Human Genetic Extension

SagaLore

Elite Member
Dec 18, 2001
24,036
21
81
We've had plenty of discussions on here about evolution, natural selection, survival of the fittest, etc. I think a lot of us agree that with our society the way it is now, we've pretty much removed all of that. We're now dependent on technology to keep us a "healthy" species.

If we started genetically modifying ourselves (permanently, it would be passed on to our children), besides removing diseases, I think we should fix our vitamin c gene.

But beyond "practical" application, what "features" would you like to see added to the human race? I've got a few.

- Ability to see UV
- Epidermal chloroplasts
- Bioluminescent hair
- Crocodile hemoglobin
- biosonar prestin gene
- avian magnetoreceptive dendrites
- NR2B smart gene
- Fixed vomeronasal gene

That's just a start.

:hmm:
 

Matthiasa

Diamond Member
May 4, 2009
5,755
23
81
Being able to see UV would make stuff look funny, though as they wouldn't know what it looked like before it would be interesting, same goes for IR as well.
Even those are practical though.
Even skin color has a purpose.
Im going to vote an extra set of arms though since you can never have to many hands, and also better control of fine motor skills.
Oh and being able to breath underwater. :p
Extended lifespans might also be nice so improved genetic copying.
 

Gigantopithecus

Diamond Member
Dec 14, 2004
7,664
0
71
We've had plenty of discussions on here about evolution, natural selection, survival of the fittest, etc. I think a lot of us agree that with our society the way it is now, we've pretty much removed all of that. We're now dependent on technology to keep us a "healthy" species.

/facepalm

Changing the environment doesn't change the fact that we are still evolving. Considering we've changed our environments more since the advent of agriculture than the previous ~4,000,000 years from our split with chimps, it should not be surprising that human evolution has accelerated in the last ~10,000 years.

Read more here and educate yourself.
 

daw123

Platinum Member
Aug 30, 2008
2,593
0
0
Here are some of the things I would like to see:
Eidetic memory
Extended lifespan
Being able to fly (i.e. wings)
Cheomalonic skin
Infrared vision / sonar night vision / improved eyesight / improved hearing
Better hand-eye coordination and dexterity
 
Last edited:

SagaLore

Elite Member
Dec 18, 2001
24,036
21
81
/facepalm

Changing the environment doesn't change the fact that we are still evolving. Considering we've changed our environments more since the advent of agriculture than the previous ~4,000,000 years from our split with chimps, it should not be surprising that human evolution has accelerated in the last ~10,000 years.

Read more here and educate yourself.

He has worked on some cool research, but I disagree with his conclusion. We definitely have seen an increase mutations, but due to our stagnant environmental change (Clothes, transportation, HVAC?), they'll never be advantageous. Well, unless someone is born with a new gizzard that is designed to most efficiently digest pop tarts and hot pockets.
 

Powermoloch

Lifer
Jul 5, 2005
10,084
4
76
- Extended lifespan. Rather not pick the immortality route... JUST imagine if you get your head chopped off and placed in pickled jar for other to see in some undisclosed museum D:
 

Gigantopithecus

Diamond Member
Dec 14, 2004
7,664
0
71
He has worked on some cool research, but I disagree with his conclusion. We definitely have seen an increase mutations, but due to our stagnant environmental change (Clothes, transportation, HVAC?), they'll never be advantageous. Well, unless someone is born with a new gizzard that is designed to most efficiently digest pop tarts and hot pockets.

You disagreeing with his conclusion is essentially a denial of the data generated by a number of genomic datasets and well-established population genetics theories. I'm sorry, but just because you don't see how clothes, transportation, and HVAC represent changes to the environment that humans are adapting to, doesn't make them any less relevant to our species' evolution. Clothes, transportation, and HVAC aren't 'stagnant environmental change' (what's stagnant change anyway?) - they represent departures from the environments of the past to which people are adapted - they are new pressures populations might adapt to.

Clothes certainly make mutations that make a person more cold resistant less relevant, but they also introduce new parameters that wouldn't exist otherwise. Like resistance to diseases carried by body lice, or resistance to the parasitic burden posed by lice. This research was presented recently at our national meeting.

Transportation? I'm not sure where to start with that. People were limited to walking and running for millions of years; we've only had horses for a few thousand years, and those have not been available to the majority of people anyway. What, do you think horses, cars, boats, planes make mutations that bestow more efficient walking irrelevant? Last time I checked, even in the developed world, people walk. But perhaps more importantly, sedentary lifestyles are unhealthy and lead to decreased longevity. Do you think that >50% of human populations have always been unhealthily overweight? Google APOA-1 Milano and tell me that mutation is irrelevant. Again, humans are adapting to new environmental pressures that didn't exist millions of years ago. Cars don't make evolution stop. :p

HVAC? Who cares? What percentage of the human population even has access to it? HVAC makes us more comfortable, perhaps more productive, but how many people do you know who die of heat stroke? Does HVAC increase relative reproductive success? Thermoregulation is something we do better than probably any other large mammal - it's not like HVAC represents some miraculous relaxation of one of the most important selective pressures in our evolutionary history.

