, it's considered possible to mimick all biological functions technologically (and much more superiorly) with technology, even if we're only able to theorize about it at present.

[Broomstick]

On the other hand, at the latitudes Europeans and their progeny are adapted to you don't get enough UV for vitamin C (?) production without doing away with so much pigment.

It's VITAMIN D that comes from UV. Geez, why do I keep seeing this error from multiple people (not just you)? What ARE they teaching in schools these days?

[Formless]

Ah, thanks, I didn't think vitamin C sounded right (note the (?)).

[Broomstick]

It's just that this is the fourth time this week (no kidding) I've seen that error on a message board. And it's always vitamin C that is swapped with D. I just wonder how that meme got started.

[Samuel]

1) Better protected vitals. The brain, particularly, would be located in the deepest part of the body-mass, as opposed to on the other end up a highly vulnerable neck. You want to brain someone? You're going to have to carve through a foot or two of flesh, muscle and bone.

That reduces reaction time- most of your main sensory organs are near your brain for a reason.

[Zixinus]

What about separating the openings of the digestive track and the airways? That way, if you choke on food, you can still breath.

Of course, this does limit oxygen intake because you can't use your mouth but some tweaking with the nose should help with that.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Greater access for the higher mind to the more basic functions of the body and brain. Someone should be able to tell the body that the cancer is right THERE; go kill it! Or that this is important stuff you need to learn right off, and not repeat over and over; and that you shouldn't forget it either. Or that extra calories should go to muscle mass instead of fat; or the other way around if famine is expected. And it would be useful if the body gave me more details about a problem than "it hurts!" One possibility would be an "internal nose" that lets you smell your own internal chemical balance; then you could know that "if my blood smells like glark, I'd better see a doctor right away."

1) Better protected vitals. The brain, particularly, would be located in the deepest part of the body-mass, as opposed to on the other end up a highly vulnerable neck. You want to brain someone? You're going to have to carve through a foot or two of flesh, muscle and bone.

That reduces reaction time- most of your main sensory organs are near your brain for a reason.

On the other hand, nerves aren't actually all that fast. If you can speed up their transmission time enough an extra two, three feet won't matter.

1. Gills, gills, gills. Falling into water should not be a death-threatening hazard.

Sadly impractical for a warmblooded creature. Gas exchange organs like gills & lungs require a large internal surface area, which means a lot of area to lose heat to the water; gills on a warmblooded creature would cause hypothermia.

Perhaps as an alternative, the ability to convert CO2 to oxygen internally; like a plant but using metabolic energy instead of sunlight. No doubt it would be exhausting, but I'd think it would take longer to tire you out than it does to drown. Or, for that matter to suffocate from smoke or damaged lungs, something that gills won't help with.

[The Infidel]

What about separating the openings of the digestive track and the airways? That way, if you choke on food, you can still breath.

Of course, this does limit oxygen intake because you can't use your mouth but some tweaking with the nose should help with that.

Oh yeah, that would be nice.
At the top of my head I would like to add better resistance against deceases and parasites and no deterioration of senses and organs as we get older. This menas swine flu becomes like a small cold to us, no alzheimers, cancer, diabetes and other shit like that. Hm... Evolution would of course come up with new and imroved deceases, but I'm not looking that way now.

Self healing ears that even at old age still could hear into the 30-40Khz range. (AFAIK salmons and chicken got this. No hearing loss from loud sounds or old age and no tinnitus. Well, not for long anyway.)

Better draining from the eyes, retina the right way, no clogging of the lens and it would be nice to be able to read a newspaper from 50 meters.

Better cleanup of plaque in the blood vessels, so no more clogged blood vessels and heart attacks. (I think I read a few years ago about a mediterranean family line who had this. A 60 year old had the same clean blood vessels as an infant.

It would also be nice to remember a bit better, even stuff you don't use every day.

There are more things, but It's late and I need to sleep. Sorry for misspellings, my computers auto correction got stuck on norwegian for some reason and I'm too tired to fix it now.

[Melchior]

Perhaps as an alternative, the ability to convert CO2 to oxygen internally; like a plant but using metabolic energy instead of sunlight. No doubt it would be exhausting, but I'd think it would take longer to tire you out than it does to drown.

You generally need oxygen in order to do that and thermodynamically the process can't be 100% efficient. You'll end up finishing the oxygen even earlier.

[andrewgpaul]

What about separating the openings of the digestive track and the airways? That way, if you choke on food, you can still breath.

Of course, this does limit oxygen intake because you can't use your mouth but some tweaking with the nose should help with that.

On a similar note, separating urinary and reproductive orifices and associated plumbing. Oh, and having sperm cells that don't need to be cooler than the rest of the body would be good, then you could do away with external 'nads.

Oh, and make your mind up about hair - either it's useful, so we could probably use more of it, or it isn't, in which case we could get rid of it.

It should be possible to re-route the nerve running down the arm so it's not on the outer edge of the elbow.

[Guardsman Bass]

What about separating the openings of the digestive track and the airways? That way, if you choke on food, you can still breath.

Of course, this does limit oxygen intake because you can't use your mouth but some tweaking with the nose should help with that.

It'd give you an excuse to build a bigger nasal cavity as well, which could help with a strong sense of smell.

I'd probably strengthen some of the other senses. Human beings are very sight-dependent.

[Molyneux]

2. A prehensile tail. Bonus: biioluminescent tip.

Why would we need such a thing? It would likely screw with our hips and our hands are far better at grasping things, and a tail is not likely to just as easily hold a 5-15 kilo monkey than a 50-100 kilo man or woman.
And biolumisient lightning is not preferable: it takes a lot of energy to make for little gain. Modifying the eye to be able to take in more light is a better alternative.

Because two hands are simply not enough, and a tail is probably much simpler to handle than a full extra set of arms, with all the musculature that would be associated with them.