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I'm running low on creavitity juice, help me pick the next animal I should engineer
Cape buffalo 1 (16.7%)
Sumatran tiger 2 (33.3%)
Chinese alligator 3 (50%)
Total Votes: 6
The Great Wall and Menagerie of China; I think it's supposed to be here according to Eden
Topic Started: Nov 8 2016, 07:50 PM (637 Views)
Dakka!
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America. In this modern age the closest a country can come to global domination short of actually conquering the world. But how does America do this? How does it influence the people of the world so thoroughly? Through cultural dominance. America is one of the most well known places in the world. Disneyland, The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park, all of these attractions have been made known to the outside world and through this along with advertising and Hollywood movies, America has managed to dominate the world if not in reality then in spirit.

China, the next contestant for global domination is superior to America in every way except militarily and, most importantly, culturally. What attractions can you think of that are uniquely Chinese? Besides Beijing, Shanghai, Macau and Hong Kong what other places do you know of in China that are known globally? Whereas in America you could roll the names of at least ten of their states of your tongue without any problem whatsoever. This is what makes China second to America. Short of bombing America to rubble, the only way they can truly conquer the globe is through cultural means and that is what this project is all about. But it can't only be about alternate history, there must also be evolution. This is Spec after all so after the introduction of the animals and all that stuff we shall look into how they evolve with one another, cut off from the outside world.

The Great Wall and Menagerie of China

December 3rd 1989
In this universe, China recognized the main reason for America's dominance and influence over the globe was due to its cultural dominance. Thus the Chinese government began a project that would be able to shake America's dominance from the throne and place theirs there in its place. It was called, the Great Menagerie of China.
Using the low cost labor and numbers available to them due to their massive population they began construction on the Menagerie in 1989 December the 3rd. Completion of this was estimated to be around the 21st century. They picked a million square kilometer area of land around the Yellow River to begin construction. First, they dug into the ground creating an unnatural closed in valley shaped like a bowl. Then, they shored up the walls of this valley making them higher and stronger.
Upon completion of the walls, the Yellow River was diverted with the use of massive dams and canals dug to divert the flow of the water until the river went underground and came up in the valley, flowing to the other side before disappearing back underground and flowing out of the valley on the opposite side.
Now for the final touches on the Menagerie, they fused it with the Great Wall of China. Disassembling the wall brick by brick, they made it wrap all the way around the Menagerie, at the same time reinforcing the ancient stone with modern concrete, mortar and rebar then plating the wall with a thin coat of steel until the entire thing gleamed in the sun like a giant ribbon made of mirrors.
It took longer than the projected time of 11 years stretching to 27 years but in the year 2017 it was ready for public release

February 26 1990
While the Menagerie was being constructed, other members of the project were debating on what animals should be introduced into the menagerie. There would be a whole host of smaller unremarkable lizards and birds released but there would also be the main attractions which was their source of debate.

They finally decided the animals would consist of those from the zodiac along with other famous ones.
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These animals would then be experimented on to see if they could make them more attractive to the tourists coming to view the animals in a laboratory the size of ten aircraft hangars underground and adjacent to the Menagerie. 90% of the space available to them in the laboratory was given purely to enormous banks of supercomputers operating in parallel computation resulting in unimaginable computing power. These computers were put to work decoding the animals DNA and allowing them to genetically engineer them. The first of these to be released would be the genetically engineered iconic Panda Bear, the most famous Chinese animal.

List of engineered animals
Edited by Dakka!, Nov 10 2016, 08:25 PM.
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Corecin
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Interesting. Too early to form an opinion, however.
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Sphenodon
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Given that this is a reboot of your last thread, why not instead have it be representative Chinese biota (bamboo, ginkgoes, pandas, crocodile lizards, water buffalo, Chinese Zodiac fauna, etc.) evolving on a Mars that was terraformed by China in a near-future scenario in which they become a scientific superpower? It's honestly far more feasible here than in the last one (technology's come a long way, and China doesn't have any wars to win), and I feel it seems less esoteric than this rendition. Thoughts?

