(16-11-2015, 07:17 PM)WantAPair Wrote: I was just wondering, yesterday, if it might be possible to just modify your own DNA in such a way that it causes your entire body to change from M to F, or vice versa. I've heard of certain animals that can change gender at will, why can't we have that? They can mix DNA from one animal with that of another and produce an animal that has the characteristic physical traits of both.
WAP,
I'd be concerned it wouldn't do much to change DNA.
Bones are already calcified, for example. Chest is barrel-shaped, or hips too narrow. So even changing the DNA completely to "female" wouldn't make the body over. Think AIS (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome): "women" are genetically male. "Women" in quotes because of the genetics, trying to keep it clear here. "Women" are women, but not 46(X,X) women.... They're 46(X,Y). Assigned female at birth, grew up as female, went through female puberty, think female, and without a genetic screening - they'll never know they're not genetic women.
We'd end up with the same thing for us: genetically female, but still have the male shape, facial hair, penis, testicles, etc.
Not even grow breasts, I think - no ovaries for enhanced estrogen production.
Nanotech might work better, though I can see a LOT of work required to re-define the skeleton and the musculature, move hair (E.G., move facial follicles to the scalp to end male pattern baldness), that sort of thing. Probably very slow and painful for Gen 1's, you'd probably be asleep a week or so, sedated and comatose. But to wake up essentially female in build, just waiting for the breasts to grow? Yeah, I think MOST people would take that in a heartbeat!
You have to learn how to walk and talk and move all over, but that happens to people anyway - accidents, strokes, disease; you recover as fast and best as you can, right?
In my mad scientist mind, I could see a world of "in-between" types. Maybe hermaphroditic; maybe spend youth as Female, and where feminine beauty fades, transition to masculine strength and wisdom? (Hey, put down the stones, it's just a concept!) Maybe be hermaphroditic like the Shades from Ursula K. LeGuinn's Left Hand of Darkness. A Shade could be father to several offspring, and mother to several morel; potential to develop to either sex during mating seasons.
I think maybe blending best features of each sex would be useful, but now we're down to customizing cell biology: No androgen receptors on "cell X", no estrogen receptors on "Cell Y", so the body develops "Male" here, "Female" there. And still need to ensure reproduction....
But I think most people don't want that world. :-) Most people like Men and Women, and that they ARE different. :-)
And since that could easily riff onto griping about women vs. men, I'll get back to work here.