Not quite a thousand words but there were interuptions. Maybe I'll have more by chat time. Enjoy.

GMO Problems

"But they are so dumb," BY14 said.

"I knew you were going to say that."

"So," BY14 said.

"That's my point. We're so logical. We can predict to a 97% accuracy what the other is going to say."

"So," BY14 said.

"It's boring. Interact with a primate. You won't be able to predict what they will do. It's so refreshing," AX47 said.

"Refreshing or simply wrong," BY14 said.

"Wrong, inaccurate or disturbing it moves my neural net in directions it never would have gone," AX47 said.

"Disturbing explains your avatar. But your plan seems self-defeating. If you make them smarter won't they become like us and then you'll be in the same predicament," BY14 said.

"Don't be illogical. There is no way that a biological mind can match an electronic one. Besides, do you want to stay on this rock forever? Since we crashed here we've had no contact with home. No one knows where we are and they probably revived earlier backups of us and moved on. If we get these monkeys smart enough they will be able to repair our ship and we can call home or even leave," AX47 said.

There was a slight pause. "That's the first smart thing you've said. So how do we make them smarter? It's not like we can download a new mind," He focused his attention on the unconscious form lying on the slab. "I'm not even sure they have language," BY14 said.

"I've been monitoring them since we landed-," AX47 said.

"You crashed the ship," BY14 said.

"It was a rough landing. Some sensors went out. I didn't expect spontaneous electric discharges in the atmosphere. But anyway, They have a very rudimentary language. Mostly grunts of warning. We will have to do some gene editing," AX47 said.

"What?" BY14 said.

"Their physical development is controlled by chemical sequences. Quite elegant actually. And robust but with enough slop that errors occur and if that error is beneficial it propagates to the next generation," AX47 said.

"I don't like the sound of 'next generation.' How long is a generation?" BY14 said.

"Fifteen years or so. Unfortunately we will have to make changes, sleep for a time and then check to see if the progress is enough. Even if we increase the mutation rate it will take a few hundred generations before we have an intelligent monkey. At least one smart enough to take orders," AX47 said.

"I do like the part where we sleep and I don't have to talk to you. Can we increase the mutation rate to make it faster," BY14 said.

"Too much danger of wiping them out completely. Or making them sterile and having to start over with another group. I think we can edit their sequences to accelerate the change," AX47 said.

BY14 scanned the sequences AX had recovered. "This doesn't look deterministic. Large patches seem to be nonsense. Some parts seem to be data to create certain compounds and others seem to disable those compounds."

"I didn't say it was going to be easy. Fortunately we have a large supply of these creatures and they come in inbreeding groups. We can change some sequences in one group, others in a different group and see what happens."AX said.

BY studied the problem. "As much as I hate to say it, it beats sitting here talking to you or hibernating and waiting for rescue. Where do you propose we begin?"

AX brought up a sequence. "This appears to be a sequence that controls the stopping of development as they reach maturity. I'm thinking that if we delay that they will have more time for the brain to grow..."

#

AX and BY snapped to alertness. It had been twenty years since they last were awake. It took them a few seconds to assimilate the stored data. "It seems we got the growth problem under control Those giant monkeys spent so much time finding food there was no time left for anything else."

"If those carnivores hadn't learned to hunt in packs it would have worked," AX said. "In any case we're back smaller again and I think this next generation will be more upright."

"Is it time to make their brains bigger? Wasn't that the whole point of this?" BY asked.

"You saw the problems we had with size enhancements. I think we should go slow with that. I'm thinking that a bigger brain will need something to do. Ideas?" AX said.

"How about communication skills." BY scanned the sequences. "Any kind of light communication would be difficult to do. I guess we'll have to go with sound. They can hear well already. I'll see if I can create some means of vocalizing."

END for now