What trans-human modifications would you make?

[farmerben]

What modifications would you make to the human body to thrive better off Earth?  Why?  Where? How difficult is it to make the modification?

 

I'm going to pick low hanging fruit.  I will start with genes that are known to exist in our ancestors, other primates, or throughout the mammals.

  

 

1.  Feet with thumbs.  Why: astronaut Chris Hatfield says the bottoms of his feet were like bathtub skin, and the top of his feet were callused from holding onto loops.  

Human feet, legs, and pelvis evolved for millions of years when the average human had to be as good a long distance runner as the athletes of today.  Primates with exceptionally long thin feet have speed and endurance of our average senior citizens today.  Our technology has reduced the need for good legs, and the female pelvis will be happier for it as well. 

2. Potbelly.  Why:  lengthening the small intestine makes digestion vastly more efficient.  Fat would help skintight spacesuits fit better and protect the testes.  If I'm giving up speed and endurance on Earth anyway, it fits with first pick.  

3.  Thick skin.  I'm not sure which genes exactly but there are many mammals with extra thick sections of skin.  That helps with radiation shielding and vacuum.  We can lose some of the human cooling capabilities along with the other things being sacrificed, because this capability is overdeveloped in humans.  Most mammals do not sweat as well as we do, they just breathe faster.  Perhaps we can figure out what makes callouses on our palms and feet, and be able to rub it onto the rest of our skin.  So that a couple millimeters of dead skin covers our living skin.  

4.  Adapt to breathe different atmosphere.  This is more difficult.  We can find organisms that do this, but not much specific to mammals.  However the goal is simply a direction, so it is possible.  Going to lower pressure is sort of straightforward.  Tolerance for higher CO2 is not out of the question.

5. Cyber upgrades.  This is a whole different category because cyber upgrades are reversible, while genetic changes are permanent.  So if we want to see ultra-violet light we just get the app for that, and when we don't use it, it is not running.  

I'm actually tall and thin and I walk a lot, but in space I would way prefer a body with four hands.

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by farmerben

[Wjolcz]

Seeing UV the way birds do would be neat, I think. Also some sort brain-computer interface so I can launch Duolingo and learn Chinese whenever I want without taking my eyes off the road.

Edited July 25, 2019 by Wjolcz

[StrandedonEarth]

Enzymes to handle worlds with cyanide-laced atmospheres. And gills and webbed feet and hands for waterworlds 

[Nuke]

the (biological) hardware needed for a complete neural backup. 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Nuke

[kerbiloid]

USB port

[Nightside]

18 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

USB port

USB Tail

[tater]

Dolphinoplasty.

[magnemoe]

39 minutes ago, Nightside said:

USB Tail

Cover your usb ports
A tail would be useful in it self, using it as an interface would be an bonus. 

 

[kerbiloid]

Membrane wings, to fly in low-G and zero-G.

[Scotius]

Rats can literally smell ionising radiation. That would be useful for the crew in case of reactor leak.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0031938466900588

[Guest]

put brain in robot

[DDE]

1 hour ago, Dale Christopher said:

put brain in robot

Why just one robot? What’s our budget anyway?

 

[Guest]

Spoiler

12 minutes ago, DDE said:

Why just one robot? What’s our budget anyway?

 

If they are self replicating robots, you only really need to afford one >_< (the rest r free!)

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Guest

[ARS]

The ability to upload our mind as cybernetic being, and the ability to upload AI on empty biological body so they can live as human

If there's any other thing, turn this earth into planet-sized supercomputer where all humans live as uploaded cybernetic being (this start to looks like hive mind)

[Guest]

1 hour ago, ARS said:

The ability to upload our mind as cybernetic being, and the ability to upload AI on empty biological body so they can live as human

If there's any other thing, turn this earth into planet-sized supercomputer where all humans live as uploaded cybernetic being (this start to looks like hive mind)

What process do you plan on using to upload people’s minds into the computer?

[magnemoe]

14 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Enzymes to handle worlds with cyanide-laced atmospheres. And gills and webbed feet and hands for waterworlds 

Gills don't works well for humans as we need far more oxygen than we can extract from water with gills, you would need something far larger, an flipper like an mermaid tail who double duty as gill might work as long as you keep moving 
Fish is cold blooded and has small brains so they don't need that much oxygen. 
The gill blood will be cold as its in direct contact with sea water so you need an serious heat exchange some other way to transport oxygen into main blood stream but this is an minor technical detail
Now add how dolphins store oxygen who should be trivial and you have an underwater species.

[ARS]

2 hours ago, Dale Christopher said:

What process do you plan on using to upload people’s minds into the computer?

Neural implant? Some kind of high end VR device like NERVGEAR that transfer your consciousness into cyberworld and keep it there forever? Once the system  finished scanning the brain, you end up with a file that you run in a physics simulator, and presto, you have a computer that remembers being a human. If you do it carefully enough, the original brain won't even notice it happening (at least on theory)

This computer has a number of advantages over regular  human. The simulation can be run many thousands of times faster than objective speed, if you've got enough computing power. It can be backed up with trivial ease. You can run multiple copies at the same time, and have them do different things, make exotic personality composites, and tinker around with the inner workings of the brain in ways that are either difficult or impossible to do with a meat brain. Additionally, there's the fact that it's impossible to kill as long as its data is backed up somewhere and there exists a computer on which to run it - you can just restart the simulation wherever you left off and the mind won't even recognize it.

