Teeth made from diamond or something that regenerates as necessary - maybe formed in a continuous solid row, rather than individual separate teeth.
If we really must have sinuses, they need to be self-clearing.
I’d make the bladder larger so we won’t have to go to the bathroom as much.
I love monstro’s idea of no more menstruation too.
I’d make the body better able to handle sugar and fat so that people could eat more sugar and people wouldn’t get as fat.
No hair below approximately nose level.
I am surprised that nobody has yet mentioned the way our retina operates as a good place to make changes. Unlike in the octopus eye, our optic nerve actually penetrates the retina thus leading to the famous ‘blind spot’.
Knees, of course.
External male genitalia should be retractable internally, until needed.
I think it would be nice to be able to ingest food and speak at the same time without fear of choking.
The pretty much are already, depending upon how cold the water is.
I think the last would be a bad idea; it would just make people eat even more (and leave less for those who really need food, besides aggravating all of the environmental issues with growing it). That would also mean our body would have to limit absorption of food (there is nothing really wrong with how the body handles sugar and fat; of anything, it handles them TOO well; of course, since they provide all of our non-protein calories (starches and other carbs are also basically sugar), and protein preferably not used as an energy source, it should) beyond what is needed - so our poop wouldn’t be so nice. :eek: (think of Olestra)
The most obvious change to the human body would be to make it able to maintain itself properly - in other words, no aging past some point after early adulthood, with death only possible from injury or disease (think it would be a bit too much to make us immune to every bacteria and virus out there, but healthy young people are much less susceptible; similarly, no ability to breathe water/no drowning or anything like that). This also includes the ability for teeth to regenerate (special cells to excrete tooth enamel, would rather not have continuously growing teeth or teeth that regularly fall out) and better handling/removal of fat/mineral deposits from blood vessels (arteriosclerosis isn’t just something that starts in adulthood - even infants can deposits :eek:).
Of course, that would come with the caveat that no reproduction would be allowed, except to replace whatever is lost from the aforementioned.
Make everyone sterile so that a procedure would be required (and a proficiency exam) before reproduction could occur.
Nobody has mentioned getting rid of the appendix. I would also redesign men’s reproductive system so that there are no hernias caused by the winding of the tube from the prostate. Also redesign the, I think, trigeminal nerve so we don’t get hiccups. Redesign the birth canal so that it doesn’t go through the largest load bearing bone in the body. Maybe through the navel, as I thought when I was a young kid.
If we were marsupials, abortion would be a non-issue. Interesting thought.
Earlids.
That was my thought, but instead I want a metabolic Throttle installed. Just turn it up to use that extra fat all at once when you got something physical to do.
Most of mine have been covered. I would like a pain threshold. We need some pain to let us know we are injured and keep us from doing stupid things, but not extreme pain! We should be able to turn it off once we get the message.
Is there any benefit to us having different blood groups? If not, scrap that and make us all one blood group.
Eyelids for the other senses. Hear something annoying? Skin encloses the ear canal and blocks it just like closing your eyes at an offensive sight. Smell something rank? The olfactory senses shut down on command.
Squid eyes. Shits on our efforts.
Far more protection for the torso, perhaps in the form of chitinous armoured plates to prevent sucking wounds, lung collapse or wounds to the heart and vital organs.
Revise the immune system so it recognises cells from the body it belongs to.
Increase overall efficiency in terms of energy intake and repair ability to reduce the time you need to sleep.
Reinforced spine.
USB port?
Bizarro artist Boris Artzybasheff did the human-update thing in Life Magazine (I think it was) in late 1950’s or early 1960’s or so. The female had a third arm, long and flexible, especially useful for fastening those blouses with the buttons or zipper on the backside.
http://www.fedbybirds.com/2008/11/ (Scroll down to the sixth photo. Includes a caption with a brief mention of a few of the features. Click on photo to see enlarged version, but still not large enough to read most of the text.)
This.
- We would be able to photosynthesize, eliminating the need for eating – and nobody gets fat.
- We’d be covered with soft fur like a cat, eliminating the need for clothing.
- We’d be hermaphroditic, eliminating a lot of nonsense.
I would consider modifying the kidneys so that we could drink salt water as well as fresh. Perhaps even metabolize minerals and plankton to the extent that sea water could minimally forestall starvation.
Hermaphrodite design with estrous in an inverted sexual context: a person in heat would extent a sort of genital proboscis that would extract semen that the excited “male” leaks into his vagina from testicles that are situated above and behind it and deliver it directly to the region of fertilization. This is required because internal testicles lack the temperature management mechanism needed for highly motile sperm (and the position of the semen ducts thus keeps one from unwittingly self-fertilizing because the sperm cannot move well enough to get “upstream”). Estrous cycles would be between two and four per year, maybe, maybe not governed by seasons, between which the individual would have a considerable reduction in sexual focus. And the concept of rape would be basically turned upside down.
Replace pain with a HUD that tells you exactly what’s wrong with your body and what needs to be done to fix it.
And no itching - ever!
Poop out of any orifice of your choice or your belly button.
Even better a third eye, right in the back of the head.
I’d appreciate it if the female orgasm could be attained as easily as the male.