We have a Discord server! If you would like to join, simply message myself, Flisch, or Icthyander.
Some of my ideas (nothing real yet, but soon):
Refugium: A last chance for collapsing ecosystems and their inhabitants.
Pansauria: A terraforming project featuring the evolution of exactly one animal - the marine iguana.
Mars Renewed: An insight into the life of Mars thirty million years after its terraforming by humankind.
Microcosm: An exceedingly small environment.
Alcyon: A planet colonized by species remodeled into new niches by genetic engineering.
Oddballs: Aberrant representatives of various biological groups compete and coexist.

..and probably some other stuff at some point (perhaps a no K-T project). Stay tuned!
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Dakka!
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This is going to be the topic where I genetically engineer the animals. Then I'll make another topic in Alt Evo where they're transplanted to Mars.
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Victorbrine
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Again, something based on my Crimean Dragons project except that it takes place in China and there are more animals.

But you know what... China: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbM2F-cfN0A

Also computers decoding DNA? They should be much more powerful than Google's supercomputer then. Are they put in a freezing temperature room? Because that gives away a lot of heat!
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Dakka!
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I already told you I got the inspiration first you can see it inside the SE Title and Description thread.
Yes the computers are cooled with giant fans that suck the heat to be used elsewhere in the facility. Like the kitchen.
This is my inspiration for Mein Kampf and now The Menagerie
As you can see, it was posted earlier than your question about Crimean Dragons.
EDIT:Changed most of the main ones to the zodiac animals. It's easier to remember that way.
Edited by Dakka!, Nov 9 2016, 01:42 AM.
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Golden Salamander
The geneticists decided to start on the Chinese Salamander first since the government had basically given them only one rule;finish it by the time the construction is complete so they thought they would start on the salamander first seeing as it was an amphibian and the lower down it is are on the evolutionary chain the easier it is to genetically modify it.

The Golden Salamander as it was named was descended from the Chinese Giant Salamander. In order to make it easier for the tourists to see they engineered an iridescent pigment into the salamander's skin making it gleam gold when light fell upon it. But this also made it easier for the predators they introduced into the Menagerie to spot and eat the salamander so they took a gene from the Mantella frog and placed it into the salamanders making them toxic to the touch. Now immune to every predator in the Menagerie, the Golden Salamander spread through the entire river habitat running through the valley.

To make it more aesthetically appealing, they modified its entire body structure from that of a sit and wait ambush predator to that of a seek and kill pursuit predator thus making it slimmer, sleeker, more hydrodynamic and aesthetically pleasing. Two birds with one stone. Size wise, the Golden Salamander has changed little from its ancestor reaching a maximum length of 7 feet and hunting anything that can fit into its mouth.

Of course, to make sure the Golden Salamander didn't multiply out of control they reduced its breeding rate to compensate for its low mortality rate. At the same time they also lowered its life expectancy to 5 years.
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Zorcuspine
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An interesting premise. I like the idea of an artificial biodome habitat quite a lot. One question related to the golden salamander though, why would the scientists think that amphibians would be easier to modify then other animals? In evolution, there is no such thing as "higher" or "lesser" organisms, as that would imply that evolution has a goal, when it is an entirely natural process.
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The geneticists decided to start on the Chinese Salamander first since the government had basically given them only one rule;finish it by the time the construction is complete so they thought they would start on the salamander first seeing as it was an amphibian and the lower down it is are on the evolutionary chain the easier it is to genetically modify it.


I don't think that's how genetic engineering works.

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Now immune to every predator in the Menagerie, the Golden Salamander spread through the entire river habitat running through the valley.


There should be a predator. like, if you made it immune to any predator, even if they reduced the life expectancy and the breeding rate it could still take over the whole Menagerie, at least it would take a longer time to do so, probably. Or maybe you plan on putting a predator for that salamander in the future.

“There's a tree," Starflight said, jumping to his feet. "In the forest."
"No way," Glory said. "A tree in the forest?”


"Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire." -Voltaire

"So if you wake up in the morning and it's a particularly beautiful day you'll know we made it."
-Capa

"One of those capsules hit a wing." Victor said. "Had to do an emergency landing." He pointed to a crumpled plane a couple dozen meters behind him and shrugged. "Not my most elegant landing."
-me in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" (Act 3)

"but by rule 34 of the multiverse, if it exists, there’s a world full of it." -Tet

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Dakka!
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Zorcuspine
Nov 9 2016, 12:01 PM
An interesting premise. I like the idea of an artificial biodome habitat quite a lot. One question related to the golden salamander though, why would the scientists think that amphibians would be easier to modify then other animals? In evolution, there is no such thing as "higher" or "lesser" organisms, as that would imply that evolution has a goal, when it is an entirely natural process.
Sorry I meant more complex. In general, less complex organisms are easier to mold.

