Genetic Enhancement vs Telekinesis

[BitVyper]

IIRC, the episode where his Genetic Engineering is revealed explains that he was notably below normal intelligence (possibly from a congenital condition, I guess) until the procedure, after which he was able to become an extremely capable and relatively suave space doctor.

Okay, I know it's fiction, but this killing me with how little sense it makes. Genes... don't.... do that. At all. Unless it's something totally unrelated like that he had some genetic condition that was impairing the development of his brain in a really specific way. How old was he when this was done?

At this point I'm picking telekinesis because I'm completely terrified of the implications of Bashir's genetic engineering.

[Sharpandpointies]

It's treknobabble, it doesn't need to make sense on the show. Just save the day. -_-

[Decoy]

Augment......TK is too easy to beat (psi dampeners, distraction, )

[BitVyper]

I mean I'm pretty sure you can beat Bashir with a baseball bat

[Xero Kaiser]

TK, even though I'd likely do terrible things with it.

[The Drunkard Kid]

Okay, I know it's fiction, but this killing me with how little sense it makes. Genes... don't.... do that. At all. Unless it's something totally unrelated like that he had some genetic condition that was impairing the development of his brain in a really specific way. How old was he when this was done?

At this point I'm picking telekinesis because I'm completely terrified of the implications of Bashir's genetic engineering.

I think that it was a bit of a Flowers For Algernon situation, but when he was a lot younger, and he is a bit disappointed in his parents for doing that to him rather then accepting him as he was, IIRC.

[Shai-Hulud]

he had some genetic condition that was impairing the development of his brain in a really specific way. How old was he when this was done?

From Julian Bashir's condition, it's strongly implied that he was developmentally disabled.

At age six, Bashir was small, not very bright, and a bit physically awkward for his age. In the first grade, while the other children were learning how to read and write and use a computer, Julian was still trying to tell a dog from a cat and a tree from a house. (DS9: "Doctor Bashir, I Presume") He never really could understand what was happening, but he knew that he wasn't doing as well as his classmates. There were several concepts they took for granted that he couldn't begin to master, but he didn't know why. All he knew was that he was a great disappointment to his parents.

In 2348, just before Julian's seventh birthday, the Bashir family left Earth for Adigeon Prime. At first, he was excited to see all the aliens in the hospital, but then they gave him a room and started a series of treatments. These treatments, known as "accelerated critical neural pathway formation," were a method of genetic engineering that involved the resequencing of his DNA. Over the course of two months, his genetic structure was manipulated to accelerate the growth of the neuronal networks in his cerebral cortex....

[BitVyper]

Okay so they've got some way of making neural pathways form better, that's fine. That shouldn't really have anything to do with gene-modding though. I'm just gonna tell myself he had a (future-science) curable condition, and they decided to do superscience on his brain while they were curing it and that society made a big deal out of it because society is the worst

[wjowski]

TK would be fun the the GE is more practical and probably more useful in real life.

Would it though? This isn't going to make you Reed Richard's level smart with Batman level reflexes, you'll just be an upper-tier human.

[Sol_M]

Would it though? This isn't going to make you Reed Richard's level smart with Batman level reflexes, you'll just be an upper-tier human.

An upper tier human could potentially accomplish a fair bit with slightly less effort than they are currently applying, whereas someone with Carrie levels of TK would...find it much easier to do various physical things, but would it really help with any of your life goals?

Carrie level TK, largely, doesn't translate to something that impacts society in a really big way. For example, would it be something that people will want to pay you for?

It seems more like a quality of life thing, where you can simply apply extreme physical force by thinking about it (and situationally very useful, like in a fight, or when you need to manipulate objects that are difficult to wield with your hands).

...you could probably get some stuff illegally, but that's besides the point.

[The Drunkard Kid]

I will take the Genetic Enhancement, because I know myself well enough to figure that I will end up having to be taken out by the military roughly three morning commutes after getting telekinesis.