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How would you design a chicken?
- songgao 14y agoI would like chicken to have a programming interface so I could write automated scripts. For example, if an event is sensed that an egg is coming, then walk to my boiler and tweet. By tweet, I mean tweet like a chicken, or if you like, tweet like a chicken and tweet through the Internet.
- stephengillie 14y agoThe internet of animals?
- songgao 14y agoNo, THE INTERNET. I mean post to twitter...
- stephengillie 14y agosimilar to the internet of things...
- Tipzntrix 14y ago"How would you avoid the impeding PETA backlash" is another good question...
- pdog 14y agoI'd be more worried about the impending backlash from God.
- jsymolon 14y agoDon't worry about it - nothing been said so far. http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/photos/12-bizarre-examples-of-genetic-engineering/mad-science http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/photos/12...
- junto 14y agoSimple, you have two versions of the chicken - one optimized for eggs and one for meat. As an extension to the meat chicken I would like to see extra re-generating legs, a bit like how lizards loss and regrow their tails through autotomy. They would come with their own super-oven, so you press a switch and they self-cook in 2 seconds. Pooof!
- Falling3 14y agoI understand the interest in a novel kind of engineering, and this seems to be more of a thought exercise than anything else. I also understand that not everyone shares my views on animals, but this is such an awful exercise. This absurd mechanization of a living creature is just disgusting. Modern factory practices already deny animals of so many of their natural behaviors. This kind of thinking totally lacking in empathy and consequences scares the hell out of me.
- jon-wood 14y agoI'm one of Hubbub's developers (the one who attached lasers), and just wanted to respond to this because I can completely understand the distaste you're feeling. As you seem to realise, this is just an exercise in thinking "what if", I don't think anyone here would actually want to go ahead and make any of this happen, and we're definitely all very much against factory farming. Thats why we do what we do, giving independent butchers who genuinely care about the animals they raise a chance to compete with the big chains.
- jopt 14y agoWhat if the new chicken is hard-coded with a set of natural behaviors that are more conducive to food factory use?
- AngryParsley 14y agoOn the other hand, we could drastically improve the lives of farm animals if we engineered them more. For example, we could give them CIPA[1]. We could make their brains smaller. A vegetable chicken can't suffer. These modifications may sound perverse, but I doubt we're going to stop cooping these creatures up and killing them any time soon. We might as well do our best to reduce the amount of suffering we cause them. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereditary_sensory_and_autonomic_neuropathy#Type_5.2C_Congenital_insensitivity_to_pain_with_partial_anhidrosis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereditary_sensory_and_autonomi...
- Falling3 14y agoYou think factory farms are disturbing now? Just wait until animals cannot feel pain. I'm envisioning far more fights to the death for starters.
- WiseWeasel 14y agoIf it's going to be of any help for world domination, or at least in serving as a good guard chicken, it'll need the personality of a goose, the fangs and venom sacs of a deadly snake and the talons of an eagle. Something will have to be done to make it sound more intimidating as well, so we should add a rattle on its tail. Oh, and unlike a regular chicken, the wings should be functional in order to control the skies. Behold the fully-realized rattle-chicken.
- sdfjkl 14y agoThis prompts some interesting questions. Could you design a brainless chicken or one with just enough brains to eat, breathe and lay eggs? And would that be more or less horrible compared to the way chickens are currently being treated in factories? Where's the line between vat grown meat and brainless chickens?
- shalmanese 14y ago> Could you design a brainless chicken or one with just enough brains to eat, breathe and lay eggs? Yes, it's called a chicken.
- Falling3 14y ago>> Could you design a brainless chicken or one with just enough brains to eat, breathe and lay eggs? >Yes, it's called a chicken. Oh yea, that's right. I forgot that chickens exhibit no social interactions and are incapable of learning. Good thing they also are incapable of pain, distress, and enjoyment of anything.
- pdog 14y agoActually, chickens are pretty intelligent and social creatures[1]. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken#Social_behaviour http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken#Social_behaviour
- finne 14y agoMore accident than design but there was Mike the headless chicken: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken
- scottcanoni 14y agoStart with the egg
- tgb 14y agoStackable, of course: http://mydailycow.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/far_side_cows.jpg?w=500 http://mydailycow.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/far_side_cows....
- dutchbrit 14y agoFor some bizarre reason, this reminds me of the human centipede.
- CookWithMe 14y agoAt least the meat problem is already solved: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/07/beyond_meat_fake_chicken_that_tastes_so_real_it_will_freak_you_out_.html http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/07/...
- CookWithMe 14y agoAs for eggs, for baking they can easily be replaced. It's more difficult if you want to replace scrambled eggs or similar. I have tried the vegg [1], but have not been very impressed. And I just googled and found out that apparently in China there is a food scandal where they produce fake eggs [2]. Obviously they design them for profit and not as a replacement for vegans or even a healthy, cheaper alternative. But it seems that it could be done. [1] http://www.thevegg.com/ http://www.thevegg.com/ [2] http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/06/how-to-make-a-rotten-egg/ http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/06/how-to-make-a-rotten-egg...
- dsr_ 14y agoThere's no point in redesigning the chicken, because we already have quite a few kinds. And yes, they are already optimized through primitive genetic engineering techniques for various characteristics useful to humans: early maturity, large breast size, egg production speed, taste (or lack thereof) and so forth... not all in the same variety, of course. Diversity builds resilience. When the genome development environments go online, I recommend that we open source the chicken and let a million variants cluck. Now, BSD, MPL or GPL?
- alsothings 14y agoObviously they should be cube shaped, to facilitate more efficient shipping.
- itcmcgrath 14y agoIf you ever played the old game HyperBlade, it had it game ads about GE chickens. IIRC, they were boneless and bun shaped.
- anonymfus 14y agoI expected growing meat and eggs from cell cultures.
- arethuza 14y agoSpin the chicken in a centrifuge so that it lives in 2.5G and develops far more muscles: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13318124.900-review-spin-a-chicken-.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13318124.900-review-sp...
- vibragiel 14y agoScrew redesign. Why not turn the chicken into a raptor-like dinosaur? http://www.ted.com/talks/jack_horner_building_a_dinosaur_from_a_chicken.html http://www.ted.com/talks/jack_horner_building_a_dinosaur_fro...
- hayksaakian 14y agoI wonder how long until GM hackers can prototype their new chicken design.
- logn 14y agoI think I saw in Food Inc. that chickens have been bread to have enormous breasts to serve the market demands. Same goes for basically all fruits and vegetables, raised and modified for unnaturally large sizes.
- stephengillie 14y agoFor what purpose are we designing the chicken? If we're designing it as a food animal, I'd maximize the meat area and try to minimize the rest. I'd reduce the amount of body fat naturally carried. If possible, I'd take a page from "Top Secret"[1] and make the bird perform photosynthesis. If we're designing a good prey, I'd make it smaller and give it better wings for flight. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Top-Secret-John-Reynolds-Gardiner/product-reviews/0316303631 http://www.amazon.com/Top-Secret-John-Reynolds-Gardiner/prod...
- alsothings 14y agoIs very low fat necessarily optimal? I think excessively fatty birds are a problem, but depending on use, I suspect a non-zero percentage of fat is desirable. Though I have no idea what the optimal amount would be. But in plenty of food applications, grease is good.
- jon-wood 14y agoIf anything, you'd want a chicken with skin which excretes fat so you can avoid putting butter on it, although that would make it quite a bit more difficult to catch.
- alsothings 14y agoself-buttering chicken makes me drool at my desk. Would that make it a cow-chicken hybrid though (assuming it's butter from cow's milk anyway)