How Would Animals Evolve To Be Like Us?

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Moonraiser
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How Would Animals Evolve To Be Like Us?

Post by Moonraiser »

I have an idea for a book or comic. I don't want to say much now, but it involves animals somehow evolving to be humanlike. Like a werewolf, but unable to shift. I am pretty sure I want scientists to be the one to do this, as animals by themselves could not, but I need to figure out the details as close to scientifically possible as possible. Any help?
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Re: How Would Animals Evolve To Be Like Us?

Post by Volkodlak »

there is alien organism: astronouts bring back rock from mars witch contains unknown biological organsism witch start too spread around and start to evolve lower life forms, but military will try too contain this epidemic by any means necesary.

but for human made couse it could be kinda side efect of new biological weapons or some treehuging scientists playing god when acident hapens.

because if you would be intrested in animals with human intelligence you should watch rise of the planet of the apes and deep blue sea they have kinda good scientific way of doing it:byproduct of research for healing human brain Disease.

but i dont think it would efect whole world because if this goes out in america i dont think it would reach other continents at least not before whole america is efected or other way around.
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Re: How Would Animals Evolve To Be Like Us?

Post by Moonraiser »

Well in the book or comic humans would probably be extinct or VERY near extinct, and I was thinking that they could go through some means to make a certain set of animals evolve to human intelligence levels as a way to keep some sort of them behind after they die out.
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Re: How Would Animals Evolve To Be Like Us?

Post by Volkodlak »

apes and is quite nicely explained in movie
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Re: How Would Animals Evolve To Be Like Us?

Post by Scott Gardener »

Evolution is very slow and time-consuming, on the order of millions of years to get from smarter-than-average mammal to human-like cognition. Note also that it takes specific kinds of evolutionary pressure to make human-like intelligence happen. Other forms of evolutionary pressure will yield different results. For example, humpback whales network with complex messages that suggest significant intelligence, but their way of thinking is different enough from us that we can't really figure out what they're saying, other than describing patterns and sequences.

Humans right now are a bit arrogant, hesitant to modify themselves genetically because they already consider themselves so perfect that God would take offense to any effort on our part to make improvements. So, genetic engineering is, sadly, a dirty word and a scary subject to most people. But, if a few of us rogue mad scientists were able to do some underground work, but out of our own counter-arrogance bungle the job, one could get, say, a viral agent that "upgrades" specific other mammals brains.

Humans engineering a werewolf virus is a bit of a stretch, because of the sheer complexity involved in such a thing. If artificial intelligence comes about and helps us out, it may be possible in 40-50 years at best. More realistically, it'll probably take longer, because we'll have other pressing issues to solve, first. If artificial intelligence never gets better than us, though, we're centuries away from such a thing, assuming we even survive.

A good plot device, as previously suggested, might be to have human level cognition happen by accident while science is trying to do something else. That would be in keeping with the way things have worked out in the past. But, be careful with the technical details, as I see too many stories ruined by getting too specific about the science only to throw in things that sound straight out of Golden Age comic books.
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Re: How Would Animals Evolve To Be Like Us?

Post by Uniform Two Six »

Here's my basic rule of thumb regarding science fiction: Science is basically magic -- only with more electricity... :D
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Re: How Would Animals Evolve To Be Like Us?

Post by Terastas »

"Evolution" wouldn't necessarily be the proper term unless this was supposed to be taking place millions of years in the future. As others have already noted, it's a very slow process, and even an ultra-selective breeding program wouldn't be able to hasten the process enough for us to see outwardly apparent results in one's lifetime.

A possible alternative explanation would be genome mapping. IE: Science not only completely maps the human / animal genetic codes, but has such a precise understanding of exactly what does what that they could, at least in theory, engineer a new species altogether. Which would be a long and arduous process, but if the second generation could be produced by the first generation breeding naturally, the results would be long-lasting.

So if, for example, they knew exactly what parts of the genome gave humans their upright posture, their large brains and their five-fingered hands, they could (in a nutshell) insert those sections into the genetic code of a dog or wolf, assemble it piece by piece, and create the first generation of a species with the desired combination of human and canine traits.

What I would assume is that this kind of breakthrough wouldn't be intended for something trivial, but that its developers would start there so they could have something to show off to the world / attract investors (kind of like how the Honda ASIMO constantly gets programmed to do mundane crap like dance or serve drinks -- it's to show the extent of what they could do with it).

The werewolf equivalent in your story could have begun as a beta species, if you will; as a new species developed with a mundane or at least harmless purpose in mind. It could have started, for example, as intended to be the ultimate service dog; able to grasp objects and understand complex instructions as effectively as a hired nurse but with the kind of loyalty and devotion that only a canine can offer. Which, even if only intended as a pitch to investors, could have sustained as long as both male and female members of the beta species were produced.

So the first of that werewolf-like species most likely would have been based on a German Shepherd -- a species used in both police work and service training. Other variants may have then been developed at later times with more specific tasks in mind (Huskies or Saint Bernards for use in the arctic, for example), with other variants later appearing as the various first-gens start to breed with each other, or even (dare I suggest it), if the developers were lazy and carried over the exact same chromosome count from either template species, with normal dogs and/or humans.

And given the ability to sustain their own numbers (which would be necessary, given the presumably arduous process of building the first generation), it would certainly be possible that the designer species(s) could, in theory, passively replace humanity. If cano-sapiens are better at some jobs than humans, and just as good at all the others but much happier to be doing them, that equates to little opportunity left in the world for homo-sapiens, and that in turn equates to far less incentive to start a family. Over the course of a few centuries, the entire human race could wind up being reduced to a severely inbred richest 1% and whoever could swallow their pride enough to let themselves (figuratively or literally) become a cano-sapien's pet human.
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