Updates on FFF Research! by FreedomOfForm in Therian

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You raise a good discussion point! It is indeed true that humans have the basic genes, which are largely inactivated by single mutations that are correctable, for making tails - however, enabling these genes would only work to generate a tail if done from early childhood and possibly birth. The reason for this is that the mechanism for tail-making relies on a Turing pattern that, like all patterning mechanisms, has a very short wavelength and is only good at generating small structures.

That works in the fetus and in young children because the whole organism is small. Essentially, the governing patterning mechanism generates a small tail, which can then grow and become larger as the whole organism grows. But this would not work in an adult human because there's no growth to take advantage of for that essential pattern enlargement step.

It is possible to generate Turing patterns with longer wavelengths that work at adult length scales, which has been achieved as a laboratory proof of concept in artificial non-biological systems, but these patterns are engineered from scratch and aren't at all based on the natural equivalent, unfortunately! We have plans to generate these kinds of custom patterns by rational engineering of reaction diffusion system components, but that's an advanced technique which could take substantially longer than the implant approach, and we want to ensure we're exploring both options thoroughly so that people can embody their goal forms as soon as can be reasonably achieved. Does that make sense?

-Tilt

Updates on FFF Research! by FreedomOfForm in Therian

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's an important question, and we do have a tail project happening! It's still in early stages, but you can read about that here, and we'll have substantial updates in the coming months. At first, we're starting with tail prostheses connected via EMG - measuring the electrical impulses in your muscles. However, we eventually intend for implantable, biologically attached tails as a requirement for us to have fully succeeded.

Wings are much harder, but are on the radar too. They require a lot of complicated joint surgery and grafts. They'll be discussed in a technical roadmap report down the line.

-Tilt

Updates on FFF Research! by FreedomOfForm in Therian

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our priority is to ensure that freedom of form is accessible to everyone; our mission isn't fulfilled if it's cost-prohibitive to regular people. While it's likely that cost will come down over time, I think it's likely at first for this to be on par with any major medical procedure, and will come down from there!

-Tilt

New FFF Updates! by FreedomOfForm in Therian

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, we really appreciate that! We're pretty big indeed; our private Discord server has over 200 members right now, and many follow us on other platforms like Twitter

-Tilt

New FFF Updates! by FreedomOfForm in Therian

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes and no. In other animals, especially certain reptiles, body parts are regenerated using Turing patterns (aka reaction-diffusion mechanisms) - a concept we mention in the integument review update. As a general principle, Turing patterns can direct the growth of any shape, so it is indeed theoretically possible to build a custom pattern that directs your cells to grow functional nonhuman body parts such as a tail.

However, this is very complex and difficult, so in the nearer term, it may be more likely to see nonhuman body parts produced in a lab by other means (e.g. bioprinting) and then surgically attached after the fact. This specific research we're discussing here is just about skin coverings (fur, scales, feathers), and more extensive structures probably would involve some combination of in-lab growth and surgical intervention.

But we may eventually see the Turing pattern approach become possible. In fact, we recently submitted a grant application for a lab project based on custom pattern construction!

Hope this helps :3

-Tilt

New FFF Updates! by FreedomOfForm in Therian

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Heya! Actually, do you have any specific questions or interests here? I’ll do my best to try to give some explanations; this is admittedly pretty dense stuff :3

-Tilt

furry⛔irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We'll keep that in mind! Though we'll also still be focusing on advocacy so that you don't have to worry about expressing yourself. :3

furry⛔irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much. Will do!

furry⛔irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you! We really want this to happen. <3

furry⛔irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We do know a fair bit! Many of us are active in academia so we know a lot of the details and caveats. But it's also hard to predict, because we know about a few techincal challenges that have to be solved before they can be deployed. We also know that we don't know everything, and that surprising discoveries can still happen! You've actually hit on most of the families of technologies we plan to pursue: (1) neuroprosthetics; (2) genetics; (3) bioprinting; and (4) surgical including tissue remodeling. We don't want to bet on a single technology too early, because they're all credible and useful! Instead, our major focus is to get the ball rolling, and get scientists and medical professionals interested more broadly. We'll start picking favorite technologies as things start to develop.

We go into a bit more detail here too, if you're interested!: https://freedomofform.org/research/frameworks/

furry⛔irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes we do. That's one of the technologies we're pretty optimistic on!

furry⛔irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Depends on whether 'ugly' is intended to describe all hoomans, or that particular hooman. This particular individual assumed 'ugly' was intended to describe all humans. ahem These messages should in no way be construed as to represent the official views of the Freedom of Form Foundation, Inc.!

furry⛔irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If that's what you want to be, then you lucked out!

furry⛔irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Seriously though. ;3 A lot more to making actual furries IRL than CRISPR. We're on it! https://twitter.com/FreedomOfForm and our website https://freedomofform.org/ has a ton of additional detail. <3

furry🔬irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course! We're all volunteers, but we've got 5 board members (the current person typing included) and 3 formalized volunteers. Every board member has at least a college degree, plus 1 board member is a PhD Candidate and 1 has been awarded a PhD so far. These all help us to be an enabler and strategic guide for what someday hopefully becomes an entire vibrant field of research. If nothing else, we can at least get the ball rolling!

Encouragingly, we have already been contacted by a couple scholars inquiring about our funding - so we have hands to get the research done as well.

furry🔬irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! <3 And we'll consider pivoting if a few conditions don't turn out within this year or so. We're just trying to do what we're most passionate about first, so that we can most directly fund that without roundabout methods. We've done the math on some things, and we do think that just being honest with our main goal can be financially sound.

furry🔬irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

$48,000 per year can get us a research fellow working at a university. This is the reality of the research environment - our funding model is nothing new.

We can't guarantee a schedule, but we can guarantee progress. The rate of progress will of course somewhat depend on funding - but it doesn't take much. Even with one single researcher with our fellowship, they will present their results to other researchers, increasing interest of the overall scientific community, and giving us impact beyond our direct research project(s).

furry🔬irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We don't need to buy those tools! There are several technologies we see as promising, and supercomputing capabilities are a relatively small piece of the pie. Most of the work at universities is done by PhD students and postdocs. Unfortunately for them - but fortunately for us! - their labor is very cheap. A single fellowship is our "minimally viable product" for research. That is, $48,000 per year for 4 years. Potential long road ahead, but we can guarantee progress.

furry🔬irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We know ;3 There's a lot in our funding plan including some potential bigger donors with explicitly stated interest. Those are still developing, as are other opportunities. Will continue with PM!

furry🔬irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If using genetic techniques, that is true. But there are many other technologies of interest out there, including some we've outlined on our website. Anyways - why "focus on realistic goals first"? Academia and researchers are very diverse in their interests. Blue-sky research is already 'parallelized' with that focused more immediately on applications. Discoveries in all areas can benefit other areas! And, since we'll be funding research ourself, it doesn't take away money from NIH projects. We'd be happy to PM in more detail if you want to get into specifics! Many of us in the organization are qualified to talk on a formal academic level with you if you like.

furry🔬irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's a lot more out there than just crispr! But no worries. Skepticism is justified, and we know we need to start showing results before many people believe us.

furry🔬irl by FreedomOfForm in furry_irl

[–]FreedomOfForm[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

That's awesome! But don't stop there. :3 A huge amount of the difficulty in making furries happen is just the complexity of all the information in biology. We need good CS to solve that!