Not all animals are suitable candidates for uplift. To date, the only creatures that have been successfully uplifted are those who had already taken a few solid steps from sentience towards sapience on their own. Of all of the animal species that existed on Earth, few more than a dozen were of viable enough intelligence that they could be modified to human-level cognition. All of the neuroscience at transhumanity’s disposal is not enough to elevate canines, bears, horses, badgers, snakes, sharks, or platypi to the level of thinking apes. The amount of genetic rewiring and biological modification to do so is simply beyond current technology.
This doesn’t mean no one is working on it, of course. Right now, all over the solar system, thousands of animals are serving as living test subjects in the genetic arms race to create the next new sapient life form. I know syndicates that have ongoing betting pools, if you’re interested. My money’s on dogs beating out cats.
There’s no reason you have to go all the way to uplift, of course. It’s possible to enhance an organism without doing the ﬂoor-to-ceiling neural and physiological redesign that uplift entails. Many of those animals that are well-adapted to human services—or servitude, if you care to think of it that way—and who are relatively bright have already been elevated to “smart animal” status. Smart animals include any critters who have been modified for greater intelligence. Though none of these are (yet) capable of passing the Advanced Sapience Test, many of them are significantly more intelligent than their baseline counterparts, and some have even been boosted to the cognitive equivalent of a human toddler. The smarter ones understand verbal commands and can sometimes communicate back using primitive vocalizations or sign language.
Aside from dogs and cats, humanity’s primary traditional domestic animals and companions, most smart animals are elevated because of their utility. Creatures that can provide some useful services, whether that be guarding, cleaning up, policing, agricultural work, and so on are more likely to be enhanced. After all, many of the groups behind these uplift projects are hypercorps looking to proﬁt. To them, these animals are a product, or possibly a future indentured workforce.
Smart animals are used throughout transhuman society, just like any tool. Ironically, they are more readily accepted than uplifts because it’s clear they still remain on the animal side of the animal-people divide. Even biocons accept the use of smart animals, though they demand limits on the cognitive abilities these animals are engineered to have.
Many smart animal species are enhanced with other modifications, both genetic and cybernetic. More intelligent breeds are equipped with specialized mesh inserts so they can be tracked and issued remote commands; a controller AI helps keep the critters electronically leashed. Others are given enhancements appropriate to the animal’s utility purposes, or to enable better control in a habitat environment through pheromonal cues, scents, sounds, etc. Some are equipped with puppet socks, enabling their handlers to remotely control or jam them like biological robotic drones.
==Smart Dogs== 
Man’s oldest and most loyal companion, //Canis familiaris//, has gotten a makeover for a new age. Enhancement represents the ﬁrst change in the human-canine relationship since dogs slipped into the circle of ﬁrelight 100,000 years ago. Modern dogs come equipped with an artificial larynx and the intelligence of a two-year old human child. They can talk, with an average canine vocabulary of twenty to thirty words. They are able to obey simple commands and express simple concepts: danger, hurt, happy, hungry (that one comes up a lot), etc. Many dogs (especially guard dogs) are ﬁtted with mesh inserts, so they can communicate with their masters remotely. For the dog, it feels like they have the voice of their master in their head. (Yes, master—these are not uplifts, remember.)
Aside from their role as human companions, dogs have always served the role of guardians. Enhanced canines are a favorite of security corps, being comfortable around humans, easy to train, and well adapted to security duty. Their sense of smell can also be exploited to track targets, detect substances, or warn of other threats. And more than anything else, they’re loyal. Guard dogs are commonly geared up with special implants, from bioweave to enhanced vision or muscle augmentation. Most popular is diamond teeth, capable of ripping through ﬂesh, bone, and even light armor. Facilities that use guard dogs make ample use of puppet socks to coordinate the dogs’ actions when needed.
One thing to note about dogs is that they are not particularly well-equipped to handle microgravity. As a consequence, few are found on zero-g space stations. You’re more likely to ﬁnd smart dogs on planets, large moons, [[O'Neill cylinders|O’Neill cylinders]], or [[toruses]].
==Smart Cats== 
The relationship between man and cat has never been quite the same as man and dog. Dogs are grade schoolers who worship their fathers, who believe they can do no wrong. Cats, on the other hand, are teenagers. There is a relationship, there may even be love, but ladled over all of it is a heavy dollop of contempt. One almost wonders if somewhere cat scientists aren’t trying to uplift //humans//.
Enhanced cats often have similar hardware to smart dogs—artiﬁcial larynxes, mesh inserts, and all the rest. Supposedly they’re smarter than dogs (equivalent to a human three-year old), and their vocabulary is on average ﬁfty percent higher (thirty to forty-ﬁve words)—though they almost never respond to commands. Sometimes they do respond to warnings. It may sound like a ﬁne distinction, but then living with a cat is all about dealing with ﬁne distinctions.
Aside from companionship, smart cats are sometimes used for gathering intel. They are quiet, small, agile, and well-equipped for seeing in near-darkness. It’s surprising how often people will overlook a “stray” in a run-down neighborhood. They serve quite well as living recorders, streaming their sensory input over the mesh or dumping it to implanted storage. They can work quite effectively even outside of direct human supervision. Some germlines have elongated ﬁngers and thumbs on their forepaws, enabling limited tool use. Cat burglars literally exist.
Like dogs, cats are not well-adapted for microgravity and so are rare on zero-g habitats. They are a lot of fun to watch in low-grav stations, however. I’ve seen cats on Luna make some impressive leaps.
===Sidebar: Swarm Cats=== 
A popular pastime on scum swarms that has recently been gaining in notoriety is the practice of raising and competing so-called “swarm cats.” Among the scum, these animals are bred both for companionship and competition. The refusal of the scum to render their creations sterile has meant that a sizable population of swarm cats has developed in various scum barges and swarms—and on many of the habitats they visit.
