The link above will provide most of the information on the subjuect of chimaras
(as well as the conrisverity surrounding it) anywho here is my two cents on the subject
While most chimaras are created only to be harvested for stem cells I often wonder What would happan if we let a a human/animal hybrid live? Would it be helthy? Would it be intelligent? Could it communicate with humans? I for one would be intrigued by the creation of human/animal hybrids
That's what I think what are your thoughts on the subject?
Very interesting topic. I think that chimeras will be very useful in the future because we need to develop our, believe it or not, primitive technology. Animal rights activists will undoubtedly protest, but what they do not understand is that it is for the greater good of man kind. We are not doing some sick "experiments" to see how far we could push the boundaries of nature and evolution itself, but to help us further understand science in the distant future. Well, that was my 2, maybe 3 cents worth. Now back to you Tom.
There is one problem; many religions will disagree with "chimera" Research.
There will be alot of real-world contraversy if this happened It's like going in between animal and human boundries, And I do agree, many religious people might disagree
well i disagre anywhay becase human and anemal DNA testing is wrong i mean the crecher made by it could live a horible live of being disecktid drugs being pumped in to it and phisicly and mentaly tocherd like what would you think if you were that crecher
well i disagre anywhay becase human and anemal DNA testing is wrong i mean the crecher made by it could live a horible live of being disecktid drugs being pumped in to it and phisicly and mentaly tocherd like what would you think if you were that crecher
Objection! -brick'd- Since chimeras are part human, they would (presumably) have the same rights as humans. Therefore they would not be subject to testing and/or torture. however, if chimeras were successfully bred/created, There will be contreversy with pet shops and places that do animal testing. Think - you are a chimera living a perfectly "normal" (if one can define normal) life, then you see a small puppy peering through the glass of a pet shop.
If Chimeras are made, how will we define the word "pet"? What will we do with all of the animals being sold in shops and all the chimeras that are offended?
One thought I had. Do you think Chimeras if they were equel to a human mentally would they sometimes be emotionly unstable, due to conflicting instincts?
Let's say a.. Rabbit Chimera feels the urge to mate can he/she controll his/her urges? or would it harass others (or possibly assualt) in order to fufill instictual needs?
Or perhaps a Dog Chimera gets a predatory urge and kills a farmer's sheep.
Chimeras could be great minds and great thinkers or they could be psycological unstable
........BRILLIANT! That is an extremely probable theory. -glares at tech- Tech: Must...supress...urges -starts chasing lexi- Lexi: Mah Gawd! Help! -runs-
*trying to resist the urge to over-analyze* ... Gah! I can't!!
To start from the beginning, chimeras are always thought of as a mix of at least two different species, preferably at least three like the classic chimaira, a mix of goat, lion and snake, if I recall correctly. Now, in zoology, the idea of two species forming a chimera is the prevailent one. When we go by that theory, there are already thousands of chimeras walking around, living. For example, ligers and tigons (offspring of lions and tigers), a tortoiseshell cat, almost all coral-species, a massive load of insects, massive amounts of different plants and of course, humans (for an example of a human chimera, see the Lydia Fairchild-case).
Now for the actual issue of this topic: There are numerous difficulties in human/animal hybrids. For example, the subject may be sterile, the subject may be unbalanced (physically or mentally), the subject may have numerous defects that might make him so weak that he could die if he caught a flu, the subject might show obvious signs of mental retardation (am I allowed to use that word?), physical imperfections like missing limbs or disfigured face or the subject could be so volatile that he'd be a danger to everyone, including himself. Also, these hybrids could develope viruses inside their bodies that could be lethal to everyone else, hybrid or non-hybrid.
Should the Great and Exalted Eggheads come up with a way to produce fully functional, cognitive and stable hybrid individuals, it would bring something good and something bad along with it. First for the good things I can think of: The contribution to the genepool would help prevent the threat of inbred race of beings somewhat, and it might enhance our immune system, physical bodies and it might also give us a greater knowledge of the nature around us, provided we can start talking with animals. As for the physical plusses, imagine being a sprinter with the cheetah's speed, a swimmer with a fish's abilities, or a high-jumper with a flea's jumping strenght (note, I said flea because they can hop distances 200 times their own size and it's still an animal. It's a nasty bug, but it's an animal). We'd be the next step in the evultion, so to say.
And then for the bad... What if the creations turned on their creators? What if they saw themselves as superior and decided to eradicate the non-hybrid humans? The hybricidy might also limit our chances of finding the "other half" greatly. If you were a human/lion and your guy/gal would be a human/gazelle, would you try to eat the poor guy/gal? Would you be able to produce offspring? If you would, then what kind of hybrids would they be, would they be sterile/unbalanced/volatile/weak? Would your animal instincts take control over your humanity?
Would that make the assault-cases skyrocket? Because if the guys are walking bags of hormones now, imagine them part dog thinking they're the alphas of the lot (and as you know, only alphas are allowed to mate in packs, the young and foolish are driven away with violence)! And would we get the "bad" things of being hybrids? For example, if a human/dog hybrid bit you, would you be in danger of getting necrosis? Would a human/rattlesnake hybrid be able to kill people just because he can, just because he has the natural assets to do so?
And like mentioned before, this would throw our ethics to the wind. What would we able to eat? Would it be wrong to eat bovine meat anymore, since someone might be a human/cow-hybrid? Would it be classified as cannibalism? Are the "predator"-hybrids supposed to hunt the "grazers" for food? If we can't, what can we eat, tofu? The body of a large cat or any other meat-eating predator requires meat, it can't survive with only vegetables. And like Earth Master said, what would be the classification of "pets" after that? And what would be classified as beastiality after that, we'd all be part beast!
The exsistance of human/animal hybrids would through everything into question: laws, rights, morales, ethics, rules, religions, the whole social system.
So, what I can get from the subject is a whole lot of questions and a whole lot of what-ifs and maybe's. And I'm aware I might've gone a teeeensy bit over the top here, but I couldn't help it! It's the inner egg-head in me! D:
Feel free to ask, contradict and debate with me on this one. *gets brick'd*
Though it may be interesting to see what comes out of a genetic mixture of different creatures, PenOfManyTalents highlights an important thing: the chimeras may turn against us. People who say that animals have no sense for revenge or malice are wrong: animals are capable of revenge and grudges and it has been scientifically proven. If we grant them equal intelligence as humans we are putting ourselves at risk here as they may try to kill us all. After all, isn't Darwin's Theory that the fittest ones survive? We humans will be destroyed by our own creation if we do not control it.
-- Edited by Lumosnight at 05:45, 2007-09-07
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The winners write the history, and the losers children will be brainwashed by it.
Whoa, I didnt even know we were anywhere near being able to do this.
I've read the whole thread, and I'm gonna have to side with penofmanytalents.
Edit: No, you know what, if we could make sure they were mentally and psychologically 100% human, and had a human hormone level, I don't see any problems. Although we might want to make sure hybrids of diffrent speicies dont have kids with eachother, because I dont think that would turn out so good.
Say if you had two lion/human hybrids, that would probably turn out more successful, but not elephant/human with parrot/human hybrids. That just screams extreme birth defects.