Author Topic: Fat morphers.  (Read 4370 times)

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Offline zaprowsdower

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Fat morphers.
« on: December 24, 2009, 06:08:02 PM »
It was assumed that all of the Animorphs were more or less fit for their age, gender, and lifestyle. Sadly, 10 years later a lot if not most of American teens are now overweight. So if one of the animorphs were fat and gained the power to morph, would they still be fat when they morphed back? Or would they lose all of the weight? How would they be able to explain that to thier parents if that was the case?

Post whatever ideas you might want to spitball. :)
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Offline goom

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2009, 06:32:50 PM »
i'm guessing they'd get the same amount of matter back from zspace as they put out.
so.. they'd probably stay about the same weight.

Offline zaprowsdower

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2009, 06:35:19 PM »
But ain't it all in the DNA?
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Offline morfowt

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2009, 06:55:05 PM »
shouldn't your body's shape and size be written in your DNA though?

Offline zaprowsdower

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2009, 07:00:50 PM »
Your ideal size and shape for your genes, but as we all know our actions and lifestyle affect that.
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Offline morfowt

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #5 on: December 24, 2009, 07:37:33 PM »
oh. you learn something new every day...

Offline DinosaurNothlit

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #6 on: December 24, 2009, 08:47:09 PM »
Interesting question, and its one that's troubled me as well.  There are whole slews of details that morphing shouldn't be able to decide.  Hair length is the most obvious, but as you've pointed out, weight is also determined by factors other than DNA.  Height is another one, actually.  If you're malnourished, you won't be as tall as someone who eats better, even if DNA is the same.  I knew a set of identical twins who differed in height by several inches.  And fingerprints also differ between identical twins, so even that is affected by environment.

My personal opinion is that the morphing technology itself has some ability to store information and make simple decisions like that.  Andalites are good with computers, aren't they?  So there's no reason why they couldn't design something like that.

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #7 on: December 24, 2009, 10:00:42 PM »
I always assumed that you returned to the same exact mass you were before you morphed, which would account for your weight remaining the same and the length of of your hair and nails not changing. However, it doesn't account for the healing effects of the morphing technology. Losing a limb, or even some of your blood would result is lowered body mass, which the morphing process fixes.

Dino's idea is an interesting one, but the truth is we don't know exactly how the technology works. KA would have needed an advanced degree in physics and biology to even begin to speculate on how the fine details of morphing could theoretically work.
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Offline wildweathel

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #8 on: December 24, 2009, 10:12:55 PM »
Morphing has to capture data beyond DNA.  I see Elfangor's "acquire DNA" speech as something of a lie to children, since morphing so obviously captures things that aren't recorded in DNA--like the age of an organism.  Besides, there are good biological reasons to believe that DNA isn't the only biochemistry that's capable of storing genetic data.  Even if you stay within the complementary-strand polymer/base framework of nucleic acids, there are both DNA and RNA that occur in terrestrial organisms plus things called TNA, GNA, and LNA that have been produced in laboratories.  There's no reason to think that extraterrestrial life has to be strictly DNA-based.

We can't trust Ax to give a more correct answer, because he's more "stranded slacker student" than "Mr. Spock."

By the way, fat morphing kids would be even grosser than usual.  Thanks for ruining my appetite.
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Offline zaprowsdower

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2009, 11:49:35 PM »
If the Animorphs taught us anything, it's that life-and morphing-ain't pretty. ;)
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Offline adeon222

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #10 on: January 07, 2010, 06:05:53 PM »
Hence, my being slightly sickened by this thread...  :-\
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Offline Uza-chan

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #11 on: January 07, 2010, 06:20:15 PM »
This might be unrelated, but what happens to scars or acne? Like if you have a scar since you were a baby or whatever, does it just disappear with morphing? Or with acne, does it just disappear?  :P

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2010, 06:46:31 PM »
Actually, if there was a fat kid in the group, I bet you anything s/he wouldn't be fat by the end of the war. The amount of energy it would take to be able to initiate a morph seems like a lot. After all, the Animorphs were extremely tired after continually morphing in some of the books.

The morphing isn't the only thing with burning calories ... all the calories while in morphs, or in general. In stressful conditions, the body doesn't want to eat as much.

I'm pretty sure any fat kid would now be skinny after all that.

In regards to morphing out of a morph, they would still be as fast as when they went in. The body didn't burn any excess material while in z-space. Nor any alters in DNA.
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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2010, 08:17:30 PM »
To be fair, not everybody's reaction to stress is fasting. For many people, it's exactly the opposite- when their (inevitably bad) boyfriend dumps them (in some romantic comedy), they'll sit around watching older romantic movies (than the one they're undoubtedly in) and eating pint after pint of Ben & Jerry's (I wonder if they pay for that, or if it's free publicity). I'm not sure morphing would physically burn calories, either- it takes a great deal of mental concentration, but I get the feeling it returns you to the basic state you were in before morphing. You're mentally exhausted, but your body gets no benefit from it (except that your broken legs or wings or whatever are usually healed).

Dino's right, though- there has to be some kind of built in decision mechanism in the morphing technology itself that goes far beyond just DNA. Rachel morphing crocodile provides the perfect example. Crocodiles, like most amphibians, continue to grow over the course of their lifetime- when Rachel morphed the biggest croc in the habitat, she was also morphing the oldest. She wound up as the same croc, though- same size and everything. Morphing also apparently replicates coat patterns and that sort of thing on animals- it somehow manages to replicate the entire animal, but ignores injuries.

Maybe it recreates the animal (or original person) based on... super-Andalite-dark-magic (or, you know, science or whatever)... and then corrects anything that doesn't fit with the DNA? Hey, I kind of like that theory...

In any case, it almost seems like a given that a fat Animorph would remain fat after the morph- let's face it, morphing didn't continually alter the weight/muscle mass of the real Animorphs, so why should it for anyone else? It should, in theory, heal scars and acne.

Whatever complicated principles are at work behind the morphing technology, it certainly seemed to fit the story quite well, didn't it?  :P

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Offline morfowt

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Re: Fat morphers.
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2010, 08:57:23 PM »
I do believe morphing heals scars, at least they healed Loren's scars...