[quote The alien toxins would only be allowed free range in the bloodstreams of the adapted humans if the precursors were grossly incompetent[/quote]
Depends on the source of the toxin, if its air-born then the liver may be not enough and the lungs need to be altered first. If its eaten the Timmy rule comes into place. A Timmy being a person who dies stupidly or spectacularly, thus providing the populous with an prime example of what not to do. Named after the endless string of highly expendable, lab assistants on a science show on a show about anthropomorphic dinosaurs, which may have been named Dinosaurs. Once a Timmy or 10 eats something and bad things happen to him/her the other dont do that, or end up another Timmy. If its injected (bites, stings) or contact poison (spitted, toxic plants) itll get to float around doing damage before it gets to the liver. Free range toxins tend not to be under the host organisms control once in the body and while a liver or like organ helps it can teleport the toxin to the processing organ.. it travels through the blood stream on the way.
Also, it depends on how damaging the chemical is on the way to the liver, little bits of damage leads up to something worse. Livers fail or harden. Any given individual only needs to live long enough to breed. The longer they live the more they can breed. Which means more descendants carry their traits.
So if in the case of the fruit of life religion, their may be a law restricting your access to the fruit if you break a law of some kind. Occasionally that will lead to wars over who gets to be those who control the FOL, thus society. On the other hand if a few individuals manage to survive inspite of the lack of fruit of life being cut off/restricted and start living longer without the FOL. This is a desirable trait so those that can live longer without FOL are going to breed more offspring that last long enough to breed. So you might get a subculture of those that dont need the FOL anymore eventually and theyll spread as they arent anchored to the FOL growing areas. Anyone anchored to the FOL will be stuck in an area about half the rot time of the FOL away. The deads burials will get limited to areas under the plants or bodies left to rot by them for recycling purposes. The anchored humans might end up recycling there sewage also.
On the other hand, those the FOL stops being as important/obtainable for are going to go through starve/survive cycles and the best adapted (genetically or behaviorally) will be the breeders. This means that theyll take more of the planet. We do have a few thousand years of die off and breeding to bolster them. Youre not going to alter them so theyll all survive only the society/group as a whole. Some groups wont make it. Some will be limited to the area around and the population density the FOL can maintain.
If life is cheap and the population dies young, theyre going to have more, faster coming generations so theyll adapt by trial by fire. If theyre long lived theyll breed later in life and less generations so less change as theyve adapted. The last race of precursors were patient so they may allow a thousand years or so to pass before they check up on the research subjects replacing them with a different test group as needed.
Unless ovaries got replaced and they spent a generation or three on the ships before letting them breed wild. That may vary by planet. Maybe they had transporters and rewrote their DNA mid transport... isn't guessing at hyper advanced biological experiments of entities we only can guess at how their mind works fun?
Depends on the source of the toxin, if its air-born then the liver may be not enough and the lungs need to be altered first. If its eaten the Timmy rule comes into place. A Timmy being a person who dies stupidly or spectacularly, thus providing the populous with an prime example of what not to do. Named after the endless string of highly expendable, lab assistants on a science show on a show about anthropomorphic dinosaurs, which may have been named Dinosaurs. Once a Timmy or 10 eats something and bad things happen to him/her the other dont do that, or end up another Timmy. If its injected (bites, stings) or contact poison (spitted, toxic plants) itll get to float around doing damage before it gets to the liver. Free range toxins tend not to be under the host organisms control once in the body and while a liver or like organ helps it can teleport the toxin to the processing organ.. it travels through the blood stream on the way.
Also, it depends on how damaging the chemical is on the way to the liver, little bits of damage leads up to something worse. Livers fail or harden. Any given individual only needs to live long enough to breed. The longer they live the more they can breed. Which means more descendants carry their traits.
So if in the case of the fruit of life religion, their may be a law restricting your access to the fruit if you break a law of some kind. Occasionally that will lead to wars over who gets to be those who control the FOL, thus society. On the other hand if a few individuals manage to survive inspite of the lack of fruit of life being cut off/restricted and start living longer without the FOL. This is a desirable trait so those that can live longer without FOL are going to breed more offspring that last long enough to breed. So you might get a subculture of those that dont need the FOL anymore eventually and theyll spread as they arent anchored to the FOL growing areas. Anyone anchored to the FOL will be stuck in an area about half the rot time of the FOL away. The deads burials will get limited to areas under the plants or bodies left to rot by them for recycling purposes. The anchored humans might end up recycling there sewage also.
On the other hand, those the FOL stops being as important/obtainable for are going to go through starve/survive cycles and the best adapted (genetically or behaviorally) will be the breeders. This means that theyll take more of the planet. We do have a few thousand years of die off and breeding to bolster them. Youre not going to alter them so theyll all survive only the society/group as a whole. Some groups wont make it. Some will be limited to the area around and the population density the FOL can maintain.
If life is cheap and the population dies young, theyre going to have more, faster coming generations so theyll adapt by trial by fire. If theyre long lived theyll breed later in life and less generations so less change as theyve adapted. The last race of precursors were patient so they may allow a thousand years or so to pass before they check up on the research subjects replacing them with a different test group as needed.
Quote:True, and it would provide a method for alteration. Though it brings up another issue do they have both? Would the new one eat the old one? Mitochondria are the energy producers in cells, that would mean the new ones would have to take over the job if they attack. If they dont attack and move from cell to cell once they breed enough, theyd be hard pressed to get in the first place. If they do that its going to mean that they will attack a new organism if say, the altereds blood ends up in an open wounds or youve got a Parasite Eve issue. Maybe not sentient and hostile, but those things would go medevil on virus.
The most elegant way to do the genetic engineering is probably to put the extra genes needed in an artificial intracellular organelle with its own genes -
Unless ovaries got replaced and they spent a generation or three on the ships before letting them breed wild. That may vary by planet. Maybe they had transporters and rewrote their DNA mid transport... isn't guessing at hyper advanced biological experiments of entities we only can guess at how their mind works fun?