Critics of the concept are quick to point out that it presupposes an understanding of neurology (not just human neurology, but even the neurology of a common insect) far,far beyond what currently exists; and that without that knowledge, even the most powerful computer cannot do this. Proponents of the idea assure us that this knowledge is coming. Proponents who hope to live to see and actually benefit from it assure us that it's coming really really soon

As with The Singularity, the idea of brain uploading has inevitably taken on a quasi-religious aspect for many, since it does promise immortality of a sort (as long as your backups and the hardware to run them on are safe), and even transcendence of the body. The advantages bestowed by brain uploading are a bit overwhelming if you're think about it. However, despite it's theoretical immortality, there's still questions:

1. What is the underlying mechanism of the upload? Is the computer simulating every atom in every neuron, or is the upload applying memories and personality characteristics to a default template? This one is still unanswered

2. Is uploading destructive? Depending on which process you use, it may be possible to do it nondestructively, but many deem it convenient to have it destroy the original, to avoid the confusion of having two copies of the same people running around. The easiest, and currently the only vaguely practical process would be to take the brain down to liquid nitrogen temps, then image it with a scanning probe microscope. Except that a SPM has to get the probe within nanometers of the surface it's scanning, so after you scan a layer of brain, you scrape it off with a diamond microtome and scan the next layer down. You end up with a map of the locations of each atom in the brain, and a pile of rapidly defrosting brain slices on the operating room floor. This is also the most destructive brain uploading process imaginable that doesn't involve TNT.

3. Can you augment intelligence? Or does the brain's pattern need to be copied exactly to still function like a mind, leaving no room for radical enhancements?

4. Can the upload be copied? If the cybernetic entity can be copied, does that constituted as cloning?

It's still interesting concept though

There's a project called The Blue Brain Project. They've claimed to have simulated a rat's neocortical column and expect to be able to simulate the entire human brain by sometime in 2020, depending on which expert you ask. In practice, those who actually study brain development generally believe that it's pointless to predict such a thing, since our understanding of the brain's structure is not complete enough to create an AI.

Edited July 26, 2019 by ARS

[StrandedonEarth]

1 hour ago, magnemoe said:

The gill blood will be cold as its in direct contact with sea water so you need an serious heat exchange 

Ducks have a heat exchange network of intertwined arteries and veins leading to their legs, such that the cold blood from the feet is warmed before returning to the main body, sending cooler blood to the feet so not as much heat is lost. Same could be used for human gill membranes 

[magnemoe]

3 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Ducks have a heat exchange network of intertwined arteries and veins leading to their legs, such that the cold blood from the feet is warmed before returning to the main body, sending cooler blood to the feet so not as much heat is lost. Same could be used for human gill membranes 

Know about that one, poor ducks always has cold feet and one option was heat exchanger. 

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, magnemoe said:

cold blooded and has small brains

No problem! A lot of.

***

A skin bag like the kangaroo has. Looks practical.

Upd.: with a smartphone section.

Edited July 26, 2019 by kerbiloid

[razark]

None at all.

[magnemoe]

25 minutes ago, razark said:

None at all.

None? Humans lacks an high number of critical updates, all sort of things from the back who is simply an jury rigging who kind of worked to all sort of body chemistry issues like diabetes and allergy and other stupid defects who just work well enough. 
Aging is another obvious issue who is probably harder to solve perfectly. 
None of this changes your look except you don't get fat or get sunburns and don't get old. 
On the other hand if aging is solved you are probably another species and pointed ears is kind of traditional

grabs tail, and yes lots of the stuff here would specialize you to much, we are generalists and we should stay so. 
However we will become multiple species down the line, hope it works better than last time. 
Better uplift some animals so we get an perspective. 
Uplifting raccoons would be nice they would love to be able to pick locks  

[kerbiloid]

Solve the problem of the mind transfer, and grow bodies. Then neither aging, nor illnesses are important.

12 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Better uplift some animals

And get Kilrathi as a result.

Edited July 26, 2019 by kerbiloid

[razark]

8 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Humans lacks an high number of critical updates

We lack high speed, protective skin, brute strength, sharp claws, and long fangs.  Yet we are the creatures that have bent this world to our will.  The other animals on this planet exist because we find them useful, cute, or just because we can't be bothered to eliminate them.  We have reached the point where we are reintroducing predators we once feared into areas where we once strived to eliminate them.  We've turned various grasses into mutant seed-bearing plants for our food source.  We found the least poisonous strains of poisonous plants and turned them into tasty fruits.  We made tools by banging rocks together.  We took a terrifying, destructive force of nature and now keep pet fires in our homes, to turn on and off at our whim.  We threw rocks into really hot fires until we found out how to make the very earth bleed useful metals.

We are humans.  We'll do just fine.

[kerbiloid]

33 minutes ago, razark said:

We lack high speed, protective skin, brute strength, sharp claws, and long fangs.  Yet we are the creatures that have bent this world to our will.  The other animals on this planet exist because we find them useful, cute, or just because we can't be bothered to eliminate them.  We have reached the point where we are reintroducing predators we once feared into areas where we once strived to eliminate them.  We've turned various grasses into mutant seed-bearing plants for our food source.  We found the least poisonous strains of poisonous plants and turned them into tasty fruits.  We made tools by banging rocks together.  We took a terrifying, destructive force of nature and now keep pet fires in our homes, to turn on and off at our whim.  We threw rocks into really hot fires until we found out how to make the very earth bleed useful metals.

We are humans.  We'll do just fine.

This.

This happens when you haven't eaten the proper ape in its time.