This is not not a dog

…and why do we care?

Towel art?

So it is a dog?

Athelas, neither dividing line is a line. Genetic engineering is, in fact, genetic engineering– the planned manipulation of genes. Breeding takes longer, but is no less dramatic in effect.

Animals are different from humans? (That just tells us you don’t belong to PETA.) If we use pig parts to repair humans (skin, joints, and heart valves) then are they, following Orwell, more likely to be researched and preserved perhaps at the expense of other species?

Cows and horses are eight and six times larger than they were 3,000 years ago. Turkeys and chickens are massively different from what they were 70 years ago.

We’re only getting faster and more systematic at our engineering efforts. There is no other difference.

Cool. I wonder how crazily we could breed humans. Could we double our size? Well, many fat people manage that already, but I mean height, not rotundity. Pelts would be cool. Or flippered feet for swimming.

Tiny people are obviously doable since they already exist. I wonder if a 15 ft human would be possible.

Given a human a dog’s sense of smell would be cool. That seems plausible but probably not with breeding alone – we’d need direct genetic engineering.

Nor is it a can opener

there are always trade-offs with genetic mutations and engineering. There have been extremely small and large people and they typically have serious health problems. Many dogs and cats that are bred to extremes (like pugs and persians) end up with health issues as well, like respiratory problems. Even engineering for intelligence may not have only positive effects but some negative ones as well that we don’t foresee. It may be that common sense or some social skills will suffer in the balance or other physical ailments may accompany these adaptations. Many think it is alright to experiment like this with animals but not with humans, though it seems like it’s getting close to inevitable given where science is going. It just bothers me that as a society we don’t think ahead and make decisions about these things BEFORE they happen… laws are only made AFTER something questionable or tragic happens seldom, if ever, in time to prevent it. And often once the cat’s out of the bag, so to speak, it is difficult, if not impossible to put it back in!

It takes a Chinese to recognize a Chinese. It is a Chinese Shar Pei.

Okay, with the title totally wrong what is that thing then?

the name is shar-pei