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  1. #1

    Default Designer pets - OK or not

    These cuties give light in the dark, I **** thee not. (VERY big pic, scroll to the right if neccessary).

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news...123_15447.html

    Cute, but useful? And is this OK?





    [ps to moderators, this is not a novel technology, and it's about its moral issues in its use on pets, so no Athenaeum material, really]
    Last edited by Spurius; December 12, 2007 at 02:11 PM.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    No, not useful. But I don't see why it's not OK.


    We've been breeding creatures for select traits ranging from strength, speed, and agility to beauty, poise, and aesthetic for several thousand years by now.

  3. #3
    Thanatos's Avatar Now Is Not the Time
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    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    The problem is, where is this going to lead to?

  4. #4

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    Quote Originally Posted by Thanatos View Post
    The problem is, where is this going to lead to?
    It will lead to us trying to find a faster way to get the traits we want in the animals we want. Sort of like how breeding eventually led to cloning.
    One thing is for certain: the more profoundly baffled you have been in your life, the more open your mind becomes to new ideas.
    -Neil deGrasse Tyson

    Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    Quote Originally Posted by Thanatos View Post
    The problem is, where is this going to lead to?
    Superhumans. Is there a problem with that?
    A religion of peace...

  6. #6
    Thanatos's Avatar Now Is Not the Time
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    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    Yes, but glow-in-the-dark cats?

  7. #7

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    Quote Originally Posted by Thanatos View Post
    Yes, but glow-in-the-dark cats?
    There is no prerequisite for the traits to be ones we've physically seen before, though those are usually easier to figure out. All I made reference to was for the traits we wanted.
    One thing is for certain: the more profoundly baffled you have been in your life, the more open your mind becomes to new ideas.
    -Neil deGrasse Tyson

    Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    Indeed. And there is a difference between breeding and this form genetic manuipulation. I mean, if there were glowing cats before, and we interbreed them, Ok. But I'm a firm believer in letting selective processes run thier own course. Frankly, there is no purpose in having a friggin glowing cat. It's just another example of how science can be utilized stupidly and unethically. It's a "we're doing it because we can" or "we're doing it, because eventaully someone else will do it" mentality.

    Ethics by convenience.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    I fail to see how this is useful. As night lights go, cats are pretty unreliable.

    But I don't see any problem with it.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    I dont see this as any different than modifying our food genetically

  11. #11

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    Quote Originally Posted by Chaigidel View Post
    I dont see this as any different than modifying our food genetically

    My friend, my friend, mammals, and especially humans, are much more complex then corn.

  12. #12
    Thanatos's Avatar Now Is Not the Time
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    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    True, it'll be interesting to see where this leads to over time.

  13. #13

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    Well, this is sortof the culmination of a technology used - in a useful manner - for tagging certain amoeba, IIRC. So it's definitely frivolous to be used on pets.

  14. #14

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    I don't know about anyone lese here, but If I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a glowing creature in a dark corner, I'd be absoloutely terrified.

  15. #15
    Thanatos's Avatar Now Is Not the Time
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    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    Quote Originally Posted by Serious Spamurai View Post
    I don't know about anyone lese here, but If I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a glowing creature in a dark corner, I'd be ****ing terrified.
    Until it meowed.

  16. #16

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    life is a frivolous enterprise.

  17. #17

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    blah you can be super human all day long your still just meat.

    it will allow us to more fully integrate with our technology though(genetic engineering of peoples I mean; plus new and unfathomed diseases.

  18. #18
    Thanatos's Avatar Now Is Not the Time
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    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    So, we'll either end up looking like:

    1)Strogg
    2)The people in Bioshock.

    Wheee.

  19. #19

    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    of course its much more complex but it contains the same bioethics so to speak, your altering life forms outside of the natural process.

  20. #20
    Blau&Gruen's Avatar Civitate
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    Default Re: Designer pets - OK or not

    Designer pets; I am pro sure.
    I love pets.
    Patronized by Ozymandias
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    Le livre des questions
    Un étranger avec sous le bras un livre de petit format

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