What about the genetic code to grow angel wings?

[Meow Mix]

Could we potentially alter human dna to evolve into a speices of winged people ressembling angels in the future? Is heaven in the future? Or did we miss it? Or is it all just whatever we can make it?:angel2:

I don't see why it would be impossible in principle, but it's not practical as far as I know anytime soon.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic; but getting to that point is another question altogether.

 

[Penumbra]

Look at the length of the digits on the bat, they have five "fingers" just like us but they are hyperextended to allow the webbing to evolve the the relatively huge area it has.
The fifth digit forms the webbing beneath the arms and there is even webbing from the rear hallux to the tail

I definitely would not want a lot of skin connecting my hands to my feet. If that's the price I'd have to pay to fly, I'll stay on the ground. :no:

 

[Falvlun]

Sounds suspiciously similar to whether Balrogs have wings.

The heresy!

 

[Falvlun]

I can't imagine anyone wanting avian wings or any other animal appendages grafted onto them. Angels are such a lame and lazy concept.

You seriously wouldn't want functional wings? I can't think of much that would be cooler than the ability to fly without need for anything but my own body.

That said, wings would be impractical if not impossible on humans. We're too big; the wings would have to be massive.

 

[Meow Mix]

Wow. I had an epic, epic dream last night and I just now realized where it came from.

I had an Avatar-esque dream, one of the most vivid I've had in a long time, where I lived in a village on the top of a cliff. Everyone including myself in the village had wings, and we'd run to the edge of the cliff and jump off to glide around gathering flower petals that blew off from a vine-like plant that grew up the cliff... it was so vivid, I remember having to throw my arms out (though they're not attached to my wings) to stretch the right muscles, and as the wind catches my wings I can feel it pull on my back...

When we return, a thundercloud rolls in so low that the bottom of the cloud touches the ground (it's approaching from the cliff side). Aside from that, there's something that just feels unnatural about the storm so everyone hides in their huts, and then suddenly there's this feeling that we're under attack... and there's explosions, a giant mechanized dinosaur (T-rex like) starts tearing up people's huts. I'm in a big hut, there's a hole in the wall behind me that I try to crawl through.. there's people on the other side that I've never met (I don't know how I know this, since I "knew" the other people in the village in my dream but have never met them IRL).

They tell me we're under attack because we're being persecuted for having wings. I finally squeeze through and hide in this secret room until the attack is over, and time does sort of a skip-ahead type thing that happens in my dreams sometimes... now I'm on top of a modern building with a samurai sword and I'm about to jump off and glide over a long lane of cars (sorta like spiderman webslings over the city). I'm supposed to be going after the people that attacked my village but I don't know where to find them.

I wake up, and immediately try to go back to sleep because the dream is so awesome but can't because my alarm goes off

 

[Penumbra]

Wow. I had an epic, epic dream last night and I just now realized where it came from.

I had an Avatar-esque dream, one of the most vivid I've had in a long time, where I lived in a village on the top of a cliff. Everyone including myself in the village had wings, and we'd run to the edge of the cliff and jump off to glide around gathering flower petals that blew off from a vine-like plant that grew up the cliff... it was so vivid, I remember having to throw my arms out (though they're not attached to my wings) to stretch the right muscles, and as the wind catches my wings I can feel it pull on my back...

When we return, a thundercloud rolls in so low that the bottom of the cloud touches the ground (it's approaching from the cliff side). Aside from that, there's something that just feels unnatural about the storm so everyone hides in their huts, and then suddenly there's this feeling that we're under attack... and there's explosions, a giant mechanized dinosaur (T-rex like) starts tearing up people's huts. I'm in a big hut, there's a hole in the wall behind me that I try to crawl through.. there's people on the other side that I've never met (I don't know how I know this, since I "knew" the other people in the village in my dream but have never met them IRL).

They tell me we're under attack because we're being persecuted for having wings. I finally squeeze through and hide in this secret room until the attack is over, and time does sort of a skip-ahead type thing that happens in my dreams sometimes... now I'm on top of a modern building with a samurai sword and I'm about to jump off and glide over a long lane of cars (sorta like spiderman webslings over the city). I'm supposed to be going after the people that attacked my village but I don't know where to find them.

I wake up, and immediately try to go back to sleep because the dream is so awesome but can't because my alarm goes off

That's pretty awesome.

I wish my dreams were vivid like that. They're usually pretty lame.

 

[Meow Mix]

That's pretty awesome.

I wish my dreams were vivid like that. They're usually pretty lame.

I have extremely vivid dreams probably at a rate of once every couple months.

Usually there are a few factors that contribute:

1) They always seem to happen when I didn't get enough sleep the night before (I had extreme insomnia the night before)

2) Nyquil gel tabs are almost always involved (I took 2 to avoid said insomnia last night)

 

[outhouse]

vivid dreams are common with me

I go in and out of the flying dreams, wish i had more. Hate waking up in the middle of those..

allot start out walking then I jump and the steps get further and further so i pick up my feet and see how long i can go, knowing all the while im dreaming lol

 

[Valjean]

Basic tenet of evolution: you gotta work with what you have. All other flying vertebrates use modified arms as wings. As has been pointed out, If we were to gain wings we'd have to pretty much give up the 'arm' function -- as well as moving the shoulders down toward our center of gravity, modifying our skeleton for flight musculature, &c.
Dorsal wings are all out, biologically. There's nothing there to modify to form them.

Angels as spirits?
Wasn't Lot visited by angels? He didn't perceive them as spirits. He offered to let 'em crash there and made them dinner.
They sound pretty solid and substantial.

 

[PolyHedral]

No, dorsal wings are out evolutionarily. Genetic engineering FTW! (So what if it takes us a couple hundred years to work out how everything fits together?)

Wow. I had an epic, epic dream last night and I just now realized where it came from.

I had an Avatar-esque dream, one of the most vivid I've had in a long time, where I lived in a village on the top of a cliff. Everyone including myself in the village had wings, and we'd run to the edge of the cliff and jump off to glide around gathering flower petals that blew off from a vine-like plant that grew up the cliff... it was so vivid, I remember having to throw my arms out (though they're not attached to my wings) to stretch the right muscles, and as the wind catches my wings I can feel it pull on my back...

When we return, a thundercloud rolls in so low that the bottom of the cloud touches the ground (it's approaching from the cliff side). Aside from that, there's something that just feels unnatural about the storm so everyone hides in their huts, and then suddenly there's this feeling that we're under attack... and there's explosions, a giant mechanized dinosaur (T-rex like) starts tearing up people's huts. I'm in a big hut, there's a hole in the wall behind me that I try to crawl through.. there's people on the other side that I've never met (I don't know how I know this, since I "knew" the other people in the village in my dream but have never met them IRL).

They tell me we're under attack because we're being persecuted for having wings. I finally squeeze through and hide in this secret room until the attack is over, and time does sort of a skip-ahead type thing that happens in my dreams sometimes... now I'm on top of a modern building with a samurai sword and I'm about to jump off and glide over a long lane of cars (sorta like spiderman webslings over the city). I'm supposed to be going after the people that attacked my village but I don't know where to find them.

I wake up, and immediately try to go back to sleep because the dream is so awesome but can't because my alarm goes off

For some reason, I was reminded of this:
[youtube]ukgvTE3A0Ic[/youtube]
YouTube - To The Sky (From The Soundtrack For The Original Motion P...