[ExI] Atlantic article on human reengineering with very strong reactions

[Joseph Bloch]

2012/3/13 spike <spike66 at att.net>:
>
>
> Anders, I dropped my teeth this morning.  The local AM radio was all over
> this story, telling of this NYU professor who was urging his students to do
> genetic engineering to make people smaller so that they would be more
> environmentally friendly.  Of course that sold me bigtime: I have long
> advocated for smaller people.  The advantages are many, once you realize
> that so many things scale down as the square and the cube of our linear
> dimension.  For instance, if humans were to evolve to half scale, think of
> how we could scale down houses and cars.  Our current freeway and road
> system would be so very adequate!  Our current farm system would be so
> capable of feeding us.  If we were half scale, we would need only a quarter
> of the amount of food per person.  Our cars would be the size of shopping
> carts, our offices spacious beyond our current ambitions.  Our manned
> spacecraft would be increased in volume by a factor of 8, or reduced in mass
> by the same.

Spike, alas, the idea was anticipated in almost every detail by a
"Superfriends" cartoon from 1973. ;-)

"Gulliver’s Gigantic Goof": Using his micro-wave reducer, mad Dr.
Hiram Gulliver shrinks all adults- including the Superfriends- to two
inches tall to help the population problem (by saving resources)...
and also to rule over them (he will remain full-sized to watch over
the mini population of the world). The Green Arrow joins the
Superfriends to stop him and to return things to normal.

Joseph