Can we Gene-Splice our way to Superhuman Abilities?

not to anything like telekenesis etc. but enhancing already present features under parameters might be possible. protien based life forms have their limits though, and chaos theory has to be taken under account, when you are splicing genes and expecting phenotypes that on a whole benefit and dont have adverse physical or {harder to figure out}, psychological side effects{e.g. if you gene splice to change the constitution and structure of neurones so that they require less space/have greater density of individual units in structures/transmit impulses faster than our current neurones} and if it worked, youd have the problems of extreme anxiety and irritability and simply, being on crack 24-7.

besides this, the more practical problem is that amount of specimens{i.e. HUMANS} who wud end up being lab rats even before birth, and wud inevitably end up with negetive quasi physical traits which wud alone, take their entire lifetime to documents. so no, i dont think its very probable. cybernetics is more promising.

also, u can gene splice already conceived and living people.

i wud think though that eventual immortality, and a perfect immune system wud be very possible in the future based on gene splicing.

it be so cool.. i think practical gene manipulation and superpowers would be more likely to happen then the comic book stuff.

examples:

slight increase of strength, reflex, increase intelligence better immune system longer life span maybe better senses i think all these things might be more likely in the next hundred yrs and if we all start to get them it really wouldnt be much of a power

Originally posted by Wild Shadow
it be so cool.. i think practical gene manipulation and superpowers would be more likely to happen then the comic book stuff.

examples:

slight increase of strength, reflex, increase intelligence better immune system longer life span maybe better senses i think all these things might be more likely in the next hundred yrs and if we all start to get them it really wouldnt be much of a power

Increase in strength shouldn't be too hard, the underpinnings of what's needed already exist. I doubt increased overall intelligence is going to happen in the forseeable future, but better reflexes or memory could. Personally I'd rather use nanomachines to boost my immune system than have doctors modify the whole thing that's a massive system with so many things that can go wrong in it.

i was thinking increase in memory and neural kinetics possibly cognative reasoning maybe not the super genius lvl but enough to make thinks easier and possibly increase the overall IQ of the population where the standard for the school would increase at least double fold.

i agree with the immunology if they screwed it up we could all be wiped out by a stupid bug or even have our own immune system attack our body itself possibly develop cancer..

has anyone seen the movie splice?

till it was conclusively proven non harmful and lil to know side effects i wouldnt want to be altered i wait a few generations b4 i let that happen just to see the long term effects possibly i would never get it and my children's children would be the ones to get it if the option was available

Originally posted by Wild Shadow
i was thinking increase in memory and neural kinetics possibly cognative reasoning maybe not the super genius lvl but enough to make thinks easier and possibly increase the overall IQ of the population where the standard for the school would increase at least double fold.

While I know what you mean, you can't technically increase the IQ of a population. 100 is always average even if those people can do differential calculus in their heads.

Originally posted by Wild Shadow
i agree with the immunology if they screwed it up we could all be wiped out by a stupid bug or even have our own immune system attack our body itself possibly develop cancer..

till it was conclusively proven non harmful and lil to know side effects i wouldnt want to be altered i wait a few generations b4 i let that happen just to see the long term effects possibly i would never get it and my children's children would be the ones to get it if the option was available

"So we tried to give you immortality but now you have super cancer. By midnight you're going to have a baseball sized tumor in you heart. On the bright side we know not to try that gene sequence again."

More seriously, I suspect that even if we do perfect immune or brain alterations people will be slow to adopt them for fear of giving someone so much control over their body.

i hate to wake up the next day and find out i am suffering from gigantism and tumors due to a the increase immune simple and screwed up attempt at super strength..

best bet is eugenics a lil slower but saver.. 😖hifty: hitler