What goes through a person's mind before he/she crosses a busy intersection? Most people survey the surroundings, evaluate the appropriate instant to cross the street and then make the walk across. We act this way because we are sentient beings. Sentient beings notice and interact with their surroundings. Therefore, humans comprise what makes a sentient being. But do not other animals, such as a dog, interact and have an awareness of their surroundings? Most dogs will try to cross the road and avoid getting hit. Of course there are some who just run right out into the road even though a car is coming. The point is they can look around and interact. For instance, when a person plays fetch with them, they see the stick being thrown and then retrieve it. So what makes a human different from other sentient beings? Humans possess the power to reason deductively, infer, react to our surroundings, and manipulate them. Look at all humanity created and is still creating. The past century is a good indicator of this. We progressed from horses and buggies to automobiles and airplanes. We ventured out of the atmosphere into the blackness and endlessness of outer space. Computers were invented and are improved almost on a daily basis. Many, many concepts, formulas, theorems, and knowledge (facts) exist in our society, discovered by other people, such as scientist, researchers, etc. Think of all that knowledge that is out there. How many hundreds of courses are available in college? How many different specific majors are out there? There are too many to count. Just think though, there is so much more to be discovered. Where will the discovery of more knowledge take us? Will it have repercussions?
Effects of the Mapping of the Genome
So with an everlasting yearning for the acquisition of knowledge humans want to know everything. We want know about the world and about ourselves as living beings, what makes us what we are. Therefore, science draws people to dig deep into the human mind and body, to probe around and discover all the wonderful and astounding parts of our beings. But how much do we need to know? How far do we need to investigate? Modern science has already surpassed many boundaries and discovered numerous helpful medical operations, procedures, drugs, etc. Many people appreciate this. Numerous people walk the earth today because of some medical operation (for instance open-heart surgery, a kidney transplant, etc.), or because an antibiotic or drug helped them recover from a sickness or prevented it all together. Many deadly diseases no longer threaten people because of vaccinations (for example small pox, measles, and polio). Even so, we deem it necessary to know more. New diseases evolve or surface and cures for them consequently have to be discovered. I know that if I had a disease threatening my life I would want a cure for it. This is a positive side to the biological advances scientists have made. Nobody wants to die prematurely and nobody wants to see his or her loved ones die an agonizing death, as say cancer.
Prejudice and the Genome
Even so, what if discoveries made by scientists are not used in truly benevolent ways? People yearn to discover what causes diseases and what can be done to prevent these diseases. But say that in the near future research uncovers the secrets of our DNA and scientists map the entire body's chromosome make up. Specific strands of DNA are tagged to be the cause of certain aspects of our life (for instance, fatal hereditary diseases). This is good, right? Well I would not say so. They, doctors and researchers, may possibly find some sort of prevention and so on, but that could take a good long while. Say that people start to have genetic test to see if they carry these types of diseases. As Weinberg suggests in his essay “The Dark Side of the Genome,” “Genetic profiles could be widely available by the year 2000, when many primary-care physicians will routinely order certain genetic tests along with the usual blood pressure reading and urinalysis.” This could cause numerous social problems. Say for example that a young man participates in a genetic test administered by his doctor. The test reveals that this person's DNA carries the strand tagged with a specific hereditary disease. Does a person, who through genetic testing has been tagged, live a lesser life? Will people not talk to him/her? Will they have to live single their whole life? Weinberg raises these questions and premonitions, and I agree with all of them. In the past society showed that it is very capable of racism, and even today it is not completely free from it. So when people are shown to have a genetic disease, then more than likely society will alienate these people. If we, Americans, treated African-Americans as inferiors because the color of their skin differed from ours, then what will stop people from showing prejudice towards these people? Think about it. Earlier in history the basis of prejudice was skin color. Now somebody could say, “Hey I'm better than other people are because I do not have any hereditary diseases.” Of course it is absurd to base such a comment on a genetic profile, but what will stop people form thinking that way when it is so easy. A small-scale example of this occurred in Europe. As noted in Weinberg essay, “Two decades ago, genetic screening among the population in central Greece for sickle-cell anemia revealed a number of normal individuals carrying genes that predisposed their offspring to the disease. Because the results were inappropriately disclosed, these individuals became publicly identified and stigmatized, and formed an unmarriageable genetic underclass.” This is only a small bit though. Suppose the entire genome is marked. Personal traits, such as intelligence, personality, etc., correlate with specific DNA strands. As mentioned before, genetic test could also be done for this. What would this be used for? As Weinberg suggests, “Some will use tests that will at best provide only probabilistic predictors of performance as precise gauges of competence.” So in many instances people could be underestimated and never given the opportunity to succeed in life. People may pass judgment, for example employers, based on results of these genetic tests. “Young adults with unfavorable constellations of genes may be limited in their employment possibilities. Employers want to hire productive, intelligent people.” Therefore it would be said if a person's genes do not say he is good enough than he is not. This would in turn create an upper class and a lower class, a class of genetically superior beings and others with flaws. The genetically superior would attain everything and all the others would be left behind. The same scenario that happened in Greece with hereditary diseases could also occur with personality traits.
