Guru George writes:
> A possibility that occurred to me recently was that with advanced
> nanotechnology we may be able to actually morph our bodies in much the
> same way as computers can morph images.
>
> Imagine: A world full of weird and wonderful creatures and superheroes!
>
> Does anyone who knows about the technology think this might be feasible
> in the future?
There's actually a ready made constituency for this one. Check out
alt.fan.furry sometime. The fans of anthropomorphic animals there are
quite keen on the idea of morphing themselves into the body types of
their choice. At least one I know of has gone into biochem/genetics
just for this reason. Nanotech is a recurring theme of discussion
and fan written fiction in the newsgroup. They already have discussions
on the ethics of morphing yourself, and the much more controversial issue
of genetically altering your children before birth to a given not completely
human form.
Given the technology to do this, there would be enthusiastic participation
from some in that group, and a wide variety of forms experimented with.
On the slightly tamer side of things, for those interested in animals and
animal behavior, directly interfacing to the brain of a target animal, and
recording the sensations/behavior/emotions etc, then replaying it into the
mind via a direct interface could be a revolution in understanding animal
behavior. Doing this with humans to create either direct links or just
recording and playing back would open up a lot in behavioral studies
(and make a hell of a lot of people very nervous).
Kyle L. Webb Dept. of Physics + Astronomy
kwebb@astro.phys.unm.edu University of New Mexico