Author Topic: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures  (Read 2152 times)

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Offline Terenia

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Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« on: March 19, 2009, 01:41:11 PM »
The idea of using morphing for a) therapy and b) to cure diseases/disabilities is touched on near the end of the Animorphs series. This seems like a pretty decent overall concept for several reasons.

1) If you suffer from depression or any other mental disability you have the option of 'escaping' your state of mind (albeit, many people may "pull a Tobias" as a result).

2) Injuries could be morphed away easily. This probably would not hold true with viruses and infections, though. I think they would act similar to clothes (or to Marco's rabies virus) and stick with the morpher.

3) Many people who are in situations that could result in death would be able to be saved by morphing, so long as they do so in time.

I do sense some problems with this, however. For example, we already view handicapped people in a negative light at times. If we lowered the population of handicapped dramatically, what would that mean for those who are permanently handicapped?

If a permanently handicapped person decided to 'trade-out' bodies, what are the moral implications?

If we are able to cure many people of disability and near-death experiences, how would that affect things like population?

Just a few thoughts...

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Offline ThinkAgain

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2009, 04:04:37 PM »
It's great on paper, but there are alot of risks.

What's to stop an old and/or terminally ill person for kidnapping someone, becoming a nothlit of them, then killing them?

What's to stop people from morphing the wealthy/famous, and becoming a nothlit? If five different Bill Gate's show up at the bank, how can they prove otherwise? DNA, fingerprints, all would be identicle. Asking for names of best friends or signatures and other given things can be faked; you can spy on/research a person and forge documents.

Then there's criminals. Say I just went skiing and became paralyzed from the waist down, and they give me morphing technology. Then I morph a rat, steal from stores and such, morph out, and keep the stuff. Or I morph a random person, commit a crime, let them get blamed while I take the goods. I could morph a person I have a personal grudge against, kill someone else I have a personal grudge against, and have one person dead and an innocent one in prison for life. It could also lead to a greater chance of violent crime and other violent risks; as long as you don't take a bullet to the head you can almost always escape undamaged. The same suicide bomber can blow 4 car bombs. Prisons would need to be changed dramatically; I could morph fly and leave, morph a guard and walk out, etc. (I guess the funding saved from hospitals can be used for this lol). Assassins in general would be much harder to detect (I could become an extremely lethal spider and kill the president in his sleep).

However, I am a strong supporter of innocent until provent guilty.

Take a gun for instance. Innocent people can have guns for the good, postive aspects of them (defence, security, hunting, sport, etc.) Guns stop crimes millions of times anually, prevent many deaths from crimals, and in over 98% of all crime prevented by guns, no shots were fired, the mere presence of said gun ended the problem before it started. There are many Olympics competitions involving guns. For many, it is the only way to put food on the table. (Shoot a deer legally, and you just got 100+ lbs of meat for free). Guns, however, can be easily taken away. If one has a criminal background, they can't legally buy guns and can have all previously owned guns confiscated. Sure, you can never take away all illegal guns, and criminals will always have them, but you can disarm alot of criminals, and still have the good population defend themselves.

Morphing technology can't be taken away or confiscated. You can force someone to become a nothlit, but no decent person wants a violent, criminal clone of themselves. I would say that if you reach a certain age and have a clean background, there should be no reason why you couldn't have it. Some people would be more willing to take risks or commit crimes if they would never get caught however. That shouldn't be a problem, however (innocent until proven guilty). The big issue is how to distrubute the power without letting it spread to the black market. Distribution would be very hard. It can't be private; what's to stop a drug lord with $25 million in cash from bribing the person. Even if it's federal and in ultra secure places, all it takes is a single stolen cube to be reverse engineered, and a week later you have a small army of rhinos destroying the city.

If, however, there was a functional Anti-Morphing Ray, everything could be simple. A gleet bio-fliter type anti-morph screen could be put in all secure locations, etc. The problem would also be if this got out, what's to stop people from demorphing people in flight? Or for torture, make people morph small, put them in a box, and demorph them. It's use for defence would be useless, a criminal could easily demorph anyone trying to save themselves, and soldiers would have no use; the enemy would also just demorph them.

