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Well, what is a significant purpose, anyway? Why value the life of an organism - sentient or otherwise - above your own vanity, or anything else? And if you decide to value life, what of the opportunity cost - the lives of the beings that you might create, but decide not to?

I'm reminded of another topic close to my heart: Creatures . The Norns were created by a race of genetic tinkerers, the Shee. It took them a good number of attempts to get it right, and doubtless there were many failures. But they weren't criticized for them - even those considered nuisances, like the Grendels. Instead, they were celebrated for their successes. Without the norns, Albia would have been a poorer place.

Bear in mind that the Shee had no greater goal but create servants to bring them tea and biscuits, or perhaps the intellectual curiosity of seeing what would happen. To them, genetic engineering was just engineering; it was a tool to solve problems, and if they found a problem in their genes they'd fix themselves, as naturally as we would wear a pacemaker or fit a stent. Some would see that as incredibly wrong. Others wouldn't.

As for the systems question - well, it depends on the system. I'm reminded of evolutionary circuits, which were very unstable and might well be impossible to modify with any certainty. Right now, it's easier, if more inefficient, to build our own circuits based on logic. On the other hand, some biological mechanisms, if not straightforward, appear quite amenable to modification. Yes, if you were creating something totally new it might make sense to do it all over, but the whole point of animal-human hybrids is that we aren't - we're building on and adapting what was there already. At some point it may prove more trouble than it's worth, but right now we don't even know enough to estimate the cost.

Docking station, is a stripped down but compatible version of creatures 3, with added internet features and is available free (as in beer) for linux. Also I've had no problem running the original windows version of C3 under wine.

(Ok, so I've just been too lazy to poke around with any real software on the thing. I keep getting distracted by games like Creatures Docking Station, which I've been playing obsessively. Mmm... free Linux mini version of one of my favourite virtual life games...)

Her name is Slave. After I created her I started by hitting her constantly for about 5 minutes. Then I taught her all the words(using the SST) so it would be easier to make her scared of her surroundings. After she knew all the words, I placed her in a small area, surrounded by the FF Cob, with 5 Grendels. I left her there for about 20 minutes, beating her when she attempted to defend herself from the Grendels. After she was sufficiently traumatized, I put her back in the garden. In the Garden I forced her to Get, Look, Push and Pull everything around her, all the time, constantly beating her. I made her fear running so I wouldn't have to deal with that little problem(you fellow torturers out there know how annoying it is to chase them down once they get away). I also forced her to eat weeds, rewarding her when she did so. At the time I exported her, she's a quivering mass of fear. She might eat, if you're lucky, but she probably won't survive long enough for food to do any good.

To Wright, one of the most memorable albums told the story of a woman's abusive relationship and how she eventually got out of it. But a search on the Sims Exchange of the word "abuse" reveals that Sims albums have become a common therapeutic tool. All told, 63 albums deal with abuse issues.

I have not played Nintendogs but for all I have seen I can see that it is just a copy of these games:

http://petz.ubi.com/

Intelligent-like virtual pets, I have the Dogz in my computer, although I started playing it some time ago just as a reserach experiment (I am on AI research) I found it not really entertaining. For the AI point of view it is nice, as the Creatures game series (http://www.gamewaredevelopment.co.uk/creatures_in dex.php)
and The Sims... but I think it is not inovative at all.

.. one of the best games ever. Digital Life in Creatures. This simulates biochemistry, neural activity, genetics among other this and is great fun.

http://www.gamewaredevelopment.co.uk/creatures_ind ex.php

Go get yourself a free copy of Docking Station (the online version of this game) for Linux or Windows:

http://www.gamewaredevelopment.co.uk/ds/ds_index.p hp

.. one of the best games ever. Digital Life in Creatures. This simulates biochemistry, neural activity, genetics among other this and is great fun.

http://www.gamewaredevelopment.co.uk/creatures_ind ex.php

Go get yourself a free copy of Docking Station (the online version of this game) for Linux or Windows:

http://www.gamewaredevelopment.co.uk/ds/ds_index.p hp

Imagine a Lemmings style game like that? You can pick up a Lemming, let it drop, and it does its own thing. Sounds simple enough, but when you have 30 of them on the screen, you have to move quick to pick them up and get them out of danger.

Gameware Development

OK, they do "mate" but its about as asexual a mating as you can get (ok, they don't get "married" so I guess it will offend those who are easily offended). And the creatures aren't human and I'm not entirely clear on the specific doctrine of offense involved. Do these people require that chickens marry before they mate?

The players do get to raise the kids - and those kids are not always the best behaved of creatures so it can be an interesting process. Rather more demanding than the "carry an egg around for a week" type thing that has been popular.

Who knows - it is possible that if there are enough people who demand that everyone adhere to their particular mating rituals that maybe the makers would add in a "you must be married to have eggs" option to make using the game possible. Naturally (and I mean that word quite literally) that also raises the questions of the death of a partner, adultery, divorce and what not. Not to mention heaven and hell (and purgatory and beatrice and ...).

like everyone else who read the review, i wanna play this game. apparently there's a free (beer) version to play here:

http://www.gamewaredevelopment.co.uk/creatures.php ?id=C0_4_6