CRISPR and other tools aren’t science fiction anymore. If the wealthy get there first, what happens to everyone else?

  • normalspark@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    The plot of the film Gattaca explores this, the idea of what society looks like when there’s a class of genetically engineered, “superior” people, vs. the naturally born, “inferior” class.

    • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksM
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      8 days ago

      Is that the movie where (sorry for the bad synopsis) the guy vacuums his work desk because he wants to go to space?

    • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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      18 days ago

      Tbh, I think GATTACA barely touched the topic. It focussed so much on the brothers’ rivalry that you could strip out the genetic engineering part and it’d barely change the movie

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Okay, but the moral of the story was that “superior” people weren’t actually superior. They were just racist.

      The protagonist outwits and outperforms them all.

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        In some cases there were absolute superior though. Like the pianist with 12 fingers.

        The actual moral of the story was that it’s not worth it. Being a bit better at some random shit like swimming, playing piano or piloting a rocket is not good enough to sacrifice the rest.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          Like the pianist with 12 fingers.

          Having twelve fingers isn’t what makes you good at playing the piano.

          Being a bit better at some random shit like swimming, playing piano or piloting a rocket is not good enough to sacrifice the rest.

          There’s an underlying question in the story that amounts to “if you’ve made Earth such a great place, why is everyone trying to leave?”

          The plan to colonize Titan is, at its root, a eugenics fantasy.

          • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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            17 days ago

            Having twelve fingers isn’t what makes you good at playing the piano.

            The movie literally says that the piece cannot be played without 12 fingers.

            The plan to colonize Titan is, at its root, a eugenics fantasy.

            the movie doesn’t say anything about “colonizing titan”, in fact the mission doesn’t even state what’s the purpose other than to get to titan which has never been done before - it symbolizes ultimate frontier that in the eyes of eugenicists would require a perfect human to be achieved and yet the guy that ends up outcompeting everyone is a not genetically modified and achieves this through sheer skill and determination.

            There’s an underlying question in the story that amounts to “if you’ve made Earth such a great place, why is everyone trying to leave?”

            You’re misinterpreting the ending. Vincent always felt rejected by the world for being a natural but ends up feeling bittersweet for leaving as he found Irene and Jerome who proved to him that earth is very much capable of loving him. Not “everyone is trying to leave earth”, just Vincent really and even then he heavily diminishes his desire.


            I love Gattaca and really don’t understand your beef with it. It’s a beautiful story but awfully insightful too that aged perfectly even to this day! In fact, I’ll watch it again tonight :)

    • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Not seen Gattaca, but a multi-tier, genetically structured society is the basis of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, which is well worth a read.

    • yardratianSoma@lemmy.ca
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      18 days ago

      The Beggars Trilogy by Nancy Kress touches on this as well, but is more focused on the issues with superintelligence rather than just gene alteration, although, because people are vain, the preference for things like hair, skin and symmetry also exist in the story’s world. Oh yeah, and the coolest concept from this trilogy is a thing called “sleeplessness”, where people can alter there genes to remove the biological need to sleep, allowing people to be able to be productive for as many hours as they desire.