Possibilities of Cyborgs and Replicants (like from Blade Runner) and the Future
Once DNA is mapped the possibilities could be endless. Already we have the capability to cyborg human beings, to incorporate a mechanical device into the operation of a human, which is a truly great power. To be able to give somebody that has no leg a mechanical limb, allowing him to be able to walk, run and jump is astounding. It helps to add joy into other's lives. A once crippled person can, once again or for the first time, do things that other people can do. If this technology is in place now what will the future hold? Sure the near future may entail some beneficial genetic advances such as a mechanical eyeball for the blind or a mechanical organ, which could eliminate the wait people encounter when waiting for a transplant. But once such devices become common place in society from there on who knows what could happen. If society advances in its understanding of genetics, amazing and possibly disastrous things could happen. Currently our only threat is other humans and of course the weapons they have, such as nuclear ones. This is a big problem, but they are still human like us. If there is another species, which is above ourselves, genetically superior, how could we contend with that? Would we be able to contain this species?
This draws me to look at the movie Blade Runner. In this film, Earth, a very dark, rainy, gloomy place, is inhabited by the lower class of people. Everybody else has left for the Off World Colony, a place of golden opportunity. Basically the genetically superior fled Earth and the genetically weaker remained ot inhabit what is left of Earth. What if technology reaches this point, the chaos of the society in LA in the year 2019 in the movie Blade Runner? Various threatening circumstances are inevitable. What if in today's world, replicants, like those in Blade Runner, are created with enhanced traits that make them superior to humans? These beings would have the ability to think. Like Pris, a replicant in Blade Runner, said, “I think therefore I am.” Then all the new models would be thinking and would be conscious of all things around them. If they contain the capacity to think they could form their own ideas and concepts. They would have the same mental processes as a human or maybe greater, in an enhanced genetic body, with super human strength. Some replicants, like the Nexus-6 models, were programmed to be combat “machines”, to be intelligent thinking beings. They were able to form their own radical views, which unfortunately were not peaceful. But then what if they evolve on their own? What if it gets to the point where replicants learn how to reproduce themselves, or should we say manufacture? They could program their new creations to be even more superior, with a greater life span. Then with our creations controlling us instead of us controlling them, what are we to do? Would our race, as humans, become extinct? I believe it could and it scares me. I believe that our creations would overtake us, leaving us at their disposal. Our technologically based and dependent society eventually will succumb to these technologies. I believe that we need to evaluate the circumstances and contemplate what we are involving ourselves in. We need to project the possible negative aspects. Before scientist dive into genetic engineering they need to think about what could possibly occur as a result of their findings. I am not saying that they do not or are not taking precautions. I am just saying that it needs to be done.
Sure people might argue that the positive possibilities could be extremely beneficial. I agree that the discovery of what causes certain diseases could aid in a cure. But, haven't we survived this long as a race without that information. As pointed out by Weinberg's essay, the tagging of the genes causing hereditary diseases could be detrimental to society and to individuals. It would be immoral to weed these people out. If these people lose their rights how is that fair? Everything that our society as Americans is based on is freedom. We possess the freedom to be whomever we want to be, the freedom to do what we want to do and accomplish what we want to accomplish. It would be like starting all over again having to establish new rules and once again fix the problem of segregation and discrimination.
Even still some might argue that the development of beings, such as replicants, is just accelerated and force evolution of the human race and that replicants are enhanced humans. But are they human? They are not composed entirely of organic compounds as we, humans are. Yes not all humans are entirely organic. Many people depend on pacemakers, metal plates, metal screws, artificial limbs, etc. but they were not born that way. They started out as an egg and a sperm and grew from there. They were not fabricated. They grew from a small embryo to an adult. True the human race evolved over the years of its existence to become what it is today but it was always done in the same way through a natural process. But now all of a sudden human-like machines can be made and their evolution will proceed at a more accelerated rate than it took us normal humans to. So I see these far-advanced creatures to not be the next step in human evolution but to be an entirely different “species” than ourselves.
So what does all this mean? It means that the future holds some scary truths. The closer the day comes to major genetic advances the more frightening it seems. In the near future, genetics could determine our lives, in a different way then it already does. Instead of making us who we are, it will limit us in our potential to be who we can be and what we can be. “Such a surrender to genetic determinism may disenfranchise generations of children who might come to believe that genes, rather than spunk, ambition, and passion, must guide their life course.” Eventually our human society may be replaced by a genetically engineered super human society. Our only existence will be in the traces left behind in the genetically engineered superhuman race.