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

[John Grigg]

Spike wrote:
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.

The local radio DJ was horrified, but I thought it was a great idea. The
notion isn’t to modify our DNA directly, but rather modify our sexual
desires, so that we are attracted to smaller people.  Then the DNA
modification happens by mate selection.
>>>


Well..., considering how fast computers/a.i./robotics/nanotech are
advancing, I don't see how making us smaller, especially by old school mate
selection, is going to be the answer to our problems!  C'mon Spike, put on
that MEGA-ENGINEERING safety hat of yours!  : )


I do love the mental picture of cities full of little people who run around
in shopping cart sized automobiles!  "Oz comes to the 21st century!"
"Everyone is a Munchkin!" lol  I just don't see people going for this,
because it would be seen as a competitive disadvantage for one's offspring,
even if it was an advantage for a culture/nation.  And could you just
imagine the transition period??  And if this happened now, I would be run
out of town for recently having dated a gal who is 6'3! hee


Somtow Sucharitkul wrote a novel called STARSHIP HAIKU, where humans have
been shrunk down to Spikean proportions, due to over-population pressures.
I remember enjoying the novel (I love his Inquestor series, where godlike
enforcers maintain statism and pain among humanity's many
interstellar empires), though I don't recall many details.


A great sf plotline coming from this discussion would be if a race of
"hobbit humans" had survived and thrived to make it to our era, and they
became a great power, perhaps having South America under their
control.  They explore space and wisely use planetary resources in ways
that make the "tall-ees" really jealous!  Oh, but they can certainly fight
and defend their territory.  It would be a fun book.


I think this discussion has been a fun exercise as food for thought.


John  : )


 On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:32 PM, Joseph Bloch <
seculartranshumanist at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>
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