Okay Sci-Fi Fans ... Ready to Burn some Brain Cells?

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC

Battlestar Galactica would have us believe humans and the humanoid cylons can mate and procreate together.

If that is possible, are these "cylons" still "machines?" Or, have they evolved into something else? A machine is built or constructed with science. A human is born of a union of two humans. Isn't the idea of even a humanoid cylon mating with a human to procreate really stretching reality when humans can only procreate with humans from all we know?

Your thoughts?
 
2004 new or 1978 classic Battle Star Galactica?

Just on general principles, "No" for the '78 version, and... IDKWTH is going on with the '04 version.

According to the brief description here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_Six_(Battlestar_Galactica), there's Six and Five having a Cylon baby, but things go awry in the pregnancy and...

Always, at best, a union of divergent species is simply a hybrid.
Mules are the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. No big whup.
We have GMO crops all over the planet and fun oddities like GloFish due to hybridization and tinkering around with genes.

I believe your fundamental question is a two part question along the lines of 1) when is a machine no longer a machine, and 2) can a molecular machine hybridize with a classically recognized "living" organism?

My answers to those would be 1) I haven't the slightest idea where Hoyle would rule on that, and 2) eventually, but probably not anytime in the next few centuries (assuming we exist that long in a greater than hunter-gatherer capacity).
 
The 2004 version is what I meant to clarify. My whoops!

I'm thinking if something is still a machine, it has to be built or construction by artificial means in a labratory or factory.

If it comes to a point where it can have a union and child with a human being, it can no longer be classified as a machine, but rather a form of life that may be artificially created such as a genetically engineered hybrid with nanotechnology and quantum computers to be something entirely new to have the properties of a living person and a machine. Ever see the movie Aeon Flux? I'm talking about the live action movie. In the story, this possible future of planet Earth developed bio-machines that are more living than machine with genetic engineering and, undoubtedly, some other unknown branches of science.

I agree, such bio-machines are nowhere's near our forseeable future.

So, is it possible for machines and humans to have a hybrid child?

My personal feeling is no.

What do the rest of you think?
 
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At it's fundamental level breeding is nothing more than a transfer of genetic material from one person to another, followed by combining that material to produce a new offspring. DNA is pretty well understood, and not particularly complex, and we're already getting to the point where small, inexpensive devices can sequence simple DNA in a few minutes or hours. I'm guessing we're less than a decade from the equivalent of an iphone being able to sequence the full human genome in less than an hour. Extrapolate that to the ability to modify, combine, and construct DNA sequences and I doubt we're too far off from having machines capable of constructing custom genetic material. Not a big leap to go from machines that can construct genetic material to impregnating a human with that genetic material... so yeah, I think it's entirely plausible, and I'd wager on it being likely to come to pass sometime in the next decade.
 
ItDonnedOnMe said:
Not a big leap to go from machines that can construct genetic material to impregnating a human with that genetic material... so yeah, I think it's entirely plausible, and I'd wager on it being likely to come to pass sometime in the next decade.
Click to expand...
A machine regurgitating a specific sequence of amino acids in "proper order" is one thing.
When does a machine determine it's own reproductive procedure?
And what would be the benefit from having that procedure be able to integrate with human reproduction?

If it's indistinguishable enough to integrate then it's just the same.
If it's different enough to be different then it won't, unless...

The machine can develop a poly-reproductive process, either selective or random, in which case it may not even be limited to human integration (again, this creates a hybrid, and we probably ought to avoid considering alleles and recessive traits).

If cans of blue and red paint are mixed together can they be separated back into two distinct cans of blue and red paint?

This isn't anywhere near the same as interracial reproduction.
In principle, at it's simplest, it's humans combined chimpanzees.
Fully realized, it's well beyond humans combined with any other mammal or humans combined with any reptile/bird/fish/insect/tree/grass.
It's a living thing with amino acids combined with... what?
A rock?
A soup of hydrocarbons with silicon interface?
And this will generate a sustainable quasi-life form?
And this will be remotely voluntary?
"I choose to have my offspring be... the silver surfer"?

silver_kid_small.jpg


I think that will take longer than a decade or two.
I easily concede bionic dependence by the end of this century, but that's not true human+machine reproduction.
 
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Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
A "Demon Seed" union?
Click to expand...
Yeah, well...
This is where science fiction smashes into science fact.

The plausibility of some super computer reproducing with a human has about equal plausibility of a human reproducing with a house cat "just because we're smarter" hocus pocus.
Yeah, that's a gap that only a generous coating of suspended disbelief covers.



Anyone here have the slightest idea how to get these two to play nice?

DNA_H_bonds.jpg
+
images
= ???​
 
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Still gotta bridge that mechanical-biological gap.

How can that be done while retaining any hallmark of being mechanical?
Once a entity becomes so alike as another as to be able to phase with it does it honestly retain anything of what it was?

It's like modulating one frequency to match another.
Well... screwit. Once two waves match then they match!
You can't match a X frequency wave with a Y frequency wave unless the X is literally turned into a Y.
Well, then it's no longer an X or quasi-X anymore, now is it?
D'ja!
 
Wow, talk about a typo - I actually don't think there's any chance of it happening in the next decade! I actually meant to say century...

But it's true there's different issues at play here. The mechanical ability to construct genetic material that would be compatible with human reproduction is one thing - that's basically just genetic engineering, and I think we're pretty well on our way towards that becoming a reality in this century. Still, the mechanism behind that is driven by humans.

Then there's the question of machines that are actually self-aware, which would need to be a precursor to a machine being able to create it's own genetic material designed to be used in reproduction with humans. On this front there's plenty of theory but until we actually start seeing emergent machine intelligence it's not something that's too predictable.

And then there's the question of what it would mean anyway. If a machine constructed genetic material compatible with humans and then used it to reproduce, the offspring would essentially be human, not machine. But it would contain genetic material that came from a machine, so... who knows.
 
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