The animals themselves are chimeric smart cats, heavily modified using open source biotech and genetics to make the biggest, smartest, and meanest feline you can get. Swarm cats entered in competitions must have at least 51% of their genome drawn from animals in the suborder //Feliformia//, which means not only large and small terrestrial cats but also mongooses, civets, and hyenas. The remainder of the genetic makeup can come from anything the engineering party believes will make for a better competitive animal. Non-competitive germlines fall into the category of whatever-the-hell-the-scum-feel-like-today. On my last trip to a scum barge, I saw one that looked like a Siamese house cat with four eyes and purple bioluminescent fur, and another swarm cat that was more like a snow leopard with armadillo skin, six chitinous legs, and a trio of whip-like cybernetic tails.
Competitive swarm catting has two elements. First the cats race through an obstacle course that measures their agility, speed, strength, and problem-solving skills. The cats are most often raced in the more dangerous and disused portions of the ship, creating a true test of their survival skills. The obstacles and tests are clever and sometimes deadly. I saw one where the swarm cats had to figure out how to squelch a ﬁre that blocked access to a tunnel they needed to get through, and another that required them to cross a gap between airlocks exposed to vacuum. The second part is a show portion where the animal gets displayed and performs tricks. In typical scum fashion, this is more like a circus sideshow mixed with appreciation and evaluation of genehacking ingenuity.
Swarm cats can also make excellent guard animals and will often bond to their handlers, using their unique skills to protect them. Many scum barges have growing populations of “stray” swarm cats that are cared for and looked after by the entire ship.
==Smart Monkeys== 
Dogs and cats are wonderful, but they have certain disadvantages. First off, they are not as bright as they need to be for really complex tasks. They’re not stupid exactly, but they aren’t what you’d call college material, either. They go a fair way just on instinct and limited enhancements, but at the end of the day there’s more yet to go. It’s not just the brain issue. It’s not even //mostly// the brain issue. The bigger issue is how poorly adapted they are to microgravity.
On the other hand, primates do very well in microgravity. Monkeys are used to climbing trees, swinging on vines, flying across empty space. They do all those same things in zero gee, they just don’t have to worry about the possibility of falling. And as a bonus, they’re clever little buggers, too.
The two monkey species generally favored for enhancement are macaques and spider monkeys: bright, lively creatures that can mass anywhere from ten to ﬁfteen kilos and will generally live into their thirties, making it economical to enhance them. Though if you want an enhanced monkey for security, most people turn to the forty-kilo baboon.
Monkeys are often used as servants. Like dogs and cats, they are typically given larynxes and mesh inserts. Intelligence and vocabulary vary by germline. Smart monkeys are very popular as companions in neo-hominid communities. They are also used as couriers, spies, performers, bar backs, and thieves.
Security baboons are bred for aggression and size. They are often ﬁtted with armor and shock batons. Bars use them as bouncers and they are heavily used for crowd control and general backup by police on Mars. Some owners inject their baboons with a cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters known as kong—usually a mix of adrenaline, testosterone, and monoamine oxidase, an enzyme that breaks down the neurotransmitter serotonin. This makes the baboons edgy and extremely aggressive. It’s also bad for the ol’ brain chemistry and circulatory system. Baboons subjected to this kind of treatment usually die a decade earlier than baboons raised under more standard conditions.
Baboons have proved to be good at crowd control on Mars, but that effectiveness comes at a price. Once you turn them loose, it’s nearly impossible to rein them in. For this reason the aggression cocktail has to be managed carefully. If an enemy releases it at an inopportune moment, the baboons may very well turn on their handlers.
===Sidebar: Animal Pods=== 
Some animals are not suitable for uplift, but their bodies are useful enough to consider creating as pods, particularly if modified for extra utility. These are primarily used as biological androids, operated by an AI for speciﬁc tasks, though they are sometimes adopted as morphs by transhumans as well. Novacrabs are the prime example of this, favored for their durability, multiple limbs, and ability to operate in difficult environments, particularly vacuum. Pods created from wolf, tiger, and bear stock have been deployed for security purposes and sometimes even military action. Hypergibbons have been widely adopted as a more aesthetically pleasing alternative to robots in neo-hominid communities, also being useful for neo-apes who want a primate morph that is quick to sleeve into and evacuate. Other less common and sometimes strange pods can be found throughout the system, particularly in the hands of the idle rich, adventurous, or weird.
==Smart Rats== 
These upgrades of the common Norwegian rat are clever and dexterous, and they easily ﬁt into a pocket or hood. Think of a smart rat as a little assistant that can dart out and drop or pick up small objects or papers, manipulate devices, fetch you a drink bulb, or sabotage equipment. The portability of rats is a major advantage. They are also harder to detect than cats, dogs, or monkeys. They don’t do well in micrograv habitats, though some germlines are equipped with grip pads, enabling them to scurry along interior surfaces.
Smart rats can’t speak and are not usually equipped with mesh implants, except cheap spimes that track their location and health. The exception is rats used for spying or inﬁltration, who will be equipped with recording or transmitting sensors. Their main use, however, is for janitorial services and pest control in habitats. Their behavior is controlled with a complex set of chemical cues.
==Other Smart Animals== 
Many other animals have been gifted with enhanced smarts. These range from smart pigeons, used as couriers and eavesdroppers, to the smart horses and camels deployed as pack animals for gatecrashing missions. Some smart animals with no particular utility as servants, partially uplifted at great expense, are favored by the rich, who delight in displaying unusual smart pet companions as expensive showpieces.

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