Poll: Crimes again Nature?

[tkioz]

So I was sitting around the fire last night with my visiting sister watching my dog and cat roll around on the floor, and I had the strangest thought... I really love my dog, but house training him was such a bugger of a thing to do... I just wished it was possible to gene-splice the bit of cats that makes them use kittylitter instead of crapping on the floor into dogs...

Best use of genetic engineering I can think of! Oh sure we could cure world hunger and fix genetic birth defects... but dogs that don't need house training? That's the tops!

When I mentioned this to my sister she claimed it would be a crime against nature and what a horrible person I am... well the second is hardly news, she's known me all her life... but the first... really?

 

[bluegate]

Why not?

Dogs as we know them nowadays have been tainted by us humans for so long, might as well go a step further and directly modify their genetic structure.

We have been crossbreeding dogs and sustaining certain genetic mutations that would have no place in nature ( we can only assume ) for quite some time now, so why not modify our dogs to be house trained.

 

[tkioz]

Why not?

Dogs as we know them nowadays have been tainted by us humans for so long, might as well go a step further and directly modify their genetic structure.

We have been crossbreeding dogs and sustaining certain genetic mutations that would have no place in nature ( we can only assume ) for quite some time now, so why not modify our dogs to be house trained.

One could even argue "dogs" aren't even a natural species, but rather a man made one, they come from wolves (I think?) that hung around human settlements and cats (same as cats, which became pest control) looking for easy food and made themselves useful to avoid being driven off, letting the ones that adapted to working with humans survive more easily then the ones that made a pest of themselves.

The Human/Dog/Cat relationship started out as convenience and over time evolved into a form of symbiosis that is still alive and well today (I grew up on a farm, so I know how useful cats and dogs can be)

 

[Korolev]

Nature doesn't have "rules". Nature doesn't have laws, or even a mind. Nature is merely the collection of all living things doing what they do.

Humans are a part of nature, as our our actions. We are as biological as anything else. Whatever we do is an extension of ourselves, therefore, whatever we do is "natural", or at least as natural as anything else.

The day I'm hauled before Nature Court and tried by my old Mango Tree as a judge with the woodland creatures as the jury is the day I'll accept that there are such things as "natural" laws.

Nature (outside of humanity) is mindless, violent and just... there. The only part of nature that has laws, values, and morals are humans, and WE make them, not nature.

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

Genetically house trained dogs, no.

Genetically engineered cyborg ninja dogs, HELL YARSE!!!

 

[Dags90]

Nature doesn't have laws

The Laws of Thermodynamics would like disagree with you, if it were entropically favorable. But it's not, so they won't.

The first thing to do would be to design kittens that stay kittens.

 

[Keoul]

We've genetically modified cows, and that's to make them huge, covered in muscles and then be turned into burgers

Spoiler

It's kinda weird, ye have been warnedI don't see how it's a crime against nature if we're just making dogs poop in the right spot.

 

[manic_depressive13]

I don't think there's a "crapping in kitty litter" gene but if there were, sure. Never really understood the idea of a crime against nature. Don't we do that every time we cut down a tree? Tree murder is the real crime against nature, not genetic modification.

 

[tkioz]

I don't think there's a "crapping in kitty litter" gene but if there were, sure.

Well I'm no biologist, but from having had a number of cats over the years it seems to me that it must be genetic, because it's sure as kitten poop not learned behaviour.

 

[Esotera]

Spoiler: Glow-in-the-dark fish

[link]http://www.glofish.com/[/link]

I would love to buy one of these, but they don't ship outside the US last time I checked.

Anyway, the point I'm making is that there's nothing wrong with GM organisms, and most of the time these traits will be cool & not really affect their quality of life that much.

Glowing in the dark might not seem that useful a thing to research, but it's actually very important in understanding how embryos develop, and various other experiments. So tinkering with nature can have benefits by advancing our technology also.

 

[DoPo]

Nature doesn't have laws

The Laws of Thermodynamics would like disagree with you, if it were entropically favorable. But it's not, so they won't.

The first thing to do would be to design kittens that stay kittens.

"I've lived for 18 years. Kill meeee."

'Twas a joke.

OT: As far as I'm concerned, it's not a big crime against nature. Humans have done this sort of things for thousands of years. The bananas today aren't true bananas - they are a natural abomination, so to say. Dogs were mentioned but also various crops and plants and other animals have been changed by humans. Using science to make dogs learn proper pooping isn't something I'll consider bad.

 

[Mayhaps]

Being against genetic modification would be to be against nature.
As people said, we've always done it. Just because we're able to do it better and faster doesn't mean it's wrong, if anything it's the opposite.

 

[Bertylicious]

Nature doesn't have laws

The Laws of Thermodynamics would like disagree with you, if it were entropically favorable. But it's not, so they won't.

The first thing to do would be to design kittens that stay kittens.

"I've lived for 18 years. Kill meeee."

'Twas a joke.

OT: As far as I'm concerned, it's not a big crime against nature. Humans have done this sort of things for thousands of years. The bananas today aren't true bananas - they are a natural abomination, so to say. Dogs were mentioned but also various crops and plants and other animals have been changed by humans. Using science to make dogs learn proper pooping isn't something I'll consider bad.

Why have a kitten that lasts forever when you could have convenience kitty:

Think about it! At last a dog CAN just be for Christmas!

 

[Versuvius]

Crimes against who now? When nature sues a science lab or has a petition put up i might consider 'nature' a thing opposed to a pre existing force, and when people begin saying THEY are the ones who decide whats acceptable and not within 'nature' is when i will tell them to fuck off.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

That's like saying crossing the cow's digestive system with a kangaroo's to stop the cow producing methane is a crime against nature.

 

[SEXTON HALE]

Genetic manipulation is definatly something to becareful with.
Though if done correctly I see nothing wrong with it.
I can imagine some of the possibilities now.
The cutenesss of a kitten combined with the ferocity of a shark.
The perfect hunting machine on land and in water.

 

[DoPo]

Genetic manipulation is definatly something to becareful with.
Though if done correctly I see nothing wrong with it.
I can imagine some of the possibilities now.
The cutenesss of a kitten combined with the ferocity of a shark.
The perfect hunting machine on land and in water.

Ooh, look at the little fluffy....AWWW IT BIT MY ARM OFF! How will I pet it now?