nizo's Journal: Better living through genetic engineering

I for one am looking forward to the brave new world that will be brought about through the wonders of genetic engineering. More specifically, I want to see advancements that make my life easier, such as sparrows that poop soap on my car, cleaning it rather than soiling it. Grass that only grows to a certain law-abiding height and super-intelligent monkeys to do housework (and rise/wax my car after it has been sitting under a tree full of sparrows). Specially designed drought and pest reistant food that could end world hunger might be nice too.

Aside from smarter people, what genetically engineered creations would you like to see?

I can see the monkeys

[WillAffleckUW]

and in fact, can't they clean the car for you?

But be careful what you wish for in terms of bioengineered foodstuffs - note that Chinese crops that mix the bioengineered rice and the standard rice - or hybrids - which occur naturally as they "escape" - have already created bugs that are resistant to the bug-resistant rice.

It's like my field, where we basically have to create a new cure for malaria and other things every 20-50 years as they adapt to our "cures".

Re:I can see the monkeys

[nizo]

Well I figure the car would need less cleaning if something were done about the flocks of birds. Plus I figure a plan B is good for after the monkeys go nuts and overthrow their masters; at least I won't have to wash my car as often if the birds poop soap.

Spare parts

[October_30th]

Spare body parts. Yes, I'm still thinking of those IR-UV sensitive eyes... ;)

Re:Spare parts

[Talinom]

Even better. Modular body design.

Sinus infection? Take it into the shop and get a loaner nose. Sure it will look like it came from Barry Manilow, but the flow, my God!

Broke an arm? No problem. You'll get a loaner, it will be the wrong color and length, but it will get you through the day.

Diabetes? Ok, you got a lemon for a pancreas. We'll get you a new one right away.

Overweight, just remove the excess fat and be done with it. Better than liposuction and no scarring.

Ugly? Um, sorry. There are

Re:Spare parts

[Ra5pu7in]

Forget the spares. I've been wanting four arms since I was small. There are a ridiculous number of things we do that need an extra hand, and a couple extras would make life much easier.

Heh

[Scott Lockwood]

super-intelligent monkeys to do housework

I have 4. They, are William Scott IVth, Michael Joseph, Anton Martin, and Janez Pavel. The two younger ones are still NUB's. They will one day also wash dishes, take out the trash, and clean their room.

There's a SciFi story...

[Shadow Wrought]

Don't remember the title or author (of course) but hyper-intelligent monkeys were involved. Basically they did the maintenance work on a huge massive airship. They panicked really bad when it started crashing, too. I do remember it was a novella in one of the Tor Doubles, though.

Re:There's a SciFi story...

[nizo]

The book Lovelock had a hyper-intelligent monkey in it. It was a neat collaboration between Orson Scott Card and Katherine H. Kidd. It was supposed to be the first in a trilogy, but I dunno if they are still planning on finishing the other two or not.

Re:There's a SciFi story...

[robi2106]

Card

Oooooooooo that reminds me that I never did read the second & third of the Ender's Game books.

jason

Re:There's a SciFi story...

[nizo]

I wasn't so crazy about the second one, but I liked the third one. Ender's Shadow is good (the fourth book, which is basically the first book retold from Bean's point of view) is good, but the later ones after that one are only so-so.

In the immortal words of Jack Handey

[StalinsNotDead]

Here's a suggestion for a new animal, if some new ones get created or evolve: something that stings you, then laughs at you.

The future is here now...

[kesuki]

Nature's bounty already has a wide variety of mow free, low water usage ground covers, and they come in shades other than green, too.

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id- 2951.html [dummies.com]

Re:The future is here now...

[nizo]

Actually, I hate grass, especially in the dry southwest. I am also one of those diseased people who likes dandylions. I figure if it flowers, isn't an allergan, and doesn't make burrs, it isn't a weed :-) Plus dandylions make cool little seed fuzzballs for the kids to blow on our neighbors' lawns.

Re:The future is here now...

[kesuki]

you're missing the whole point of dandelions...

Here, some recipies...

Wine http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelio.asp [jackkeller.net]

Tea http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Dan delion.html [wildmanstevebrill.com]

Salad http://www.mock-turtle.net/pandoras_box/recipie.ht ml [mock-turtle.net]

Danedelion, it's not just a ground cover, it's a source of food and drink...

Re:The future is here now...

[kesuki]

Appologies, the third recipie is a pet food recipie ^^; i skimmed the link :O

but dandelion greens... is googleable, and you can find tons of recipies that use them ;)

foodnetwork has a good set of ground rules for using the plant in human cooking http://web.foodnetwork.com/food/web/encyclopedia/ t ermdetail/0,7770,1952,00.html [foodnetwork.com]

What, seriously?

[sam_handelman]

I'd like to see genetically engineered crops that raise yield per acre of land used when grown (otherwise) organically. There are associated risks, of course, with releasing the genetically engineered crops - but with the prospect of restoring biodiversity in the soil (because you could actually feed people with crops that hadn't been drowned in fertilizer and pesticides) and/or reducing the overall agricultural footprint (which has more of an impact on the ecosystem than any escaped gengineered plant could

Re:What, seriously?

[js7a]

mosquitoes which kill malaria [sciencedirect.com]