We Six is about six children who were the creation's the of a cult in the far future (around three thousand years ahead) who wanted to make the perfect human. They decided the kid's batch was a failure and decided to scrap it, six escaped, Mauren, Alex, Jen, Rob, Annie and Will into space, now looking for a new home. Now the kid's are mean't to be throughly altered. Any suggestions for enhancements? At the moment they're stronger, faster, smarter, have higher than normal intelligence and senses, and have a healing factor.
They need telepathy, but only with each other. And one of them should have a serious problem, a health issue or mental illness. That's what I would do, anyway. Sounds like a fun read. AMC
BTW this is not total science fiction it will soon be possible, I doubt it will be legal though. Look at the human genome project. But in your story if you want it to be realistic it has to be done before the child is born.
It'll probably be what makes them imperfect that'll make them interesting characters (especially as they're rejects, which is the whole reason for their existance). As an example I was watching Breaking Bad the other day, and I realised all the problems that the main characters face are because of the downsides in Walt's personality - they use the better side of their personalities to overcome their problems, but Walt's stupidity, arrogance, or ego continually throw them all back into deep water. Probably be worth thinking if you want to be pro-geneticism or against it - it would make a difference on whether their enhancements overcome or create the conflicts in the plot. @colorthemap - most gene therapy is done using viruses and can be applied after birth. The wikipedia article is pretty good.
Therapy is different than enhancing, like changing their genes to make them super good at say sports or music or anything of that sort.
Nanotechnology? As a story device it can range from giving a slight edge to a character, to being the sci-fi equivalent of magic. Nanomachines of such a small scale that they could directly modify the individual's genome, perhaps even from the moment of conception? On the other hand you could have actual cybernetic/mechanical augmentations (been playing deus ex lately, lol) that would surpass the maximum capabilities of the human body - even one whose genetic potential has been fully tapped. Either would seem plausible for 3000 thousand years in the future, to me. I only mention these because they are commonly enough played-with tropes. Otherwise this is the kind of thing you should figure out on your own, of course. Sounds interesting tho, good luck.
Magic Oh wait, this is science-fiction. Magic. Other ideas: Beneficial retrovirus (could be introduced as cure to aids) without cancer side-effects, breeding, stem cells, magic. Don't go into scientific detail on how such findings were found. Just put it out there, who knows, it might actually work when we do engineer them.
Are you asking how you should go about altering genes, or what alterations you should make? If the former, I would suggest you say they altered the genes when the children were zygotes (fetilised eggs), much easier to achieve than after they are born and you are dealing with so many more cells to change. If the latter, I think deciding on their special abilities would be the fun part, I'm sure you can figure that out yourself I would probably look at their environment and match their abilities to that. I'm more interested to know why they are defective, rather intriguing...
Hi, There are two genetic options as I see it. The first is to take an existing person at whatever stage of development and do some sort of gene therapy, i.e. adding traits and making changes. That will probably be possible now, but will mostly be used to repair damage caused by genetic conditions. The second is to synthesise a completely new being by altering the original detail. That is well beyond our ability at present, but it is the way to truly create a superman or what have you. As for what you would do - if you were creating an entirely new human. My thought would be that first you would start by removing all genes for negative conditions. Prone to fat and diabetes - strip those genes out. Flat feet - gone. Do that and you're already ahead of ninety nine point nine percent of the human population in terms of approaching the human perfection. Then, assuming you could, start throwing in new things. You want faster reactions, boost the genes controlling the percentage of white twitch fibres in muscle. Healing, play with those genes controlling white blood cell production and platelets. Better stamina, anything that boosts red blood cell production, lung function and heart should be useful. And so forth. As for defects, my thought would be that you could build the perfect beast / human (sorry Don Henley moment there) and even if he had no faults at all, he could still be a stuff up. Think of the natural arrogance a being born greater then all his peers, the isolation of being superior, and the lack of empathy as he fails to understand human weakness. Also, unless and until you understand every single nuance of every gene and what it does in its original and modified form, then you can get unexpected side effects. Cheers.
Are there any dangers in the future the children need to be adapted for? Like radiation, plagues, beasts, etc? You could also give them a less exciting ability for a more realistic feel, like the ability to live on substandard food (if food is scarce in the future).
How about immunity to all known diseases, regeneration, immortality, ability to self conceive ie as fully functioning hermaphrodites. Names change quickly. I mean how many people do you know called Stanley, Arbuthnot, Gwendolin, Edith, etc etc The names are too 'today' perhaps.