^@VictorBrine:Remember this is an artificial environment. If the Golden Salamanders spread out of control they will just kill them however they please until populations go back to normal. Yes they're planning on making on in the future which is immune to their poison although I don't understand why they can't just have salamanders with 5 year life expectancy and only able to breed once in their entire life with adults cannibilising young and young eating each other. That seems pretty detrimental enough to population growth to me.

Double posting another gengineered animal below, I think it should be the brown rat no?
Edited by Dakka!, Nov 9 2016, 09:21 PM.
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Fodder Rat
The next animal to be engineered would be the brown rat. Already in widespread use throughout the world in laboratories, there were many tried and tested methods for mutating the rats such as the rat growing a human ear on its back. Being a fast breeding ans generally unremarkable pest, the geneticists decided to build on the strengths the rats had and make them even more of a pest. As in, they would increase its breeding rate and decrease its flight or fight response until they would essentially be cannon fodder to throw to the other carnivores hosted in the Menagerie to give a sense of heightened activity and to stimulate and motivate the carnivores to be active.

To this end, they increased its breeding and maturing rates to the biological limits, removed as much of their instincts as possible and increased their weight gain rates to provide more of a meal for the carnivores. To sustain a tiger on such a diet, the tiger would be required to use most of its waking hours hunting for them which would provide the tourists with a higher chance of seeing them helping to rake in more money.

When they were released into the Menagerie, they multiplied exponentially with the food sources and space available until every predator in the Menagerie figured out that they were ridiculously easy to catch as they did not dig burrows and had no shelter in which they could hide in. Despite the tenfold increased breeding rate, the predators wiped out the population in a few weeks. Thus they had to make a new revision to the Fodder Rat this one keeping its escape instincts. This time, when released into the Menagerie they did much better and managed to withstand the predatory onslaught brought upon them by the couple species of predators actively hunting them.
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Can ordinary people walk into the Menagerie or is it only authorized personel only?
“There's a tree," Starflight said, jumping to his feet. "In the forest."
"No way," Glory said. "A tree in the forest?”


"Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire." -Voltaire

"So if you wake up in the morning and it's a particularly beautiful day you'll know we made it."
-Capa

"One of those capsules hit a wing." Victor said. "Had to do an emergency landing." He pointed to a crumpled plane a couple dozen meters behind him and shrugged. "Not my most elegant landing."
-me in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" (Act 3)

"but by rule 34 of the multiverse, if it exists, there’s a world full of it." -Tet

"I must ask you to leave now." -Everyone (not realy though) in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry"

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Dakka!
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Of course not. Can you walk into a zoo while it's incomplete even if it's not a government project? I think not. If you're asking about whether there will be consequences yes. Yes there are very very severe consequences. Including and up to the complete termination of your entire bloodline and everyone related to you in any way possible.

Of course that's only while the zoo is incomplete(I say zoo it's more of a very tightly micromanaged reserve)
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Victorbrine
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Nov 10 2016, 08:22 PM
Including and up to the complete termination of your entire bloodline and everyone related to you in any way possible.
Considering the fact that China, or should I say the "People's Republic of China" is a communist and quite censoring and other things country. But that's scary...
“There's a tree," Starflight said, jumping to his feet. "In the forest."
"No way," Glory said. "A tree in the forest?”


"Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire." -Voltaire

"So if you wake up in the morning and it's a particularly beautiful day you'll know we made it."
-Capa

"One of those capsules hit a wing." Victor said. "Had to do an emergency landing." He pointed to a crumpled plane a couple dozen meters behind him and shrugged. "Not my most elegant landing."
-me in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry" (Act 3)

"but by rule 34 of the multiverse, if it exists, there’s a world full of it." -Tet

"I must ask you to leave now." -Everyone (not realy though) in Flisch's story "Spec Evo: Void Entry"

Projects Status

My Blog (SE Blog)

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyBzYPIsLp0uHoPtT6ZEyww
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