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My least favorite furry cliches
13 years ago
One of the things I love about the furry fandom is the colorful diversity and wackiness. Among us, no idea is too wild to be worth exploring, and that often leads to fascinating conclusions. Which makes it all the more jarring when a furry story falls back on certain overused cliches that don't stand up to scrutiny on top of that.
What is it with people thinking genetically engineered hybrids are a possibility, never mind a good idea? Should someone attempt that in real life, the ethical implications would be staggering. Stem cell research is already controversial. But creating entire new species? Worse, with the express purpose of making slaves and/or soldiers? What would stop a society that accepts such a thing from experimenting on you? Do you suppose they'd bother to ask for consent?
Not much better is the concept of animal uplift. First, animals that have a large enough brainpan already display self-awareness and other humanlike traits. They don't need any more intelligence, they need to have their rights recognized. But what can you expect from humans when not so long ago they deemed their own brethren sub-human based on outward appearance?
Moreover, if we figured out how to make animals smarter, we could also make humans smarter, thus helping countless people with disabilities on the one hand, and creating transhumans on the other hand. Who would waste time doing it to animals then? Not to mention the moral issues would be again tremendous. Flowers for Algernon, anyone?
At least in transformation fiction, it's usually nobody's fault; things just happen. But even so, the consequences would be much more serious than usually depicted. Imagine I spontaneously turned into my fursona. Beyond the obvious body horror issues (see the first story arc in Skin Deep for a good treatment), I'd better be able to hide it perfectly, or else some nice folks in biohazard suits would soon show up in a black van to take me away. And do you suppose I could think, much less talk, without technological or magical assistance? Not with a housecat's brain and throat, I assure you. Then, even if my dewclaws were opposable, I'd still be stuck in a world designed for humans. No typing for me!
Look, I love being a furry. But I also like being somewhat realistic about it. Most fantasies are better off in, well, fantasy land. By all means, use your imagination. Just use it properly.
This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
What is it with people thinking genetically engineered hybrids are a possibility, never mind a good idea? Should someone attempt that in real life, the ethical implications would be staggering. Stem cell research is already controversial. But creating entire new species? Worse, with the express purpose of making slaves and/or soldiers? What would stop a society that accepts such a thing from experimenting on you? Do you suppose they'd bother to ask for consent?
Not much better is the concept of animal uplift. First, animals that have a large enough brainpan already display self-awareness and other humanlike traits. They don't need any more intelligence, they need to have their rights recognized. But what can you expect from humans when not so long ago they deemed their own brethren sub-human based on outward appearance?
Moreover, if we figured out how to make animals smarter, we could also make humans smarter, thus helping countless people with disabilities on the one hand, and creating transhumans on the other hand. Who would waste time doing it to animals then? Not to mention the moral issues would be again tremendous. Flowers for Algernon, anyone?
At least in transformation fiction, it's usually nobody's fault; things just happen. But even so, the consequences would be much more serious than usually depicted. Imagine I spontaneously turned into my fursona. Beyond the obvious body horror issues (see the first story arc in Skin Deep for a good treatment), I'd better be able to hide it perfectly, or else some nice folks in biohazard suits would soon show up in a black van to take me away. And do you suppose I could think, much less talk, without technological or magical assistance? Not with a housecat's brain and throat, I assure you. Then, even if my dewclaws were opposable, I'd still be stuck in a world designed for humans. No typing for me!
Look, I love being a furry. But I also like being somewhat realistic about it. Most fantasies are better off in, well, fantasy land. By all means, use your imagination. Just use it properly.
This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
I wanted to emphasis that I am not picking on you about this. But if you see cliches then I'm in need of advice and help here. As you know from previous discussions one of the thing I do not enjoy is stupid ideas. In the genre there is two areas; Sci-fi which I consider the 'hollywood' of the genre where it seems that it's mostly 'fi' and science doesn't even make it to the door. While 'science fiction' is the literature that I read as a child. Asimov, Clarke, Smith, Heinlein, Wells, and the other greats.
Science fiction is where I wish my writings to be in. Hence I would love to have advice Your one of the few who I feel can actually do just that. But if you know of others, please share this account with them, or even my e-mail address; kantuck1@gmail.com.
Come to think of it, Robocop gives a good idea of how a transformation would unfold in real life.