Let's intelligently design a human being

If we had a chance to create an intelligently designed human being out of the current materials at hand, what could we come up with?To start off, consider where the brain is located - is that is good idea? Shouldn't the brain be located closer to where your stomach is? Motorcycle riders maybe would not need a helmet. Then consider that the Amusement Park is located right next to the Sewage & Waste Disposal Department...So what say ye?Should be fun. How many fingers? Should being able to play music factor in the design?? Octopus eyeballs?? RULE! Only stuff that we have seen possible - no supernatural stuff, obviously. No superpowers.Can we build the better adept earth creature than us? I think so.I remember reading a story in Analog about aliens transferring heads with humans and the Attempt screws up and the alien heads land on cows, the cow heads land on the human bodies and the human heads land on the aliens, who are closer to cows in appearance but have all these tentacles that are sexually active. The humans at first are aghast, but then, when they touch each other, find out that the wealth in the sex is beyond belief! But this might more properly be categorized as a supernatural thing, so - never mind.I also remember seeing footage from a Jacques Cousteau show of 2 chambered nautiluses having sex. Chambered nautiluses have 20 tentacles. The footage shows them caressing each other with all 20. Did I get a twinge of jealousy? Oh yeah. This was not supernatural....so IF we *could* design...........intelligently..............

We would fail. It probably can't be done. And that is an argument against ID.

I'm totally not getting how that's an argument against ID. Would you mind elaborating? Thanks.

If humans cannot be designed, then they cannot be the result of intelligent design.

Two points here:1. That humans cannot be designed by our current technology says nothing about whether a more advanced society could design humans.2. We are rapidly approaching the day when we can design humans. In fact, we can already modify a human's genome in a limited sense, thereby creating a "customized" human. It's only a matter of time before we can completely re-engineer a human organism.

I didn't say anything about current technology. The genome is not a design specification.

It was implied: If you are not speaking of current technology, then you are making the broad claim that no technology can re-design a human organism. But this is simply an argument from incredulity, and is demonstrated false with every advance in genome engineering. However, the phenotype of an organism is a design specification, and by modifying the genome, we can customize the phenotype of an organism. We can already alter the phenotypes of model organisms, and even of humans. It is merely a matter of time before we can completely re-engineer the human body.

I think we could borrow a lot from what we already see in other species.First, photosynthesis seems to be a no brainer. We could have chloroplast-like organelles in our skin that can make a little bit of energy for us. Gills would be really nice.WINGS!!!!!! I demand that we have functional wings, and be quadrapeds. We should be centaurs with wings, and have gills . . . and photosynthesize. Sounds like a good start to me.

Right, except I would change that "re-design" to "design". I did not claim that I am able to provide a proof.Here's what troubles me about ID. The ID proponents make clear that what they mostly don't like about evolution, is that they see it as too mechanistic. But you cannot have design without mechanism. You need mechanism to carry forward any design. If they are opposed to accounts that are too mechanistic, then they should be opposed to ID. I seem to recall that the Thomists make just that argument, that ID is wrong because it would require mechanism, making organisms artifacts rather than agents.

While you're working on designing, how about fixing the problem with knees and lower backs?That seems to be pretty sloppy work for an all-powerful, all-knowing etc. etc. designer.(But just about what you'd expect from the "survival of the barely adequate" that evolution brings.)

Good call, what an advantage for surface cells at no expense in weight or energy. If anything would add to energy. A decent call, likely have to choose twixt flight and water, at least for depth, unless a sperm whale. May be a bit of a compromise to dive for 30 minutes using feathers and hollow bones. Excellent call, the obvious choice. May be a bit tricky given weight to lift ratio in this atmosphere, but humans can weigh virtually as little as Great Horned Owls or Golden Eagles with no apparent loss of intellectual capacity. Give them clawed feet and we will see if less weight means less ability at athletic competition.How about two opossible thumbs (Hunter S. didn't think of it first, used to have a rich fantasy life ). Bat hearing with closeable funnels so it don't drive you nuts. Pits to see in infrared like rattlers and pythons. Lateral lines to feel vibrations like advanced fish (may not work as well in air). Third eyelids like cats to run through brush with minimal damage. Sense of smell like bloodhounds that can pick up less than 1ppb in the atmosphere.All of those abilities would have minimal energy cost if the cognitive function to manage each enhanced or additional sense was present.Here are some more at some cost. Claws that come from knuckles (think Wolverine). Total night vision (like an Owl or that Madagascar lemur whose name escapes me now). Stink bomb like a skunk (could use on bullying administrative assistant). Kangaroo legs, Herbivore guts (for grass and fast food). Formaldehyde and acid blast like some beetles.The possibilities are endless. Edited by anglagard, : From what I understand. 1 ppm is an insult to bloodhounds, rather I should be speaking in terms of 1ppb.

A more flexible pelvis in women.

Hi TaqIt could mean the end of starvation for a lot of people; on a personal note, basking in the sun on a beach and automatically nourishing would be great.Now it seems as if us photosynthesizing is not just a pipe-dream.Certain intertidal sea snails basically ‘stole’ the ability to photosynthesize from their food. Now some organization is planning something similar to humans. Can sea snail help humans photosynthesize?

quote:

---

But the surgeons and engineers at Soyman propose that skin grafts of these particularly gaudy nudibranchs on humans will allow them to extract energy from the functioning chloroplast complexes — and, despite threatened PETA interference, they are currently looking for volunteers in sunny locations to test their hypothesis.

---

This article was originally published in 2008; don’t know if it’s been done now. Ready to volunteer?Edited by Pressie, : Changed the date provided to the date of the original source.Edited by Pressie, : No reason given.

Apart from photosyntesizing and wings, I would design humans with:
1. A few more eyes to ensure 360 degree sight.
2. Echolocation to also be able to 'see' in pitch darkness.

How about changing color, or becoming virtually invisible?