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Designer pets ... ah MAN ... now I have to go pull ANOTHER science fiction book off the fiction shelf and put it in the reference section of my library.

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First, it's actually exciting that what was fiction 5-10 years ago (or longer ... my memory is fading) is becoming reality today. Not EVERYTHING, mind you ... some of those SF writers can be pretty crazy.

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Like it or not, we've been gene manipulating for centuries ... selective breeding is an inexact science to be sure, but when we find traits in our animals (and in ourselves) that we desire, we continue that particular gene line as best we can.

Having the ability to cut generations off the process just means we've found a better tool to do the job. Whether it is meeting an existing (and valid) need, is an extension of an oversized ego, or just another manifestation of MMTB Syntrome (More Money Than Brains) is up to society at large to decide.

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I'll say one thing though ... breeding a hairless cat (and there IS one) is certainly less painful than shaving one.

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I'd better get back to work!

Regards,

Rick

MMTB ... Helping them spend for the cure.

# posted by Rick 2:13 PM

I'm with Bill on this one. It's nice and neat that the technology exists and can be applied to something. I don't think it's right to shortcut nature for trivial things like this though. Nature has a way of biting back when we start infringing on her territory.

# posted by Pere 5:23 PM

Don't say that, Bill, to a Transhumanist. Everything is far game. Why wait for evolution to accomplish what we can do now? Humaninity needs to accept the growing reality that we can alter ourselves and our world intentionally - for good or bad is the question, the genie is already out of the bottle.

# posted by Anonymous 5:25 PM

Genetically manipulating crop DNA for better yields or durability is one thing. I can't help but have a problem when we start messing with life on the higher levels. At that point we start to assume the mantle of God (and hopefully everyone can understand that as either a real or conceptual deity, or just as nature if you're so inclined, based on your beliefs). The one thing experience should have already taught us is that we have a tendency to fix things until they're broken.

# posted by Bill 7:36 PM

Why is making a cat less allergic bad? I get making one a clone or one with five legs, but that allegry cure deosn't hurt tha cat and helps the owner. What if you were suddenly allergic to dogs? Wouldn't be glad if you could get a dog after all thanks to science?

Isn't that the point?????

# posted by Anonymous 7:36 PM

No, it's not the point, life isn't a matter of getting what you want all the time. That's masturbation. Life is surviving what nature throws at you. Try this: If you have such a burning need for pet that you'd have someone genetically manipulate an animal for your benefit I can only imagine what you'd do to a person you wanted to be with. That's not such a stretch.

# posted by Bill 9:12 PM

"That's not such a stretch."

Yes, yes, it is such a stretch -- a slippery slope fallacy. So far I don't see anything explaining *why* it's bad, except that, well, you don't like it. So?

You might as well just say "it's against God's will".

# posted by Anonymous 5:18 AM

Allow me to draw an analogy to illustrate the point *I* would like to make on this subject.

I have been working on pages built with PHP and MySQL lately. I don't really have any practical experience with EITHER of these, though I do know SQL, and I have done a little bit of scripting. I do, at least, have a firm grasp of HTML and CSS. So I take what I know, apply it to what I don't, and try some things out. For anything I attempt to do, I probably screw up a few times before I get it right. And then, when I finally get it right, I don't find out until hours later that I screwed up some other thing that I wasn't expecting. All this in the name of trying to fix a bit of markup or code that was already working in the first place - I just wanted to make it work *better*.

Multiply the complexity by an enormous factor and you can find out where geneticists are right now. They know SOME things, but certainly not EVERYTHING, so they're applying what they DO know to what they DON'T know .. and hoping things work out ok.

This cat seems like a good thing, right. It's hypo-allergenic, and that's awesome. I am allergic to cats, yet I love them, so I know Just how awesome this Is. At the same time, how can anyone be sure they haven't made a terrible mistake? Just because nobody's caught the mistake yet doesn't mean it's Not There.

So on the surface, this is a fantastic advance.
In reality, though, it's messing with forces we don't understand. You can call that progress. I call it dangerous. If cats were somehow NECESSARY, I could see merit in this pursuit. As it stands, I'm going to have to concur with Bill.

# posted by Terry 9:59 AM

Better still, not only are we going to genetically remove a gland that nature felt the cat should have, but we're going to carve out its reproductive system like a pumpkin prior to sale --all so someone can have the privilige of owning a cat and not sneeze. You see nothing wrong with that, no misapplication of technology? How about, the cat's going to cost $3,500...?

Now let's see, the genetically engineered NoSneeze cat gets a home with a person who owns a genetically altered Glowfish. The cat eats the fish. The owner, horrified, kicks the cat out. A homeless guy catches the cat and eats it 'cause he's starving. He has unprotected intercourse with a homeless woman. She conceives. What will be the outcome....? A child that glows in the dark but that no one's allergic to?

Reminds me of a line from the 1976 movie, Network.

# posted by Bill 10:34 AM

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