The Next 50 years: the rise of the X-Men

Written By: Alex McManus on July 6, 2006 9 Comments

Welcome back.

Within the next fifty years we’ll be able to “swap minds” across species and experience what animals feel, according to Marc Hauser, cognitive neuroscientist and professor in the department of Psychology and the Program in neurosciences at Harvard.

He offers two current oddities. A chicken with a shred of quail brain acts like a quail but crows like a chicken. A man with Parkinson’s disease, receives a piece of pig brain, rises from his wheel chair and is soon playing golf. Today, we can swap brain tissue across species.

Here’s the question: when will the elderly man start to act like a pig? surely, little changes of this sort can also bring about such unexpected consequences.

Think abou this: One day soon, we will be able to ingraft animal powers (i.e. the smelling prowess of a dog) into the human makeup. The X-Men are right around the corner.

What do you think?

see you in the mystic…

Alex

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9 Responses to “The Next 50 years: the rise of the X-Men”

dean says on: 6 July 2006 at 10:18 am

I’d like to order some gills and begin the genus, “homo-natator” (swimmingâ€“man).
Ariah Fine says on: 6 July 2006 at 4:01 pm

Life’s complicated enough as it is.
Alex says on: 6 July 2006 at 11:48 pm

how about wings –”homo-volador”?
dean says on: 7 July 2006 at 12:33 am

I love the wings idea … beautiful, but I still long to see the 2/3’s of the planet that isn’t visible from the sky.

Re: Parkinson’s and pigs … Regardless of the possibility of some snorting and an unusual fondness for mud baths, I think human dignity would be best preserved by the pig over the Parkinson’s. Anyway, sharing pig traits may not be all bad. Who knows, perhaps he could help us find truffles.
Lori says on: 7 July 2006 at 9:13 pm

I’d like an extra set of hands. I believe that would make me “Homo-manus.” If I was irish, I could even be “Homo McManus.” There ya go. The future.
Alex says on: 8 July 2006 at 9:19 am

Lori, you made me chuckle. Thanks.
James Graumlich says on: 10 July 2006 at 6:29 pm

interesting, but there’s a difference in acting like a quail and becoming a quail…just cause i think i’m smart doesn’t mean i are…not to get spiritual, but who can make himself taller by thinking about it? (now gravity inversion boots, that’s what’ll do the trick).
Alex says on: 10 July 2006 at 6:49 pm

yes, the chicken didn’t become a quail, it just acted like one.
Pete Gowers says on: 16 August 2006 at 4:53 am

Did the chicken still cross the road and if so why?