Another sci-fi 'what if'?

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Thanks Puddingmouse. I have something that I tend to think about off an on that goes along the sci-fi lines but more along the line of a fundamental evolutionary shift.

Here's my question. Imagine if Species or The Thing 1976 Antarctica came true, not in a movie horror sense but in practical reality. People were getting infected by something that gave their minds the ability to reshape their flesh, nervous systems, bone structure, etc. as they saw fit - providing they'd had a heck of a big meal to fund that sort of caloric super-spending.

What do you think would happen? Immediately? Ten years down the road? 100? 1000?


I have my own somewhate educated guesses but I'm curious on what comes to your minds.

Well, at first a lot of people would use this for extreme body modification. Then an explosion of social tension would occur as purists who opposed the extreme body modification and modifiers who embraced it came into conflict. This social tension has a high probability of being violent, given that the belief structure of society was challenged very rapidly by the condition. Finally, the modifiers will win to some extent, with the more radical members suppressed. Rather, these body modifications will be allowed in a manner that isn't too "taboo" for the new societal structure, and remain there.

The next question though is if the "infection" were also of a sort that gave practical benefits. Such as nervous improvements causing increases in intelligence, or flesh alterations allowing for higher levels of strength. If so, then we would have social tension, however, the modifiers will be a stronger side. Society will tend towards the side with benefits, and those opposing it will be defeated. It still will have social taboos applied to it, but the taboos will take a much more business-oriented focus. I would bet that we would side with the world of Gattaca rather than against it if given the option.

(Note: I assumed rapid and unstopped spread, where many to most people were infected rapidly. A lot of my perspective was shaped by the idea of transhumanism)

It'd depend on the nature of it. My first guess would be that it something like that would be isolated, quarantined, and weaponized by the military as soon as possible. It'd suck to be the civvy or civvies who got it. It'd mean the end of your life either literally or in the sense of being turned into a lab rat or personal pet of the military.

But that would also depend on the entire nature of how it happens. If it's viral, they may just decide to wipe out the population with it and try to isolate the virus or whatever that'd be causing it because an entire population with such a sudden caloric demand would quickly ravage the world's food supply (assuming the demand is a fairly extreme increase in caloric need). Even so, they'd probably still try to get samples and experiment with it under lab conditions so as to maybe reap benefits from it before annihilating it in the general population.

It'd also depend on what it'd do to the people as far as psychological function goes.

Actually, I estimate this to be possible about a hundred years from now.
I think it will be a culty thing, an article of fashion.

People will first use it to eliminate shortcoming and make themselves bigger, better, stronger. But not many will radically deviate from the baseline.
Its possible that people will also use body mods to allow them to explore extreme conditions on Earth and elsewhere in space.

If you want to learn about such a possible future the site Orionsarm would be a nice place to start.

You might look into Greg Bear's novel "Blood Music" for further more extravagant concepts.

The first to be infected will all be quarantined, researched and then destroyed. After that, the infection would only exist in a lab.

I think it would be patented and only the rich will be able to afford it, at first. Rich people will use it like plastic surgery is used now; only, the results will actually make them 'better' and not just weird looking and plastic. This will further stratify the class divisions in society. Eventually, there would be a subculture amongst the rich of rejecting the 'perfect' modification and favouring more weird and extreme styles. Some people will turn themselves into Pokemon, or dragons, or Egyptian gods.

The poor will see the rich as freaky and sick, until they get jealous of not looking like a Pokemon (which will become a desired status symbol). Eventually, a rogue group would get hold of the technology and pirate it, making it cheap. This will result in everyone, except those in really developing countries, and a few countercultural 'anti-mod' types, looking like Charmander, or something. In the developed world, people will do it just to fit in. It would probably become a standard birthday present to give to someone when they come of age. You know, you get to become Sonic the Hedgehog for your bar mitzvah or your Holy Communion.

I read a novella lately, by James Patrick Kelly, called Mr Boy, which was along these lines.

All good and interesting answers.

This was my own best guess:

Due to caloric expense for that sort of mutation, even if the mind can grasp complete control of it, is extremely expensive. What would happen at first - people would just notice that they're feeling better. Strangely a lot of diseases/disabilities/etc. would be disappearing, people would slowly become better looking or stranger depending on what they saw in the mirror every morning. Of course everyone would find it eerie - ie. what's going on and what's the price tag?

The way it might likely manifest at first is in extreme cases of trauma. A baby is falling out a window and a father or mother reaches out to grab it - perhaps seven or eight feet of reach. Or, a woman is being accosted, rape is attempted, and the police find her rocking and sobbing in the corner - not quite as so much over what almost happened to her as the realization that she just stabbed the guy to death with her sternum.

As these things started happening, as people got an understanding - I'm not sure what would happen, as a lot of posters said likely a great deal of disagreement on what to do with the ability. I really doubt that quarantines would happen just because, unlike the movies, we don't have infinite calories to spend - just like a person with OCD or fear impulse control likely wouldn't have it lashing out with every intrusive thought - it would take determined effort and lots of it. I would imagine we might perhaps start just metabolizing like crazy, enlarging our brains, trying to keep our pituitaries in check.

As for if human merger started becoming an issue - I'm sure they'd have to deal with it ethically. Some would wish to, some would wish not to.

In the end game though, if merger was world consuming it would end up in - rather than carnivorous pools of eyes, tentacles, and mouths you'd have the merged society perhaps creating it own neural likeness of heaven with their collective imaginations on the inside and, rather than being Zerg-like (yes, you know), they'd probably try to attain photosynthesis, actually become more plant like - ie. efficiency would rule in the end. What could happen tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years after that - something a bit like Avatar, where the planet is living, everything is centerally connected, and the central brain of course would be the merged society who largely stays dormant, in their own world, while the plants that comprise the outer shell would provide the energy that the colony needs to survive. You'd likely have natural acqueducts or perhaps something like wooden veins everywhere channeling waste or fresh water, salt water metabolized to make freshwater, urea used as pesticide, etc. etc.

Immedietly I'd say military applications. This is supersoldier stuff.
Further than that, and during it, people would swiftly evolve, better brains, stronger bodies. It would have huge social implications.

Even before that containment would determine a lot of this. How does it infect? blood transmission, or like a cold, a parasite (etc)?
Also does this render people immortal in regard to ageing? Can people just "morph" younger when they get old?
Can they now reproduce asexually? Just make more or less of themselves like goo?
Brain tissue modification would change the social intstincs of people altogether, probably eliminate them completely in favour of simply inferring the best solution for any scenario, being far easier with no limitation on brain tissue makeup. I'd imagine a kind of mental arms race, then it's singularity stuff.

Lol, I left these things open-ended for a reason.

It seems like those who would think that it would be quarantined or used for military purposes believe that it would be something radical-changing that would show up quickly. Those who think it would be spread world wide due to slow build-up or latency of effect would figure that it would have certain limits restraining it at the beginning.

It could be anything though - infection, perhaps one person's evolutionary leap that leads their cells to invade the tissues of anything it touches, spreading like a cold but having no symptoms aside from better health (no one sees a doctor for that!), probably as communicable as a cold if its that potent but also perhaps slow to go to work.

If it was the kind of thing that attacked the nervous system or reduced us to goo - yes, it would be quarantined and perhaps weaponized. If it were the kind of thing that crept over continents with few incidents, it'd be far too late - the world would have already changed as we knew it and we'd have no idea aside from perhaps a handful of people who'd shot someone down in anger with bone projectiles, weaponized themselves while under attack, or survived something catastrophic - if they thought it was just them though they'd be terrified to speak up on the topic for what might happen to them.