Effects Of Morphing Tech On Earth Society

[Tim Bruening]

If morphing technology becomes widespread on Earth following the Yeerk War (As a result of the Andalites trading morphing cubes for Cinnabons and other sweets), What will be the effects on Earth society?

I speculate that once large numbers of humans spend some time as wild animals, those humans will have a much greater awareness of the need to protect Earth's environments, leading to stronger efforts to stop pollution, stop global warming, and protect endangered species.

Concerned citizen to a Congressional Committee: I morphed into a bird last week, and got a plastic bag stuck on my head!  I almost suffocated before I could demorph!   

[Phoenix004]

Earth's various governments would heavily restrict access to the morphing technology, and obviously wouldn't let civilians have access to it. Honestly I think it was kind of foolish of the Andalites to trade morphing cubes to Earth in the first place, it's far too dangerous a power in the wrong hands. What's stopping a shady government agent using the power to become an undetectable assassin? Or killing the president (or someone else with power/influence) and stealing their identity like David tried with Saddler?

Let's face it, the only reason that Jake, Marco and Cassie were allowed to keep their freedom after the war is because they just saved the planet from an alien invasion. If the government had any sense at all, they would be seriously careful who they grant the morphing power to. How many people would you trust with shape-shifting technology?

[Teirae]

I agree, public wouldn't get it.  I did laugh that they were trading it for cinnamon bunz. Bun-zah. 

[Phoenix004]

Yeah it was funny, but not that realistic considering their history with Seerow's Law. They must REALLY love cinnamon buns.

[Tim Bruening]

I agree, public wouldn't get it.  I did laugh that they were trading it for cinnamon bunz. Bun-zah.

What if the public marches in the streets demanding access to cool morphing technology?  (They would have seen Jake et al demonstrating morphing in the talk shows they did after the war).

I have read Novamorphs in a fan fiction site.  In it, the main characters obtain morphing licenses after taking classes and passing their tests.  The licenses come in 5 classes, each with limits on what one may morph.  People are implanted with morphing chips to record what they morph.  The chips go into Z-Space during morphs.  If one obtains an illegal morph, they are forced to burp it up a la Rachel in "The Reaction".    I think that one has to go up to Class 5 to get really dangerous morphs, and such licenses are only available to members of the military and to spies.

[Phoenix004]

That's an awesome idea and I kind of want to ready that fic now, but it is based on the assumption that such advanced tech exists, which it obviously doesn't in the series canon.

And the public could march down the street demanding access to personal nukes and rocket launchers, doesn't mean they're going to get them.

[Tim Bruening]

That's an awesome idea and I kind of want to ready that fic now, but it is based on the assumption that such advanced tech exists, which it obviously doesn't in the series canon.

Novamorphs occurs over a decade after the Animorphs series, giving Andalite and human scientists time to invent the morphing chips used to enforce the morphing regulations.

Actually, the morphing cat is already out of the bag.  There are numerous former Human-Controllers who can morph!

[Phoenix004]

Yeah they should really have mentioned what happened to the morph capable hosts of former Controllers. It's implied to be relatively few, because Visser Three obviously isn't going to let everyone have access to it. A bunch of them would have been killed before the end of the war, and I believe most (if not all) of the remaining ones were aboard the Blade Ship.

And I'm not so sure 10 years would have been long enough to develop that technology. Andalites are very advanced, but we know they develop slower than us. Humans no know about the morphing technology, and it could easily take 10 years for human scientists to understand exactly how it works, let alone invent some super morph tracking chip.

[Tim Bruening]

Yeah they should really have mentioned what happened to the morph capable hosts of former Controllers. It's implied to be relatively few, because Visser Three obviously isn't going to let everyone have access to it. A bunch of them would have been killed before the end of the war, and I believe most (if not all) of the remaining ones were aboard the Blade Ship.

And I'm not so sure 10 years would have been long enough to develop that technology. Andalites are very advanced, but we know they develop slower than us. Humans no know about the morphing technology, and it could easily take 10 years for human scientists to understand exactly how it works, let alone invent some super morph tracking chip.

I'm thinking that Andalite and human scientists working together could develop that morphing chip more quickly than Andalites could do alone.

Sending a chip into Z-Space doesn't sound that much more advanced than altering people's bodies into the forms of animals and transferring mass back and forth to and from Z-Space.

Book 45: Marco's Dad Peter and his co-workers developed a Zero space communicator that was more advanced in some ways then the Yeerk models!

[Phoenix004]

Sending the chip into Z-Space and back is one thing, but forcing someone to "DNA burp" a restricted morph against their will sounds a lot more complicated. Yes the human scientists could help, but it's going to take time just to get them up to speed on how the hell the morphing technology works. Marco's dad is probably the only living human (or one of the very few) who has any clue about Z-Space, and the morphing tech is decades (at least) ahead of his limited understanding.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just incredibly unlikely to happen within ten years of the end of the series.

[Tim Bruening]

Sending the chip into Z-Space and back is one thing, but forcing someone to "DNA burp" a restricted morph against their will sounds a lot more complicated. Yes the human scientists could help, but it's going to take time just to get them up to speed on how the hell the morphing technology works. Marco's dad is probably the only living human (or one of the very few) who has any clue about Z-Space, and the morphing tech is decades (at least) ahead of his limited understanding.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just incredibly unlikely to happen within ten years of the end of the series.

I assume that Andalite scientists would have been investigating the causes of morphing allergies ever since the first reported case.  I find it plausible that they might have succeeded by the time frame of "Novamorphs", over a decade since the end of the First Yeerk War.

[Phoenix004]

Perhaps the Andalites would have been studying it, but bear in mind they've been at war with the Yeerks for decades and the Andalites never saw a lot of tactical use in the morphing technology (aside from occasional spy work). Doesn't sound like investigating the cause of morphing allergies would have been a top priority during an intergalactic war. And considering how rarely the Andalites even use morphing, it's probably a rare problem for them anyway.

[TheWolfEmperor]

Ideally, there would be endless medical applications. In Vermont, recently, the assisted suicide bill just got passed. So I wonder if the morphing technology would be an acceptable alternative to assisted suicide. The patient would not be required to become a nothlit, but even if they chose to become an animal for the rest of their lives, that's still better than having to end their own lives when there's a better option.

There are going to be negative applications. Our species has a long sad history of misusing everything. But if it could save lives, you know the medical community would try and have their say.

[NothingFromSomething]

Doesn't mean the Andalites would relinquish the tech for purely civilian use, though.  And they probably shouldn't.

[Tim Bruening]

Ideally, there would be endless medical applications. In Vermont, recently, the assisted suicide bill just got passed. So I wonder if the morphing technology would be an acceptable alternative to assisted suicide. The patient would not be required to become a nothlit, but even if they chose to become an animal for the rest of their lives, that's still better than having to end their own lives when there's a better option.

I assume that the patient would just morph and demorph to repair his/her injuries.