Read more about how a population has adapted to a new environment here.

Most people who deny the acceleration of human evolution are either hardcore neutralists or simply don't know a lot about evolution and think societies in the developed world ensure we all live the same number of years and have the same number of children (and never mind the billions who don't live in the developed world).
 

MJinZ

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 2009
8,192
0
0
We've had plenty of discussions on here about evolution, natural selection, survival of the fittest, etc. I think a lot of us agree that with our society the way it is now, we've pretty much removed all of that. We're now dependent on technology to keep us a "healthy" species.

If we started genetically modifying ourselves (permanently, it would be passed on to our children), besides removing diseases, I think we should fix our vitamin c gene.

But beyond "practical" application, what "features" would you like to see added to the human race? I've got a few.

- Ability to see UV
- Epidermal chloroplasts
- Bioluminescent hair
- Crocodile hemoglobin
- biosonar prestin gene
- avian magnetoreceptive dendrites
- NR2B smart gene
- Fixed vomeronasal gene

That's just a start.

:hmm:

Uh what? We block UV whenever we can. My contact lenses block UV. So do my sunglasses...
 

SagaLore

Elite Member
Dec 18, 2001
24,036
21
81
Uh what? We block UV whenever we can. My contact lenses block UV. So do my sunglasses...

We're trying to filter dangerous levels of UV from the sun. Birds, beeds, some fish, etc. can see UV. Flowers, birth feathers, etc. have patterns in them that we can't see but they can.
 

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
12,684
2
81
Uh what? We block UV whenever we can. My contact lenses block UV. So do my sunglasses...

Your eyes are getting the light but you aren't seeing anything. He just wants the ability for his eyes to decode the UV and the brain to interpret it.
 

MJinZ

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 2009
8,192
0
0
Your eyes are getting the light but you aren't seeing anything. He just wants the ability for his eyes to decode the UV and the brain to interpret it.

Actually, my contacts block nearly all UV A and UV B, so I get a much smaller spectrum of UV.

I don't know how much sun glasses block but it could effectively block 99% of all UV ranges.
 

Key West

Banned
Jan 20, 2010
922
0
0
I'd like to have a huger penis. Indian genetics suck. :(

I'm so sorry. I say with no exaggeration and ego that I have a healthy 6.25" cock. That's about a third inch above white male average and a full inch above asians.

<-- Asian.
 

Ruptga

Lifer
Aug 3, 2006
10,246
207
106
All I want is the ability to interface with machines. Then when engineering catches up with what biology has to offer I can upload myself. If my back hurts I could then order a new one and possibly install it myself, and if I die in a plane crash or something my wife would just restore my most recent backup into another body and I would never know the difference. Not to mention that whole faster, better, stronger thing that ought to go with being an android.
 

MJinZ

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 2009
8,192
0
0
I'm so sorry. I say with no exaggeration and ego that I have a healthy 6.25" cock. That's about a third inch above white male average and a full inch above asians.

<-- Asian.

Seems like a below average number of us Asians are so lucky heh.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,864
31,359
146
I'm so sorry. I say with no exaggeration and ego that I have a healthy 6.25" cock. That's about a third inch above white male average and a full inch above asians.

<-- Asian.

Seems like a below average number of us Asians are so lucky heh.

haha.

don't you guys have something relevant to post about?

oh, sorry......
 

EarthwormJim

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 2003
3,239
0
76
We actually can see UV, however to protect our eyes from UV damage; the lenses in our eyes filter this light out. I'm not sure you'd really want to see UV, you'd probably go blind or develop cancer by the time you were 40.
 

AndroidVageta

Banned
Mar 22, 2008
2,421
0
0
I dont think UV would be a good think to see...why exactly? Maybe better night vision over all, but if you could see UV if you went outside youd be blinded...its a totally dumb idea. Sorry.
 

TheVrolok

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
24,254
4,092
136
Behold, the future of the human race:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSROlfR7WTo

Ha, pretty good clip if maybe a little depressing. :p


He has worked on some cool research, but I disagree with his conclusion. We definitely have seen an increase mutations, but due to our stagnant environmental change (Clothes, transportation, HVAC?), they'll never be advantageous. Well, unless someone is born with a new gizzard that is designed to most efficiently digest pop tarts and hot pockets.

DO WANT!