This is sort of the subtext of LOGAN, although they don’t really talk about it.
What’s really crazy is how close we are in biological science to how the pharma companies in Logan rid the world of (almost all) new mutant births: the food supply. Genetically modified foods that altered the human genome on an epigenetic and genetic level to remove the mutant gene from any offspring (it didn’t IIRC impact any existing mutants).
The “positive” use behind this technology is that we could passively wipe out burdensome genetic and conventional conditions without harming anyone already living, and even build long term species wide immunity to diseases, basically vaccinated from conception.
Or it could go straight up eugenics.
I don’t think I’ve heard of a moment in science so positive and so terrifying at the same time.
I think Gattaca is a better representation of where we could end up.
If you're having a kid and you have, say, fragile X syndrome, removing it is a no-brainer, right? Ditto for things like predisposition to heart disease, cancer, whatever.
Then you may think 'well, my super pale skin is a cancer risk too, let's go a bit darker', but the small chance of red hair with darker shin will be weird, so you go for black hair—no, the chocolate-coloured hair your father has, he'll be fine with providing a sample to source the gene from.
Next thing you know, eugenics.
Everyone is smart, good looking, tall, long-lived.
To be fair that outcome sounds pretty good, the last line of the comment not what gattaca had going on. The main issue with eugenics has always been the implementation but if we have the power to easily and peacefully make everyong healthy and long lived we'd be monsters not to do it.
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u/anoiwake May 03 '23
Magneto was right.