If the animorphs had cell phones

[AniDragon]

I can understand kids being given pre-paid phones, since that's a lot harder to abuse, but yeah, kids with iPhones? Seriously?

Anyway, yeah, cell phones would also be a major security risk in terms of cell phone cameras, too, though they were usually pretty careful about morphing near people anyway, and cell phone cams don't have great zoom...

But if they had cell phones and their worried about parents calling them while on a mission, they could just stash their phones with Erek, who could answer it in their voice if a parent calls.

[Terenia]

Good point, AniDragon. In fact, in modern society I see the Ani's taking advantage of the Chee a LOT more...as in dragging one along on any possible mission so that they can provide holographic cover for morphing purposes.

[Acalio-Laron-Jaham]

one post here mentions that cell phones would have been useful for the controllers such as tom and chapman etc. as it would have enabled them to be able to communicate with eatchother more faster.

okay, makes sense, but why would the yeerks need to have to rely on human cell phone technology at all? with their advanced technology, you'd think they would have been able to produce some sort of long distance, small, portable instantaneous communication devices  of their own that they could conceal in their ears or have implanted in them or something. like the andalites translator chips.

[Essam 293]

one post here mentions that cell phones would have been useful for the controllers such as tom and chapman etc. as it would have enabled them to be able to communicate with eatchother more faster.

okay, makes sense, but why would the yeerks need to have to rely on human cell phone technology at all? with their advanced technology, you'd think they would have been able to produce some sort of long distance, small, portable instantaneous communication devices  of their own that they could conceal in their ears or have implanted in them or something. like the andalites translator chips.

There are billions of people on Earth. Even if a million of them are controllers, do you really think that the Yeerks are going to give every low ranking controller a communication device that can potentially 'out' them? The Yeerk invasion relies on secrecy, and there are far too many variables (freed controllers, deaths, etc) to leave alien technology just lying around.

I know that they're advanced aliens, but the Yeerks are also very much scavengers as well. They steal other technologies and use it to their own advantage, as Ax has mentioned several times. This has been shown several times in the series too, so it makes sense that they would use cell phones. Why run alien tech and supplies low, when there's already a world-wide communication network set up and available to overtake as your own? The technology is primitive enough to do so, and the humans have already done all the work! It would  be far more efficient to do it this way, and then spend the remaining Yeerk shipment and supplies towards weapons and land establishments instead.

It's the reason why a high ranking leader like Chapman had a communication device (a z-space transponder) in his basement, while the rest of the low ranking controllers simply reported to him. Cell phones would only be an added advantage had they appeared early in the series, so the Yeerks would have mostly definitely used them. Too many reasons not to.

Besides, cell phones would work far better for their human covers, and would be less suspicious talking into, than say, your ear. Especially without any visible said device or person around. Too much of a security risk.

[Acalio-Laron-Jaham]

great reply essam.

lol yeah i agree, it would look quite.....odd if you spot them communicating with their concealed devices in public....it would mostly look as if they are talking themselves. in fact, i still get weirded out by people at malls and stuff using their 'headsets' and 'bluetooth' devices and what not. one lady had a really small wireless bluetooth thing in one of her ear, and it must have amplified microphones cuz thats it was - a 2cm earphone thingy which you put into your ear like a earphone and you can hear from it, and it manages to pick up your voice as well, even though it is quite far away from the mouth as it is in the ear. i did a double take lol. before i saw her bluetooth thingy i thought she was talking to herself.

but then again, once on a train, i have seen a man who was seemingly having a really heated and intense conversation on his cell phone, and then in the middle of the conversation..... his cell phone rang. 0_o

[Tim Bruening]

So, I think KA mentioned that one of the problems with updating animorphs is the ubiquitousness (is that a word) of cell phones. So I thought we could post plots that would be changed if the character had one.

Extra points if you can erase most of a book

Didn't Jake once use the cell phone of Cassie's Dad to phone Tom?

Quote from: Essam 293 on April 02, 2010, 12:20:28 PM

    Quote from: Terenia [Teach] on April 02, 2010, 11:52:21 AM

        Possible other drawback/advantage. Many/most cell phones these days have GPS tracking systems in them. Good for tracking your enemies, bad for when you want to stay hidden.


    Exactly. If the Yeerks can track email (#20, from David's computer) and bring down Visser Three and an army of Hork-Bajir in a manner of minutes, imagine how much more of a security risk it'd be if the Animorphs could be tracked via GPS (especially in #49 when their secrets were blown). I suppose they could always purchase prepaid phones for mission use only and then discard them right after. However, the Animorphs were often short on cash, and this probably couldn't have been done more than a few times.

    On the plus side, like you said, it'd be useful to track controllers (i.e. Chapman) to find secret locations to the Yeerk Pool, without having to follow them everywhere. I'm sure Ax could find some way to hack into the network and use it against them. If not Ax, then even Erek could help out with that (It probably would give the Chee a bit more to do in the series, tracking down known locations throughout the city).

    Something else: with the update to modern times, there'd also be a higher risk for them to finding secluded spots to morph. Think of how many cameras there are everywhere you go: traffic lights, atms, security cams, etc. Plus, there are all those motion sensitive alarms in nearly every store now. It'd be damn hard to sneak in anywhere if they tried to do some those things now.


The Yeerks would use the NSA's data gathering capabilities to track their enemies, and also use drones.  They would have cameras installed everywhere to look for morphing animals.  They would be on the look out for social media reports of attacks by wild animals, especially exotic animals.