Genetically engineered pets

Gerard, as I am (very slowly, but still) getting older and knowing more and more, I realized that there are some questions, which are nearly impossible to answer correctly.

Genetics is one of them. Electronic augmentation of human body is another of them, virtual reality and its abusing is another. Nuclear weapons in hands of some irresponsible fanatics with no regard for human life...



I would of course like to discuss all these issues and give my 2 cents, but to answer your question specifically - the current way our civilization is going heads there. We're not there yet, but we will be one day. 5, 10 or 40 years, but we will.

Certain cat/dog breeds are something like primitive state of such concept, they were carefully selected, raised ... bred over the years so now we have so many (especially) dog breeds. + combinations of breeds as well, so we get so many variations. Take for example lions of panthers - variations there are not so big, but you get cats of so many colours, shapes, body builds etc.

That's proto, now for the future. Perfect pet ? :-D It will be here, I do not like it, yet I am unable to do anything about it. I'm not against it so strong anyway, I would just stick to the old dog/cat combination I am used to.

I am used to, do you see this phrase ?

Because that's me, but what about new generations of kids who will grew up in a world where such genetically perfect pets will be normal ?

You know the answer.

As for my personal stance on it, I think it's fine, if it's done responsibly, safely, and humanely.  That's a big "if" though.  My fear is that people will exploit it for profit, which is what usually happens.

Hehe, would so many people smoke weed if it was illegal ? Would people love cats so much if they behaved better ?

Not sure on either, but part of what makes cat so popular is it's dependent independent behavior, it's self-consciousness.

HolyMoly wrote: My own layman's guess is that it can be done, but any significant changes to animals' DNA would probably need to be executed gradually over many generations, in order to keep the transition as natural as possible.  Otherwise we might be overrun with HALF CAT HALF STAPLER monsters just because one scientist had a bad day.

Gerinski wrote: Dean wrote: All modern domestic animals are generically engineered creatures, many bear little resemblence to their wild ancestors. Whether you do it through selective breading or genesplicing the net result is the same - we engineer wild animals to be docile and loyal and have specific traits that we find atracctive or useful. Yes sure, what I meant is, genetic engineering seems to be a faster path given current technology, isn't it strange that big corporations aren't investing in this potential business?

Because selling the concept is far harder than actually doing it, and the costs of doing it out-weigh the financial rewards when consider how hard it would be to gain public acceptance of a 'Frankenstein' pet (you can imagine the tabloid headlines already).

Edited by Dean - February 14 2013 at 16:17

The Doctor wrote: Gerinski wrote: HolyMoly wrote: My own layman's guess is that it can be done, but any significant changes to animals' DNA would probably need to be executed gradually over many generations, in order to keep the transition as natural as possible.  Otherwise we might be overrun with HALF CAT HALF STAPLER monsters just because one scientist had a bad day. Well, generations on most pet-like animals are not long so that would not be a big problem.   I don't really see a problem with a half-cat half-stapler.  Suppose you're petting your cat and suddenly find yourself needing to staple some paperwork together.  This could solve that problem easily.    In fact, I'd also like to see half-cat/half-dishwasher, half-cat/half-word processor, half-cat/half-tax preparation software.  Think of the applications.

Crossing a cat with anything remotely practical or useful would not be the best idea mankind ever dreamt of. 'Yeah, I would fasten these papers together with a neatly folded wire fixing, but the stapler is chasing its tail at the moment'; 'I would file my tax return but my tax preparation software is being shagged by the neighbours' tom-cat at the moment'; 'We'll eat once we have clean plates, which will be some short time after the dishwasher's finished licking its own arse.'

Holy oboes & xylophones!

http://www.genpets.com/index.php


Edited by Ajay - February 15 2013 at 03:20

If they could get my pet gorilla to make balloon animals and solve these differential equations my life would be much easier.

Only indirectly related to the question but I found these:

Gerinski wrote: Just as another trivial example concerning a far less important subject, during my recent research about music instruments for my blog article, some sources said that Roland cooperated with Ibanez to build the G-303 guitar synthesizer instrument, while other sources deny this. Who's right? In the modern internet world anybody can publish what they want or believe. How can we tell what is objectively true or is not?