h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The comics character Superman is sometimes described as The Man of Tommorow. He appears very human, but with a number of extra abilities. Perhaps the people of Krypton started out much like us, but used genetic engineering to improve themselves.
I was wondering what kind of things that could be done to a normal human, to try and turn them into something akin to Superman. I wanted to hear what suggestions you researchers had. Likely something such as flight is just out of the question. However, what about something like superstrength? Would it be possible to increase the density of the muscle fibers, and so make a human being stronger than they normally would with that size of muscles? How about invulnerability, could giving us cell walls similar to a plant make us harder, or would we just lose all our mobility? Suggestions?

Very rapid healing would be achievable, I think.

>> How about invulnerability, could giving us cell walls similar to a plant make us harder, or would we just lose all our mobility?

I think as you suggest this would be very hard because how would we predict the side effects? There is a reason that life evolves over a long period of time

Well I wasn't looking for a safe way to do it. No guts, no glory.

Kind of like a disabled Superman then?

I'm not totally sure that flight would be out of the question. Insects figured out how to fly (well, some of them anyway). Among fish there is something called a "flying fish." Among amphibians, there may be frogs that have flaps of skin to help them hang-glide for a ways. "Flying squirrels" also do this. Some of the dinosaurs developed winglike appendages. Birds, of course, are mostly able to fly. Among rodents, bats are capable of flight.

Practically every major group of organisms has eventually produced species that can fly or at least soar. Primates haven't done it yet, but can we say for sure that evolution won't ever provide for flight?
Anyway, I think that man has the best chance. Oh, I doubt that we will fly in the way that Superman flies. Flying humans will need to weigh less than most humans do now, and they'll need super strong arm or wing muscles.

I was thinking specifically the way Superman flies. Trying to make a human that flies in the same way as birds, would mean changing way too many things, and probably wouldn't be worth it.

"I was thinking specifically the way Superman flies. Trying to make a human that flies in the same way as birds, would mean changing way too many things, and probably wouldn't be worth it."[Xanatic]

I see your point. The thing is, Superman is a fantasy. If humans ever fly, they will have to do it in ways that somehow resemble what other flying organisms do. Probably not worth it? Well, not for you and me (I'm happy not having to make my arms/wings sore from flying too much), but someday there might be humans who think it's worth a try. There are some clever minds out there that might crack the code.

We already know how to shit in out own nest, so that's a start

Primates evolving to fly... wouldn't that have had to have happened further back in our evolution? Once a species goes down a certain branch isn't it it too late to evolve in certain ways? eg the way we breathe now probably makes it impossible to evolve gills and the ability to breath under water.

It's about the trade off too, when it comes to evolution. Primates would really have very little to gain by being able to fly, and a lot of things to lose by developing hollow bones, smaller brains and all the other stuff required.

Thanks for the good points, Kea and Xanatic.

The thing about evolution is that it doesn't really stop. if you remove large predators from a space, whatever is left will tend, over a long period of time, to evolve to fill that niche. There was a sci-fi book called "Lost in real time" that posited what the world would look like 50 milliion years from, long after humans had vanished. Monkeys had developed special skills in fishing. Rabbits had grown larger and more predative.

Hollow bones? Smaller brains? Are we somehow implying that size of brain matters all that much? Well, it matters somewhat, but a lot of what's in our brains seems to be filler. You could remove the filler, and the brain would be much smaller but still pretty smart.

It's the weight of the brain that would be problematic when it comes to flying. Though I doubt any of a human's brain is filler.

The character of Superman was created in the
late Deepression era by a Canadian Jew which
is only significant because the concept of a super
-man and a super-race was at that same time
memetically on the books in the Third Reich.

~jwf~

That didn't really involve superpowers though. Besides, Superman was a rip-off from earlier characters.

>>Once a species goes down a certain branch isn't it it too late to evolve in certain ways?

I don't think so. There are plenty of examples of animals evolving in one direction, then changing and going back again. Mammals, for example, evolved to come out of the sea, and then some of them went back in to become whales.

Usually, for something like this to happen, though, there would have to be some sort of natural disaster or climatic change which opened up a new ecological niche. For example, if something happened which wiped out all the birds, then some other type of animal would evolve into a flying form to do what birds now do.

Perhaps technical advances should be considered in addition to evolutionary changes. Would a cyborg with advanced technology fit the bill?

I always look at advanced technology as portrayed in film and print as missing two things- a plausible power source and a reasonable scientifically explained way to change mass.

>> Besides, Superman was a rip-off from earlier characters. <<

Indeed, the Gods of the classic Greek and Roman era
were supra-human. These were usually not at all heroic
or serving human interests.

Interestingly, the Jewish mythology includes the Golem,
an irresistible and indestructible being of stone which
is known from about the late Middle Ages. An engine of
Vengeance and Justice.


~jwf~

Using cybernetic tech can help us do interesting things. I was more interested in the biological methods though.

jwf: I meant a rip-off of characters such as Hugo Danner.

>>
I don't think so. There are plenty of examples of animals evolving in one direction, then changing and going back again. Mammals, for example, evolved to come out of the sea, and then some of them went back in to become whales.
<<

That wasn't really what I mean Gnomon. I was meaning more mammals evolving into fish (lungs to gills). Whales are still mammals and so not that different from land mammals in terms of anatomy. I can see how lower order animals could evolve gills, but not higher order ones evolving gills once they already had lungs. I could be wrong though. Maybe it's theoretically possible given enough time and as you say, the right niche conditions, but do we have any examples from our history so far?

I reckon a depleted Uranium bullet would call time on superman. One could also add in self-steering technology as per the following: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16810107 and an exoskeleton super suit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7351399.stm