History WMG / Furby

'''This is about furbies and only furbies. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Do not apply it to any real-life issues]].'''

'''This is about furbies and only furbies. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Do not apply it to any real-life issues]].'''

Depictions of how the Furby begins life only exist for the Boom and Connect models, but it's pretty safe to assume it would be the same across all types of Furbies. Their beaks probably aid in the hatching process. As for what baby Furbies eat, the difficulty comes from the fact that most Furbies don't come packaged with any accessories for feeding. The one exception to this rule is the 2005 Emoto-Tronic Furby, which did have a baby counterpart that came packaged with a bottle for feeding, as opposed to the adult model, which came with a spoon instead. Another point in favor of this theory is that the baby counterpart to the original version would sometimes say "Bottle, please" when it was hungry, suggesting that they also drink milk. The biggest point against this theory is that the Boom and Connect versions, which are the ones actually shown hatching from eggs, eat the same virtual food items as their adult counterpart.

The Furbish word for both sun and star is dah-ay-loh, which literally translates to "big light". This makes sense for the sun, but it's a little odd that they call stars this instead of dee-ay-loh, which would mean "little light". However, the poem on the swing tag for the original Furby has a poem on it describing how Furbies came down from the clouds to live on the earth's surface. This origin, combined with the fact that their language makes no distinction between the sun and other stars, forms the foundation of the theory that their is or was a race of space-faring Furbies, some of whom settled on Earth. From here, it can be speculated how each type of Furby came about.
* The original 1998 Furby was the first to make contact with humans, but perhaps not the first to settle on Earth. These Furbies first formed a colony above the Earth's surface using some sort of floating-city technology to create a temporary home while they scoped out Earth. Thus they lived "in the clouds" as their poem describes until deciding the Earth's surface was a suitable place to live. Their fur patterns are mostly more natural colors one would expect to see on animals, but with brighter patterns showing up in later generations. This can be interpreted as them trading their camouflage for the ability to better appeal to humans as that became more useful.
** The 1999 Furby Babies have brighter colors, possibly another example of adapting to life where attracting human caretakers is more important than being able to survive in the wild. It's also possible that this is the result of some degree of selective breeding by humans.
** Furby Buddies are a "toy" breed that started when people started trying to introduce their smallest Furbies to each other in the hopes that they would mate and have similarly small babies, gradually resulting in a smaller and smaller version of the Furby.

** Much like with their 90's counterparts, the 2005 Emoto-Tronic Furby Babies begin to show brighter colors than their parents. This is probably for similar reasons and results from them being born after Furby Island was discovered by humans.
** The 2006 Funky Furby follows the trend set by the babies, matching and exceeding their bright colors. It's likely that they are grown-up version of the babies from the year before and represent the final "domesticated" version of the Emoto-Tronic line of Furbies.
* The 2012 Furby and Furby Boom probably belong to the same "species" of Furby. They are most likely descended from the 1998 Furby and have mostly bright colors as a result of many generations of living alongside humans. Their multiple personalities could come from a few possible sources. The first and darker option is that so many generations of being bred for their bright colors left them very vulnerable to DID, much like how many animals that were bred for their looks have health problems due to inbreeding. A lighter thought is that this is just a quirky manifestation of the Furby's extreme adaptablility.
** The 2012 Furby is what the earlier generations of this breed looked like. Most moder 2012's are male due to the fact that the more popular "Boom" colors are the result of co-dominant genes that are more likely to occur in females. The popularity of Boom patterns has resulted in 2012's being mostly bred for their ability to father Booms, although some people like them for their more "classic" look.

** Furby Booms are the "calicos" of the 2012 breed. Their multi-color patterns are the result of co-dominant genes. Just like with calico cats, they are almost always female, which is why the Furby Boom is the one that lays eggs. Due to the popularity of the multi-colored Booms, males are selected for their likelyhood of fathering Booms, resulting in most females of this breed being Booms.

