"Let's imagine that... "
So let us imagine a little bit. Suppose genetic modification, somehow, became a concrete science to the point of extreme intellectual and physical change and readily available. Never mind the money issue of such a thing for now.
There is an episode of "Outer Limits" (if you are familiar, rock on, man) where for a price affordable to the upper-middle to upper class, during pregnancy, a child can be altered for drastically increased psychological and physical performance. While at first, during the first generation of superhuman kids, all is generally well. However, many issues quickly arise. One of which is that the middle and lower classes cannot afford this procedure and are therefore cut out from the (arguable) great leap in human progress. Another problem is that on rare occasion one of the gen-modded children would begin to mutate and go all freaky at puberty. Now, imagine the generation of physical and psychological super capable children beginning to dominate all fields of arts, science, etc. in a very short time span... At 18 years old, a young woman or man could and would take the jobs of their older peers with little effort, even those of their parents.
The gap between the rich and poor, the successful and not, would widen drastically!
Imagine a sibling 5 years younger than you, almost incalculably smarter than you? A child at 13-14, though emotionally inexperienced, competing with you in everything. Potential opportunity for extreme envy to arise, profiling on both sides, probably new forms of hate and hate crimes across all cultures.
If a ten year old child was more intuitive, better in logistic and abstract thought than their 30-40-50 year old parents? Superiority/inferiority complexes, guilt complexes... emotional distance between parents and child...
In a single generation, a more primitive humanity becomes cast in shadow before the dawn of super-humans.
So, let us suppose. Let us suppose we had this choice. The choice to give our children the potential and power we never had. The price, however, is to know that we the old humanity, are left behind to waddle in our own uselessness.
Would you do it?
I am familiar with outer limits, though i have not seen every episode. Among those missed is the one which your blog pertains to. I will have to see if I can find and watch it in the coming future. However I find the topic of genetically enhanced children quite interesting, and something quite frightening to imagine. The question of how an emotionally underdeveloped child would be able to cope with such a great intelligence is particularly vexing. It is undeniable that such an occurrence would have chaotic effects on society, but at the same time, it would be extremely tempting to discover what such an advanced being would be capable of.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear about the ability to genetically modify human traits, skills, and intellect in order to make them better, quicker, and smarter, the only word that comes into mind is: "Lazy". I mean, we have accomplished so much already, without having gone through enhancing methods at birth. And it's not like these advanced traits are going to make humans nicer, more peaceful, and good. Like you said, this is an open window for more hate crimes, difference of social/economic classes, and the list goes on...
ReplyDeleteIt's like we don't want to go through all the pain and the suffering, and the hard times of life's circumstances... We just want things done, and quick. And although sometimes you could've done without the tougher times, these are the moments that build you, these are the moments from which you grow and learn from.
However, let's not forget that those experimenting on genetic modification are not the ones who are lazy. I mean, I wouldn't be able to do a quarter of the things they're doing! It's the newer generation. The one that is going to fall right under these experiments. THAT, is the generation to fear.
Sarah, I agree with you on the "lazy" aspect. Look at the latest most populat movies/books - Harry Potter, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Twilight, Hulk. There is a single common theme - do something small (join an experiment, be bitten by a spider, vampire, discover you have magic powers, have a sun flare at you) and become a super-being!!! Yay!!! Why do we need school, work, gym classes? We can become superious in a matter of days!
ReplyDeleteThat is just sad.
Regarding children... That is a common theme of the hidden fears of any parent. The scenario you describe is a hyperbolization of a failure to understand new generation, to establish emotional bonds. People are afraid of something they don't know. We don't know our kids very often and we are scared by their actions at times. Multiply that by 200 and you will get a super-generation that can take away all the reasons and ways to live from their parents. It is actually interesting to see how in that scenario the parents are given the last desperate measure of control of the future, whereas in reality there is no way to control it.
I meant the choice whether to alter the kid or now.
ReplyDeleteI've studied a lot about genetic modification and I have never thought that "super-kids" would be a problem regarding our place in the labour force. However, i think that we are already experiencing the effects of technology. like in the car industry where many people have lost their jobs because they were replaced by machines who could do their job better and faster. even if technology increases the amount of goods that we can produce, i think that it decreases the capacity of people to buy them, because people need to work in order to get money and buy cloths or cars, but if they lose their jobs, they would not have monye to buy anything. I think that we should understand and try to control the problems caused by high advancements in technology in order to avoid them in the future.
ReplyDelete