Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Creating a Rat Thing

I was intrigued by the implications that the Rat Thing created. A machine with biological components? In a way it is a feat of genius. In another way, it's a cruel, damaging proposition.

Creating a machine with biological components brings up a few unanswered questions as to its origin and function. First of all, where do these organs come from? It's apparent that the Rat Things have organic components derived from canines of sorts. Have these organs been ripped out of living animals to empower these new mechanical creations? If so, that certainly says something about the ethics and animal rights of the time. Taking organs from a recently deceased older dog probably wouldn't work because the organs would have been already "worn out" in a sense. If the organs didn't come from a living animal, where else could they have come from?

Perhaps it is possible that they could clone organs for the Rat Things. Better yet, what if they could simply grow organs? It'd be efficient, controlled, and there would always be spare components on hand for when pre-existing rat things take injuries/damage. This still doesn't answer the issues of ethics though, which we argue about even today. If this still isn't the case, then where do these organs magically appear from?!

The next issue is getting the biological components to function with the technological ones. This is an entirely new ballgame. You can't just put a heart in a machine and expect it to beat. There has to be some sort of method of combining the mechanics of the Rat Thing with the organs it has been set up to function with. What method this is, I don't know at this point...

I suppose the Rat Thing could be considered an actual possible creation of the future, but the ethics behind its design would slow down its creation.

1 comment:

Jamie said...

The ethics of using actual stray dogs as the biological bases for the rat things is a good point. But an equally good point is brought up in answer to YT's same argument: Is the life of a rat thing all that bad. When they aren't protecting their territory(something dogs do naturally and are used for today) they are hanging out in their own private yard. Anytime they want the can pick up on a game of frisbee or snag a steak off of a tree. When was the last time anyone fed their pet their own personal steak. I honsetly dont think that the lives of the rat things are all that bad and wanting. They eat better than most dogs, can play wheneverthey want and have the run of their territory without out having to worry about animal control.