Not what, but Who to Choose

Some people say they have spiritual connections with animals. Spending so much time with animals surely grants a person a sense of familiarity (understatement of the year). In essence, we feel like we can read our pet cat, hamster, snake like a book. And they in turn know us. But where does that empathy come from? Does it stretch from our ability to empathize with them? Or their ability to empathize with us? Or both. I would strongly lean towards the former: We empathize. with animals. Which explains why we can see so many commercials about cruelty and donation to ASPCA. As a tangent, I made it a personal mission to avoid donating to organizations that do this: If you don't donate, chances are you'll turn off the TV or change the channel. If you do, chances are you're already donating, and therefore probably don't need a reminder. But in either case, let's play with using the word 'who' over 'what' when I say which animal to use for eventual 'giftedness.'


Housepets

This is the obvious choice for which species to mentally augment first.  As it features animals that are tame, lovable, adorable, and the stuff of viral videos. What are the other benefits of this? The benefits would evolve from pets being our companion to being very close friends of sort. Service animals and support animals can give verbal comfort and assistance in times of need. And the more typical pet could be a close friend for near the entire animal's lifetime.

However, there are other issues to consider. In most housepets, the brain may be too small to work with, and augment. It could be likely the pet could be augmented to greater sizes, but remember when I said the brain may be. Another way to think about it is this. What's the general criteria for how smart an animal is? A ten year old will tell you it's general brain size. A lot of scientific literature would consider it density or neural connections within the brain. I.e. how connected our neurons are to each other. So then, if the typical parrot (with a really small brain) can possess up to the intelligence of a four year old, imagine the potential connections a canine or a feline brain can make under the right circumstances.

I'm an animal person myself, so naturally the hardest thing about having one is the passing on. With such a closer bond of friendship and companionship, what sort of emotional roller coaster would happen if a pet died. Worse yet, if the loyalty of the animal shaken by an owner's remains, worse emotions can be felt.

It's a hard balance of benefit versus pain when this option is considered.


Herbivory Work Animals

The generally largest brains to work with, cattle, horse, and other livestock feature the greatest potential to work with. And the chances are cows and cattle are probably the most docile to work with and won't serve a huge danger to researchers all the same with pets. (I'm a more city boy, so maybe I'm wrong in this aspect and the black and white cows are secret agents of Satan that steal your hat, I don't know.) I know I said brain size doesn't determine intelligence, but a large brain can feature more connections as a byproduct of such size.

Of course, this wouldn't be done in a meat factory vacuum. It would be hard to consider the animal, sooner or later would learn about the meat market and the considerable slaughter that occurs here. A thing to consider when teaching a supposed animal new things is nearly the same as a child: What not to teach them or what not to teach them immediately. So when do we break to a pig or cow or horse even that while they stay protected as the priceless specimen they are, millions of others are slaughtered. So in a hypothetical story, a tragedy story of sorts may arise when a sentient cow may pick up the slightest whiff of an In-n-Out burger on a researcher's breath and simply ask, "What's that food you had?" So then in all likelihood would we just stick to horses?

Apex Predators

So then, if a canine's brain is big enough, what's to say a lion's brain, wolf's brain, or the like wouldn't support the necessary modifications? They feature the same size, rough starting density, and mirror our own attitudes in ways that can be familiar. Better yet, large canines and felines with their family structure, specifically wolves and lions. Now, I know where most 'sane' people would think. This was the stuff of madness, that they made movies about this and the outcome is never beneficial to humans. Well, of course if serious chanced errors were made. After all, Jurassic Park, Planet of the Apes, Jurassic World all featured breeched of conduct that are not normal in the slightest. Arguments can be made that people who aren't proficient can and are still hired. In which case, such is the point of a standard operating procedure, contingency plans, and plain old logic and oversight are what naturally come into play.

All that aside, there would be serious conditioning and learning patterns needed. I.e. with the benefit of higher learning in an animal, they can understand the concept of emergency firearms that only humans anatomy can operate. It sounds cruel, but my point is to consider nearly all outcomes, regardless of whether they are sound or not, or even whether I like them or not. Either way, there's still the concept of respect and healthy fear any predator has, and safe to say, healthy fear of humans might be a learned nature. (I'm very human centric in that I hold that humans hold the record for nearly every -est category in the animal kingdom.) And that being the case, if any predator comes to conclude that, it just might be safer for humans, (researchers and animal psychologists and whoever else would be tasked with working with these new animals.)

While a fear for more efficient hunting habits could arise, bear in mind. At the rate of energy consumption a human brain has, it is likely any augmented animal would not survive in the wild. Because fun fact: While our brain is only 2% of our body weight, it uses 20% of our entire energy intake.

Which would I Pick?

Mostly the point of this post was to try and narrow down the choice for which animal would be chosen to become sentient, the question is an open one. I would pick wolf almost any day, for reasons above, plus a more familiar family psychology that we can work with. All in all, we fear a predator might gain consciousness to threaten its environment. Well, guess what? The deadliest predator is reading this right now, killing thousands of lower life forms a year. Another with not even a quarter of qualitative physical capabilities wouldn't do much damage. Not even close.

Anyways, Happy Thinking!