Still, I'd definitely be pro-morph in a vote. You can't take away from the innocent based on what criminals might do. The benefits dramatically out weight the costs. You can't argue saving the lifes of millions annually. Not just injuries. Cars? Who needs them? Fly to work. If everyone in the nation didn't use a car for local transit, think of the financial and environmental impacts. It would be phenominal. Starving people? Morph an herbavore, eat some grass, demorph. It isn't a permanent solution, but it can hold people over. (Don't say you can't, the ani's did it in book 25, they morphed wolf and ate a seal as to not starve). Billions of dollars would be saved anually for medical. Car crash, broken leg, it all can be saved. Lost in the woods? Morph a bird or wolf and get back home. Drowning? Morph a fish. Choking? Morph something big. Sad? Morph a dolphin. Dark? Morph a bat. Lost your shirt? Morph a dog and sniff it out. A cop can morph his own bomb/drug dog. When I say this I'm serious - The amount of lifes saved, the damage prevented to the environment, and financial gains would be massive. It would almost single handedly save the world without exaggeration. Most disease and injury gone. Carbon emissions from most car travel? Gone. Massive medical bills? Gone. Fireman horribly burned saving lifes? Gone. Living as a cripple? Gone if you weren't born that way. The effects on knowledge would be huge. The best way to know about animals is to be them. The overall gains would be incredible.

It comes down to the simple fact, are we willing to take risks to incredible gains?
Also it comes to the fact, when we we spontaneously increase our technological knowledge by thousands and thousands of years?
« Last Edit: March 19, 2009, 04:07:09 PM by Think »

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Offline Brad the Brit

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2009, 04:07:42 PM »
wow essay.....

Offline ThinkAgain

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2009, 04:09:43 PM »
I tend to think about things a lot. I just happened to share my thoughts this time.

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Offline Brad the Brit

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2009, 04:17:55 PM »
well done i carnt do that very well

Offline Terenia

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #5 on: March 19, 2009, 04:38:31 PM »
I agree that you can't blame the innocent for what the criminals might do.

The issue lies in not whether or not it would be good to disseminate the morphing power widely, but how it would be disseminated. Would it require a background check? If you're admitted to the hospital with near-fatal injuries would you automatically be allowed the power?

Additionally, if a morpher becomes a criminal, how do you detain them? As seen in the series, very few cages can hold an Animorph.

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Offline Brad the Brit

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #6 on: March 19, 2009, 04:56:18 PM »
yer the only thing you could do is make them a norlit(spelling).
but even then its crule cuz its a life sentence

Offline ThinkAgain

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #7 on: March 19, 2009, 05:01:49 PM »
It's not hard, just make a plexiglass box with airholes covered with a very steel mesh or something similar. It would be the funding to convert prisons into this that would be the problem, but seeing how much money it would save, it shouldn't be a problem.

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Offline Brad the Brit

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #8 on: March 19, 2009, 05:03:59 PM »
what about flea morphs? small enough to fit through any type of netting. if the netting was small enouth not to fit through it wouldent let enough air through.

Offline ThinkAgain

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #9 on: March 19, 2009, 05:11:03 PM »
very small holes in the roof of the box.

Fleas are good jumpers, but not 8ft. They also can't stick to smooth plexiglass. Also, try finding a small hole in a scentless room when you are blind and deaf.

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Offline Brad the Brit

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #10 on: March 19, 2009, 05:14:45 PM »
you have a point. but a larger morph would be able to start to break the plexiglass

Offline ThinkAgain

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #11 on: March 19, 2009, 05:17:22 PM »
It's plexiglass. If a guard sees someone morphing big, they take out a less than lethal weapon or a tranq gun.

If it makes you happy, make it steel lined (need the plexiglass because it's nonporous)

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Offline Aleron

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2009, 12:03:42 PM »
Maybe they could go to college for morphing or something.  Cassie could be a teacher, LOL.

Offline Ash

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #13 on: March 20, 2009, 01:44:42 PM »
I thought about this one a lot too.. I guess everything has its risks. But maybe giving the powers to those fatally injured?
You may have been given a cactus. Doesn't mean you have to sit on it.

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Offline ThinkAgain

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Re: Morph Therapy and Morph Cures
« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2009, 02:54:14 PM »
There are still benefits to have it more widely avaliable, besides, I'd break my legs if it meant I'd get morphing power.

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