Although the idea of messing with his quaint suburban cliche of a family was tempting, Daniel couldn't bring himself to do it. Partly out of
fear, partly because he liked them the way they were.
Instead, Dan turned in his desk chair and looked at the big green iguana warming itself under the lamp in the corner of his room. The
lizard was the best pet he had ever had.
Curiosity began to grow. Dan clicked on Casey's model and was met with the same 3d wireframe and a crazy amount of options. In
particular, Dan hovered over "intelligence" and grinned. And why not? He slid the bar and watched as the text under it changed. When he
started it indicated "full animal" which halfway changed to "problem solving animal" which reached "full sentience" at its maximum setting.
A pop up indicated that once an animal's intelligence was evolved as such, reverting it could lead to serious mental harm, and to seriously
consider the consequences for the creature. In a nutshell, being made complexly intelligent and then having it ripped away would cause
brain damage.
Dan nodded solemnly and looked back to his iguana. He thought for a minute or two, then turned back, checked "subject and world
aware," and set the progression to "slow (less than an hour)" and marked down "painless transition." Then, he slid the intelligence level all
the way to the right. The indicator changes from fully sentient to "human level cognition"
The Dan hit commit.
Again a warning popped up. "DANGER! The selected subject is an animal. You have optioned to increase the animal's intelligence to
human levels. This is irreversible! Forcing a decrease of intellect through further alteration will cause severe mental deterioration and
distress to this animal. Are you certain you wish to proceed?"
"I would never do that to Casey. I get it. No going back." Dan said out loud, and clicked yes.
The wire frame of the iguana switched to a complex model of a reptilian brain. The words "transitioning" flashed with a progress bar and
all options locked themselves.
In the corner, Casey visibly shuddered as his brain began to evolve. Dan turned as the progress bar hit a momentous 2% and saw the
closed eyes of his lizard, as if he was concentrating.
Carefully, Dan scooped up the big reptile in his arms and carried him to the bed. Casey was completely dazed, breathing evenly but totally
limb. Dan set them down on the bed, cuddled the reptile close to his chest, and simply stared in amazement. Very subtle changes were
occurring. The iguana's forehead seemed a little higher. Dan snuggled his pet close and gently rubbed his back. He glared at the progress
bar and saw a measly 10% had passed.