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BB8ISGREATMATE's avatar

Biology Related Question for a Science-fantasy Story?

Asked by BB8ISGREATMATE (39points) April 29th, 2023

Ok so, I’m writing a science-fantasy novel and I’ve got this cool idea for two characters (a woman and a man) who used to be human (and still technically are), but both underwent surgery to augment their physical strength and modify their appearances.

The woman became a Naga/Lamia/Gorgon-like being who still has the shape of a human woman, but now has green, scaly skin, a beige-ish underbelly, a tail to slap, bind and choke enemies and disobedient subordinates with, sharper and longer finger and toenails, slightly crooked legs sorta like the hind legs of quadrupedal dragons, a forked tongue, a set of sharpened teeth, long, green-coloured hair and green-coloured eyes with reptile-like pupils. She also augmented her physiological strength through increased testosterone production rates, a larger heart and a larger set of lungs to pump more oxygen into her body, larger and denser bones, increased hemoglobin levels to oxygenate muscles more quickly and efficiently, decreased body fat levels (not so much that it poses any dangers to her health), faster twitch fibre muscles and her reactionary, fine-motor, hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness skills have all been enhanced to be on par with that on a medieval soldier/knight (basically a heavily watered-down Jessica Jones situation where the character in question has the body of the average human female, but the strength of a muscular man). As far as visual examples of the kind of character I just described are concerned, the closest things I could find were artwork of a humanoid version of Najarala from the Monster Hunter series and artwork of an original character with a reptilian aesthetic.

https://www.deviantart.com/maxa-art/art/Najarala-chan-562023298

https://www.deviantart.com/thewolfsirenchiyo/art/Chennsha-the-anime-lizard-girl-420168082

The man on the other hand, became a cyborg who, just like Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengance, is entirely mechanical, save his brain of course. In addition to running slightly faster and hitting slightly harder than most professionally trained athletes and boxers, he also has the ability to manipulate his eyes from being able to see things around him normally to being able to see infrared radiation and objects and individuals behind walls or in the dark. He also has the ability to activate, deactivate and control any piece of technology created by him and linked up to him with his mind through a wireless transmission of signals (this is already a thing in real life, but my version is more advanced due to the superior range and level of control). As far as his physical appearance is concerned, he still looks like an ordinary human being to other individuals, but he does have red eyes (not eyes that glow red every time his powers are in use like Raiden, he just has red eyes by default), grey hair, a grey moustache and his mechanical body is covered over in synthetic skin that conceals his true appearance, just like Raiden. Aside from Raiden, The Mad Doctor from the Epic Mickey games is the closest thing I can think to a good visual example of this kind of character. The Cybermen from Doctor Who are also technically examples of what I’m describing, but they have several noticeable differences from my own character (namely the fact that they’re mindless, emotionless slaves and that they don’t try to hide their cybernetic bodies beneath layers of synthetic skin).

Now, normally this would be the part where I ask if either of the things I just described are possible in real life, but since no one’s done it yet, it’s pretty safe to assume that we currently lack the knowledge and technology needed to bring my hyper-specific ideas into reality so I’m instead going to ask a slightly different question:

Do the laws of physics and biology as we currently understand them say anything about the ideas presented above being scientifically impossible?

If the answer to the previous question is yes, the question now becomes:

What kind of hyper-specific properties do I need to assign to my Applied Phlebotinum (the nonsensical magic plot device that gives humans superpowers and makes scientifically impossible/improbable technology possible) in order to make my ideas work?

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7 Answers

Response moderated (Unhelpful)
gorillapaws's avatar

I don’t know how important it is to your story for the first character to have transitioned into the form you describe instead of simply being born that way via sophisticated genetic engineering, but the latter would be a lot more believable to me. As for the cyborg man, you’ve basically got Robocop with Terminator skin and red eyes, right?

ragingloli's avatar

I think in the case of the woman it would be more elegant to have her new body be completely bio-engineered from the ground up, and have her original brain be transplanted into it once it has grown to maturity.
This would also make her more thematically similar to her male counterpart, who also had his body replaced completely, and would open up story possibility of body dysmorphia, mental problems of her accepting her new body and questioning her own identity.

KNOWITALL's avatar

No, current science proves it is very possible and rather soon, at least for your man. My classmate went to New York recently for a prosthetic trial for his missing leg. Here’s an interesting article.

https://www.allthescience.org/how-close-are-we-to-developing-cyborgs.htm#:~:text=But%20judging%20from%20the%20science,and%202040%2C%20maybe%20even%20earlier.

BB8ISGREATMATE's avatar

@gorillapaws – More believable or more realistic?
Your description of my cyborg character is spot on.

BB8ISGREATMATE's avatar

@ragingloli – I am actually going for somewhat of a biology/technology contrast between these two characters of mine. Are brain transplants theoretically possible though? Like, we can’t do them now, but will we EVER be able to do them in the far away future?

gorillapaws's avatar

@BB8ISGREATMATE “More believable or more realistic?”

In this context, I think it’s a distinction without a difference. You can engineer a creature to grow into something crazy (in theory at least), but modifying an existing lifeform to the degree you’re describing while keeping them alive seems like the kind of thing that would take decades of surgery and physical therapy to pull off—even in some distant future. Just the skin alone would be insane. have you ever seen what the recovery process for severe burns is like? Imagine that on the entire surface of the body? Your female character would be less like a badass lizard lady and more like a traumatized torture victim…

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