Seeking Metafilter comment speculating about a gender-changing lab prank

January 20, 2017 3:34 PM

A while back on Metafilter somebody posted a comment imagining a scenario where a lab employee (or student?) in the near future could do a prank using some sort of bio-tech hack to change a co-worker's gender for a few days. IIRC the commenter said they had worked in a lab and they seemed to believe this sort of thing might actually happen someday.

I've had no luck searching Metafilter. I'm pretty sure it was a comment on the main site, but it's possible it was a comment on Ask Metafilter. It definitely wasn't part of a post, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't on Fanfare or any of the other sub-sites.

posted by Ursula Hitler to MetaFilter-Related at 3:34 PM (7 comments total)

This rang bells as being similar to the final episode of 'Look Around You' with the 'Inventor of the Year' invention, but searching with those terms on metafilter hasn't brought up what you're looking for.
posted by Vortisaur at 12:32 AM on January 21, 2017

The comment gave me an idea for a story. It could be useful to see it again, but unfortunately I just can't seem to find it on the site.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:04 AM on January 21, 2017

This might have appeared in "Rapture of the Nerds," by (Mefi's own) Charlie Stross and Cory Doctorow.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:44 AM on January 21, 2017

This sounds a lot like the premise of Neil Gaiman short story "Changes." Maybe something came up on the blue based around that?
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 11:47 AM on January 21, 2017

Is this it?
posted by Redstart at 12:09 PM on January 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is this it?

Hmm. Maybe. I could swear that the comment I'm thinking of was more detailed, but maybe my mind just embellished this one a lot. Thanks very much for finding that!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:34 PM on January 21, 2017

Didn't this happen in Narbonic?
"Don't ask questions. Just accept that this will be fun."
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:16 AM on January 22, 2017