Cat-man?

[miss_shad]

So there's this weird idea for a sci-fi tale that I've been playing with for a while.  The story, set in a relatively modern time, concerns a young man who is a human/feline hybrid (not really like an anthromorph or "furry;" more like a "catgirl" you might see in an anime except male), who became this way through a genetic experiment of some kind

Comments

[xtricks]

There isn't really any 'realistic' or even brush of realistic you can apply. There isn't any reason an experiment would result in something like him, the modifications you're talking about have no use beyond cosmetic. Mixing cat and human genes (presuming you could create a viable offspring) wouldn't result in something like this - for one 'cat ears' are more complex than the pointy furry things you see in comics, there's a whole internal ear structure that makes them useful in that shape that the human skull can't encompass. Same for the tail, claws would be easy but again, there's no point. Certainly, behavioral changes like 'hunting instincts' are something far beyond our current understanding - we have no idea how the little bits of protein we call genes and behavior relate to each other, especially in complex behaviors like hunting.

I'd just throw in a line like 'stem cell experiment' or 'targeted gene therapy' and then avoid attempting to explain any further.

[rhiannon_s]

I don't know if it helps, but the premise sounds a lot like the Batman Beyond episode "Splicers". Perhaps checking it out would help? Just fire Batman Beyond Splicers into google and you'll be able to find it. Basically mad scientist makes mucking about with your DNA fashionable (and since its Batman, insanely criminal too, emphasis on the "insane").

[lolmac]

John Varley's Nine Worlds books play with a similar idea: the human race gains access to alien scientific information that allows them to survive in space and on other planets. It also allows them to tinker with their DNA pretty much any way they like. Some of the results are arbitrary, silly, or weird, because that's how people are. However, all of that is cosmetic -- changing the physical form of an existing person.

[rhiannon_s]

Since last night I've remembered a couple of books, in the Doctor Who Expanded Universe (of course since it is Doctor Who it does kinda end with a world lit by its own burning ruins), that do similar. If the OP wants a motivation, then fashion is probably as good as it gets. The human race practically runs on "rule of cool" anyway, there is nothing we won't do if someone thinks it'll be fashionable or cool looking. Lets face it, there is a whole industry devoted to giving people horns via artificial implants (it grew out of the piercing market, just google "extreme body modification", but remember once you've seen it...), as soon as genetic technology advances far enough, they'll move from putting in some bumpy implants and onto growing your own in a heartbeat. There is big money in fashion.

Cat-people get created by magic in Ben Aaronovitch's "Moon Over Soho" too, this time catering for the fetish market (again, goes a bit wrong). Sex and fashion, people will do anything for it.

[lolmac]

There's also Dennis Avner, whom I have met (we did a panel at a con a few years back). Google 'Catman' and 'surgery', or look up 'Dennis Avner' on Wikipedia.

[landrews]

James Cameron's Dark Angel was all about the animal/human gene hybrids created as super-soldiers :-) Might be good for cribbing from! Jessica Alba's character Max had feline genes spliced in - she was stealthy and athletic and occasionally went into heat. Joshua was very dog/man.

eta: link! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Angel_(TV_series)

[karisitas]

Came here to say this. Dark Angel was awesome!

[toboe_lonewolf]

The only reason I can think of for a human to get cat ears and a cat tail is for some really whacked out experiment to see if it were possible to graft them in, like the mouse with the human ear grafted/grown on its back. Here's an article.

However, I can see absolutely no use for it other than for scientific hubris and a lot of ethical problems, not to mention it only worked on the mouse because it had no immune system. This also gives no reason to include cat-like behavior, does not explain any of the bone structure involved by adding on a tail, fangs, and claws, not to mention the lack of muscular support or control. Not without some serious, serious, serious genetic fiddling, of the sort in Jurassic Park where "if we patch in frog DNA with dinosaur DNA it'll work," which is laughable at best. If we handwave the physical impracticality, you'd have to also add in some fiddling around with neuroscience to add in cat behavior, or some really twisted psychology

[tzine]

There was a TV series about a cat girl who was supposed to have supergood feline reflexes, which her creators hoped would make her a good soldier. In the earlier episodes she had to take hard-to-find medicine to stop herself from falling apart, but that idea seemed to get dropped as the series progressed

[full_metal_ox]

There was a TV series about a cat girl who was supposed to have supergood feline reflexes, which her creators hoped would make her a good soldier. In the earlier episodes she had to take hard-to-find medicine to stop herself from falling apart, but that idea seemed to get dropped as the series progressed.

That was Dark Angel, which landrews references above.