Forums of the Megaverse®

OK, while re-flipping through AtB2, I had a thought; With the public proliferation of the EGG device in the pre-Crash era of AtB2, & since the user could modify a subject (say, the family pet) to speak, walk, ect. ..... what stops (or at least slows down) said person from giving themselves psychic and or superpowers?

Well, you'd have to know what genes are needed to cause such super powers. Not exactly common knowledge. It would be like taking your average mechanics tool set and converting your family car for trans-atmospheric flight.

plus the EGG kits were "home cloning kits", so you wouldn't be able to change your own DNA. i'd suspect there were people using them to modify human embryo's. boost intellegence, strength, stamina, ect. designer kids. mabe even clone themselves with all these traits. or clone famous people, historical people, ect.

Good points, guys. Thanks.

Imagine the implications of creating a population boom by people creating all manner of new mutant life. Now think of all those unwanted mutants that may be abandoned after their novelty wears off. Could the EEG's have a built in mechanism to ensure that those things created by it only have a limited life span? What happens when you create an intelligent talking mutant who realizes it was only created for the amusement of it's creator? Rebellion?

As far as using an EEG to give yourself super powers, you could do the same thing the creator of the mutagen virus did and create a virus or phage that you would infect yourself with, which would then go about rewriting your genes or DNA to produce said power.

Another idea I had was for a "New You" service. You would give the "New You" company a sample of your DNA and they would create a cloned body (everything but the brain) to your specifications, which you would then be able to transplant your brain into. Companies could have specialized bodies created for people who work in hazardous environments, such as deep sea exploration.

IIRC, wasn't it mentioned that human genetic engineering were, if not outlawed, greatly discouraged during the pre-crash age?

or am i just confusing that issue with uplifted animals prior to the crash?

genes are genes, wether from a human or a bacterium. so you can't engineer a kit that only works for all species save one. at best, it lacks certain enzymes and chemicals needed to manipulate certain human DNA sequences..which wouldn't stop people from obtaining those chemicals anyway.

and since we know there were human-animal hybrids being made prior to the crash, and the illness that caused the crash used human DNA, that approach doesn't work.

i tihnk it more likely that the government created new laws about what it is and isn't legal to clone and genengineer. the technical ability can't be stopped, so regulation has to be used. not unlike data piracy today, i suspect. really easy to copy data, but it's illegal to share it.

gene engineering in ATB probably had similar laws. can't clone humans. can't tweak human genetics without a liscense, and even then only for genetic desieses. various laws about altering animals and plants certain ways. different nations have different variations on the subject. a new form of crime in the form of geneengineered pitfights..

considering that there are only 4 bases, and all living things share over 90% of their genetics, i find it unlikely you could program such safeguards without rendering the system incapable of doing it's job in the first place.

and you'd need the laws anyway, since you'd just see people hacking the programs to remove any limits programmed in. so the crimes would still occur...

thing is, even if it can, and i agree it probably could, any blocks would just be programming. which can be changed. just look at all the unofficial mods available for popular computer games.

so you'd need laws and regulations to punish people who do it despite all the safeguards. you'd also need laws to ensure those safeguards are programmed in the systems that are sold, and that companies try to make it harder to hack.