[extropy-chat] Dragons

[Adrian Tymes]

--- "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury at aeiveos.com> wrote:
> I will not quote Adrian's comments for the sake of
> brevity.

Though I will quote Robert's, since they were
apparently intended for the list.

> I would like to see the article he cited.

Googling a bit...the theory seems to trace its way
back to a Peter Dickinson book,
_The_Flight_of_Dragons_.  Fiction, of course, and
mostly fantasy, but a touch of science fiction.  ISTR
there was a movie version of that book made.

> Because
> one
> doesn't get hydrogen from limestone (which is
> CaCO3).
> Perhaps they are assuming you get a reaction with
> the
> dilute HCl (0.15M) in the stomach.  But if I'm
> reading
> this:
>  
> http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~chem151/lab151/antacidB/
> freshman chemistry lab correctly it looks like you
> get
> CO2 not H2.  Oooops...
> 
> Now, my strategy was a little more practical.
> 
> a) Take one Komodo Dragon Genome (probably
> affordable
>    by individuals in 10-15 years).
> b) Take one Albatross Genome (also affordable in
> that
>    time frame)
> c) Take one Cow Genome (probably available in the
> next
>    1-2 years.
> 
> Combine Komodo reptile genes with Albatross
> light-weight
> wings, bone, etc. with cow digestive tract (using
> bacteria
> to produce methane) and one is getting close.
> 
> One may need to push on the wingspan a little bit
> but
> in a decade we will probably have a good
> understanding
> of how structural genes work.
> 
> Still haven't worked out how you get the methane out
> the front end rather than the back end and how you
> ignite the methane but those are just details.

Line the digestive tract with a kidney-like filter,
designed to extract methane and only methane.  Weak
bioelectric effects - just enough to put a few sparks
in an outgoing stream of hydrogen - should not prove
that difficult; google for "electrocyte", and/or see
http://wildcat.phys.nwu.edu/classes/2002Fall/Phyx135-2/Projects/Electric_eel/charge.html

> One
> might want to require manual lighting of the fire in
> any case to avoid liability risks.

Just have a legally nonexistant person (i.e., use a
fake name) sign a release accepting all responsibility
for a purchased dragon, then have that dragon released
into the wild.  Any resulting liability gets directed
to that person, while the corporation formed to make
the dragon dissolves and releases its IP into the
public domain.

Granted, it might be difficult to get a lot of money
that way.

> One nice thing about this design is that the dragon
> is a vegetarian and not a meat eater.
> 
> Robert

So you could train it to scout for villages so
backwards they sacrifice their own children to
"appease" what they do not understand, and relocate
said sacrifices to adoption centers in more civilized
societies, without worrying if it got hungry?