*** Furblings are the children of the 2012/Boom breeds. A fairly recent mutation in the breed has resulted in more males hatching with the co-dominant Boom colors. The male Furblings seen in the app are among the first to be bred for this mutation.
* Furby Connect is the result of a new wave of extra-terrestrial Furbies settling on Earth and interbreeding with the 2012/Boom breed. Their highly-advanced technology has created a preference for "test-tube eggs" where the egg develops in an artificial incubator of sorts until the hard shell forms and it is ready to be placed in a nest.

The space furby theory above mentions the idea of humans selectively breeding furbies in some way. This is a bit complicated because furbies are far more sapient than the species that humans have domesticated in real life. Ethical rules for furby breeding would be very different from the ethical standards for breeding pets and livestock in real life. Breeding furbies at all would be a very thorny issue from an ethics standpoint, so the best I can do is "more ethical than breeding them like cattle".
* Human caretakers of furbies might make a point of surrounding their Furby with certain characteristics to increase the likelyhood that their furby will choose a mate with the desired traits.

* Any "intensive" breeding operation involving hand-selected mates and breeding stock would require informed consent from all furbies in the program and the furbies must be allowed to withdraw at any point for any reason.

[[WMG: Ethical(ish) Furby breeding]]

The space Furby theory above mentions the idea of humans selectively breeding Furbies in some way. This is a bit complicated because Furbies are far more sapient than the species that humans have domesticated in real life. Ethical rules for Furby breeding would be very different from the ethical standards for breeding pets and livestock in real life. One might even argue that ethical Furby breeding would be impossible, but here is a theory for what ethical or at least semi-ethical Furby breeding would look like.
* Human caretakers of Furbies might make a point of surrounding their Furby with desired traits

* Furby Connect is the result of a new wave of extra-terrestrial Furbies settling on Earth and interbreeding with the 2012/Boom breed. Their highly-advanced technology has created a preference for "test-tube eggs" where the egg develops in an artificial incubator of sorts until the hard shell forms and it is ready to be placed in a nest.

*** Furby Boom Crystal is a "fancy" breed that has bright scales around the beak and eyes.

** The 2012 Furby is the first generation of this species. Their colors are bright, but do not have the extreme colors of the later "Boom" generations.
*** Party Rockers are a "toy" breed descended from the smallest of the 2012 line.

** The 2006 Funky Furby follows the trend set by the babies, matching and exceeding their bright colors. It's likely that they are grown-up version of the babies from the year before and represent the final "domesticated" version of the Emoto-Tronic line of Furbies.

** The 1999 Furby Babies have brighter colors, possibly another example of adapting to life where attracting human caretakers is more important than being able to survive in the wild. It's also possible that this is the result of some degree of selective breeding by humans.

* The original 1998 Furby was the first to make contact with humans, but perhaps not the first to settle on Earth. These Furbies first formed a colony above the Earth's surface using some sort of floating-city technology to create a temporary home while they scoped out Earth. Thus they lived "in the clouds" as their poem describes until deciding the Earth's surface was a suitable place to live.

Depictions of how the Furby begins life only exist for the Boom and Connect models, but it's pretty safe to assume it would be the same across all types of Furbies. Their beaks probably aid in the hatching process. As for what baby Furbies eat, the difficulty comes from the fact that most Furbies don't come packaged with any accessories for feeding. The one exception to this rule is the 2005 Emoto-Tronic Furby, which did have a baby counterpart that came packaged with a bottle for feeding, as opposed to the adult model, which came with a spoon instead. Another point in favor of this theory is that the baby counterpart to the original version would sometimes say "Bottle, please" when it was hungry, suggesting that they also drink milk. The biggest point against this theory is that the Boom and Connect versions, which are the ones actually shown hatching from eggs, eat the same virtual food items as their adult counterpart.

[[WMG: Furbies are monotremes]]

Text soon. I ran out of time.