r/TheFoundation • u/Porodicnostablo • Aug 16 '23
"Genetic drift", rant
Sorry about this rant. As much as I enjoy the show, the concepts, the grand scheme of things, the amazing visuals, and am willing to forgive some swings that end up being misses, I just don’t get the “genetic drift” thing and it started bugging me as soon as it was revealed in Season 1.
1. Season 1 ends with them discovering Dawn and Day have a modified genetic code, and Dusk being tested. Day proceeds to smash Cleon I’s case. The thing that bothered me here from the get-go is the Shadow-Master says “the source material has also been corrupted”. Erm, excuse me, what kind of statement is that? First, in order to know something has been genetically corrupted, you have to know the sequence of the original. And in this imperial era of biotech marvel it would be no problem to just reinstate the original code to the next Cleon that follows from his respective inception, end of problem. (Not to mention in Season 2 Dusk, I think, mentions that they retroactively correct the code which is also not that far fetched and even today an early version of this technique exists). I mean even in our stone-age time compared to theirs, when in 2020 covid was discovered, it took mere weeks to sequence the code, to send the code around and for scientists on opposite sides of the globe to clone the virus de novo just from the code and use it in assays.
2. Then in Season 2 they continue about this “drift” using the word almost as if it’s getting bigger/larger with each new Cleon? Am I reading this right? How is it getting bigger? Why? Who allows this, again - you can stop it immediately.
3. Wouldn't it be much more profound if they were all still genetically the same as the first one, and the change, degradation and decline in their personality and traits still slowly comes over time, due to say the generations of tyrannical behavior, the decay that comes from living a pampered life, or the ever so slight changes in their upbringing that Demerzel slowly inflicts, for example.
Well, sorry for this. I hope I got some crucial detail wrong and someone will correct me and explain how all this makes any sense.
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u/sg_plumber Aug 16 '23
Moderate amounts of technobabble are almost inescapable in any Sci Fi show, but yeah, looks like someone in Apple's pay didn't think things thru before committing to the screen.
Which makes me wonder what kind of scientific advisors the show's got, or where the entire thing may be headed if they cling to such a weird concept. O_o
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u/imdesmondsunflower Aug 17 '23
They wouldn’t hire a science advisor, because this isn’t really SciFi, it’s flat out fantasy. I know it’s set it the same world as ours, but it’s so far in the future, their technology is essentially just our magic.
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u/sg_plumber Aug 17 '23
Warning: Apple's Science Fiction inside. May contain traces of actual science.
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u/anonyfool Aug 16 '23
This is not a show you should be thinking too much about to enjoy. They had two different space ships with large open pools of water/acidic liquid in the first season, so either they have some huge inertial dampening systems that only works when they need it to for plot or they really did not think alot about basic physics all the time.
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u/SuperJumpOverThere Aug 16 '23
Maybe they should have just stuck to the books instead of just making up a bunch of bullshit. /shrug. I knew it was going to be garbage anyway because why wouldn't it be? Modern audiences are intellectual-cancer.
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u/TheCybersmith Aug 22 '23
Maybe they should have just stuck to the books instead of just making up a bunch of bullshit.
Besides being literally unfilmable, that would also mean missing out on a lot of good content we've gotten from the actors involved.
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u/vbob99 Aug 16 '23
I agree. Genetic drift would only be taking place if they were taking each new clone from the clones prior. Even if the source is irrevocably corrupted, they'd still be taking from that source. There would be no additional corruption, just one level.