I was rewatching Batman Beyond (great show, highly underrated) the only context you need for the show is that this is in the not so distant future l, Bruce is an old man and passed to torch to a new kid named Terry McGinis. It got to the episode that really got me thinking. Not in a philosophical way or anything but just in a “humanity would 100% do this if they could” sort of way. The basic premise is that theirs a new type of body altering fashion trend. Theirs people in the show that try to justify it as basically being a tattoo and others outright saying that logic is completely bullshit. It’s called Splicing. It’s a gene lab that cracked the code on splicing DNA for immediate and near painless transformation to the body using animal DNA. It doesn’t need to be the whole body as one girl altered her eyes to have green cat eyes. However theirs some that went full body basically becoming anthro animals, a guy that became part snake, another became part bull and a different one became part hyena. Naturally the guy in charge of this was evil and the side effect of this was increased aggression.
However that’s not what I want to focus on. Instead I want to focus on the concept of Splicing itself. Theirs tons of people who would 100% be on board for this if it was possible myself included. Having claws and fangs sounds badass. Plenty more would be willing to go all the way and become hybrids being half human and half whatever other animal. At the same time plenty of concerned adults in the show were against this. With Terry’s little brother wanting to get spliced and his mom saying no. When asked why she’d be against it since she has a tattoo she says “the difference is that I don’t have antlers growing out of my head”
Excluding the obligatory evil plot it’s a pretty good examination of theoretical Trans Humanism. I’m confident it’s going to be a thing if we make it that far as a civilization. Theirs plenty of usefulness in the technology and it’s cool looking besides but there would naturally be concerns from others seeing people willingly leave behind their humanity and become something objectively not human.
It’s an interesting thought and one that’s crossed my mind. If Splicing was real would any of you want to do it? If so how would you want to be spliced, full body, only small features?
