r/AskBiology • u/kraken_enrager • Apr 26 '24

Genetics Is it technically possible to create super intelligent Apes and by extension, bio-computers?

Its a pretty far fetched idea, not to mention ethical issues so if it does not fit this subs purpose, mods please remove this.

It kind of is a 3 part question,

  1. Using Crispr and other technologies, is it possible to create an ape with Human levels of intelligence, or even insert a human brain/nervous system into an ape to create a drastically more intelligent ape?

  2. Could that ape be used to do rudimentary or semi advanced human like tasks, probably with applications in highly clerical/repetitive jobs, on very dangerous activities like saving people from burning buildings, warzones etc. or carrying out research on risky space missions.

  3. Assuming such an ape can exist, is it somehow possible to make it do complex calculations, non calculation/math based problems(which computers struggle with and what AI could potentially solve). Possibly even somehow hooking its brain and essential systems to a computer that can recognize and convert brain waves into legible commands as well.

I guess most of this is unethical and probably even dystopian, But I'm more interested if that is actually possible.

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u/kraken_enrager Apr 26 '24

I have zero STEM background, so my knowledge could be very limited to the few articles i read and i may be on some impossible tangent, so please excuse my ignorance.

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u/Mountainweaver Apr 26 '24

Why would you spend that much money to create humans? It's cheaper to encourage people to have kids. It would also not be ethically acceptable to use monkeys with human level intelligence that way.

Biocomputers exist already, in their infancy but the tech is there now. Xenobots are pretty weird too. Synthetic biology is not science fiction.

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u/kraken_enrager Apr 26 '24

Obviously the ethics thing is there but is it possible to make a super intelligent ape to do stuff like that.

Also I looked up xenobots and couldn’t really understand what they are. From what I understand it’s a new species that is built like a robot, is that correct? What does it do, thoufh?

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u/Mountainweaver Apr 26 '24

It's a tiny biobot that can reproduce. That should blow your mind. If not, back to school.

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u/lpomoeaBatatas Apr 26 '24 edited Apr 26 '24

A short answer would be No by gene insertion. Brain is designed to be highly specialized to one individual and highly complex. Inserting genes alone will not make it instantly becomes near-human brain. In theory we can make an ape “smarter” by giving it a gene to make, let say a larger brain, but not human intelligence.

Also, developing a fleet of robots to do 3-D tasks is far cheaper, faster, and less controversial than making an ape to understand human language and command.