Species Uplifting

Species Uplifting is an expensive biomedical process by which an animal's genetic and neurological makeup are altered to accommodate sapient thought, including logical reasoning, linguistic comprehension, long-term memory and scientific knowledge. The procedure has been successfully undertaken on chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, cats, dogs, parrots, crows, raccoons and horses. It could theoretically work on pigs, but due to ethical concerns relating to the history of the treatment of pigs in human cultures, this has not been attempted.

With one notable exception, species uplifting is only feasible on the level of the individual; any offspring an uplifted animal has will not carry on the traits. Species uplifting does not change an animal's instincts either; uplifted individuals will still think in ways similarly to others of their species, but with the added capabilities of sapient thought and reasoning. Finally, species uplifting does not physically alter the capabilities of an animal's tongue, so though most uplifted animals are perfectly capable of understanding language, they have trouble speaking it themselves and often make use of prosthetics or writing tools to communicate instead.

Due to ethical concerns everywhere else, the procedure is effectively only available in Byto space; it is prohibitively expensive for all but the richest.