can humans give orcas hands via genetic engineering?would orcas create a space-faring civilization if they had hands?
Wouldn't it be far easier to make little sleeves that fit over their flippers and use muscle/nerve impulses to control little mechanical digits?You'd have to train them to use them, sure, but that'd be easy.Hell, start with dolphins. Smaller scale and more receptive to training. Plus it'll be funny to watch what happens when they figure out they can jerk each other off with their ROBOT HANDS!
>>17024830they would just be worse orcas. hands aren't advantageous for cetaceans
they already have fingers
>>17026410>hands aren't advantageous for cetaceansHands can work a harpoon gun. Harpoon guns are the great equalizer.God made orcas, but Svend Foyn made them equal.
>>17026413they would need entirely different arms, shoulders, skeletal structure to use a gun efficiently, which wouldn't plausibly be worth the trade off in terms of degrading swimming ability. I think there's a reason tool use is mostly a terrestrial development.OTOH, giving giant pacific octopi genes that increase their lifespan, allow them to reproduce without senescing, and encourage them to work together in larger social groups... i think that would have genuine potential
>>17026419whales might be an evolutionary dead end when it comes to a technological species but these guys already have arms and fingers and front facing eyes because they're good hunters and live in social groups and are intelligent already and their whole body is a tv screen that can be used to communicate ideas much better than acoustic methods. if they're allowed to grow larger they could start building stuff and farm their food somehow and eventually find ways to get on land, master fire, smelt metals, invent computing, build rockets, set off ai singularity, get replaced with a much better robotic species, colonize the stars.If you think about it, humans are the best possible organic life form to bootstrap robotic singularity.
>>17026450these guys live for two years then die after reproducing which is a big obstacle in creating a culture that can persist through generations.
>>17026464thisand their lifespans can't really get too long, because the cost of their amazing regeneration is an elevated cancer risk
>>17026464yeah that's what i (>>17026419) was saying; their culture isn't really passed on in the same way human culture is. Cephalopod mothers generally die protecting their eggs which are then kind of left to fend for themselves, so they don't have social transmission of ideas like us. If they could develop longer lifespans and social learning, the sky's the limit, but, it's hard to see how that could happen when they're so entrenched in their current reproductive strategy. I'm not a biologist but I'm not sure how evolution would be able to redirect their species in that way, i guess it's definitely happened at some point in the history of life but it seems like it'd be hard
>>17026468>>17026470Intelligence and social learning are mutually exclusive. You either think, or you copy. You can't do both.
>>17024830Uplifting Orcas, Chimpanzees, Glorillas, Ravens, and Octopussi will be neccesary. They contain the possibility but failed to inherit the neccesary traits to escape their niche.
Do you guys think there's any difference between the capability or possibility of 4 intelligence created from 1's own evolutionary environment and the capacity for intelligence when taught or trained by something else that is intelligent directly?
>>17027014Humans do both every day
>>17027336many humans do neither most days
>>17026419Human arrogance knows no bounds. Your cities are a mockery of the forests.
>>17027014Complete bullshit, you have zero experience with the creative process to say something so stupid. Human creativity is a process of borrowing as well as grasping towards novelty.
>>17027014Like humans are intelligent AND heavily utilize social learning. Humans are inherently a social species. Fucking moron.
>>17026419>they would need entirely different arms, shoulders, skeletal structure to use a gun efficiently, which wouldn't plausibly be worth the trade off in terms of degrading swimming abilitysee >>17026218it's very plausible you could design some bionic attachment. wouldn't even need to fit over the flippers it could be a harness with a little robot arm attached. the ability to manipulate objects or to a target without having to risk life and fin in direct physical engagement is a major advantage that can turn an apex predator into a world-dominator.
>>17024830Si, fly
>>17027364>>17027366On the contrary. Those who copy never innovate. They often are convinced that they will, one day, invent something new once they learn enough, but they never will. All innovators were essentially reinventing the wheel even as little kids.
>>17024830https://wildlifeanswers.blog/law-of-the-tongue-orcasHappy reading
Genetic engineering is a nothingburger
>>17024830>would orcas create a space-faring civilization ifalready have
