An idea I am thinking of exploring (while putting my other sci-fi piece on hold) is simply this: - Current wealth inequality is given over to genetic inequality. The wealthy are able to purchase genetic engineering for their children. Those children are stronger, more intelligent and with longer lifespans. Necessarily, us average Joes have little choice but to pass over most decision making to our intellectual superiors. Given that "normals" have little economic worth in a more mechanised and unequal world, it becomes less incumbent upon the ruling classes to actually provide them with healthcare, welfare, a minimum standard of living. The power of the masses dwindles, and growing inequality becomes a self-perpetuating state. That is the backdrop I am considering. Thoughts?
To coin Sheldon's term a Homo-Novus. It all depends on what the new genetic superiors feel towards Homo-sapiens as to how to proceed with the new world.
Unfortunately the horrific canned laughter prevented me ever watching that sitcom without turning it off in disgust. It would be much like the current status quo in this excessively capitalist world- individually people may give a shit- but as a cog in a wheel, only the machine's output matters. As inequality results in two worlds that rarely cross paths, the uber-humans can insulate themselves from the harsh realities of the under-classes. In this situation (as with many times in history) it would also become very easy to dehumanise the underclasses.
I think the inequality exists already, and engineering it in, without restriction, will likely just serve to exaggerate the present. As it is aren't we born as an expression of our genes? And those genes leaves each of us primed with differing capacities for our forthcoming abilities. It's how we, if we're gifted (and smart enough to see through societal conditioning), elect to use them. If (when) GE comes along, I also think that financial inequality won't give over to, but more give rise to, genetic inequality. The two I don't doubt will be conjoined. I'd say it's key to keep it in check, to 'engineer in' compassion, empathy and any other necessary traits that prevent this running away with itself. Maybe there's your story; a deeper one than 'GATTACA' and 'Brave New World'—one where the attention to detail and an exploration of the aspects of personality are afforded as much space as that of intellectual/physical capacity.
I struggle with this issue, because as someone who will be accepted to the upper class on the basis that I look dam fine, I feel slightly conflicted. Is it awful, or do I just enjoy the fruits of my face?
The universe is full of radiation that can kill pretty quickly, and in many forms. There is no way to shield yourself from 100% of this radiation on Earth, let alone in space. While having an atmosphere filters out the majority of it, a ship in open space cannot hope to filter as much since there is not the level gravity, magnetism, and a thick lair of oxygen/nitrogen/ CO2, and other gasses to disperse and repel/filter the radiation to a tolerable level. Lining the hulls with lead will help to compensate for a lack of atmosphere, but windows will allow the radioactive particles of multiple variations to pass virtually unhindered. While over time the body will adapt to survive and tolerate the higher radiation levels, using water as barrier will help curb the amount getting to the humans trying to live long enough to get where they are going. Supplementing the people with potassium iodide will also help protect the thyroid, so the populace would not simply get acute radiation poisoning and die. https://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/ki.asp So no amount of genetic superiority will save you from getting the lethal equivalent of a Space Cold. (Will save 'salting' a nuclear bomb, and why that is way nastier than a simple nuke for another day and another discussion)
While I agree with all these very well researched points, you did not factor in just how pretty my face is
Ok, I might have got hung up on my face. I wasn't talking about environmental conditions being different. Just imagine that the offspring of the super-rich had double your IQ and lifespan through money spent on genetic engineering.... That would be quite a hard debate to win.
I think this was talked about as a possible future for us in Harari's Homo Deus - less the implications and more how we might get there. Seems perfectly decent as a backdrop to your story, there'd be plenty of conflict set up between the supermen and the plebs, and there could be lots of interesting stuff you'd do about how explicit it's become that some people have been bred to just be better at everything - does society still officially treat everyone as equal or has it stratified into lord and slave classes, how do the wealthy treat the normals in the open and behind closed doors, what's it like when they interact (if they ever do).
But society already has stratified (I'll nick that term) by virtue of wealth. I would see this as a solidification of that stratification (there I go again). I am just proposing that this is probably irreversible stratifarication, whereby the upper stratificarions lord over the under-stratopulace by virtue of their clear advantages.
Sure, I was more talking about how it presents. For instance, today you can argue that the poor have less rights than the wealthy, because the wealthy have access to better healthcare, education etc that the poor do not and therefore have the dice firmly weighted in their favour; they tend to be the ones in power and so can enact policies that disproportionately affect the poor as opposed to the rich (hey Theresa! How's it going?) But that stratification isn't explicit - officially, in the eyes of the law, everyone has the same rights. Someone rich does not - in theory, if not in practice - have more social rights and privileges than someone who isn't. In your world, you could have something similar - those people genetically better have a heavily weighted dice on what is officially a level playing field - or you could have a more explicit slave class, where it's not so much that normals are allowed to hold certain positions but never actually get there, but are simply denied the right to even try. As far as the law's concerned, they're there only to be servants.
No, no, it would be an overwhelming sense of malaise suffered by the underclasses in the face of insurmountable odds. No laws required. Although obviously, as happens now, the privileged few would write the laws to suit them. To expand on that, we all agree murder is wrong, but apparently it is acceptable to asset strip a company and deprive 50,000 people of their pensions while keeping your knighthood... if the poor made the laws that would require serious prison time.
It's a process similar to the primitive accumulation of capital. Those who had power in the "old" society will also hold the power in the "new" one. First this power came from "divine right" in all its shades ("God decided to have me being born into a wealthy family and you not."), then it came from "merit" ("I have worked hard for my wealth. When you are not wealthy, you must not have worked hard.") and later it will come from "genetic superiority" ("I am just smarter and stronger than you, so I should take the lead."). And just as with the primitive accumulation it will be forgotten that the genetically inferior are not so by nature, but because of the principles of the old society. I suppose the only viable way to regain some power is sabotage of the wealthy classes factories. Since the unaltered poor will not be needed as labour force (unless for domestic and social services), they can't go on strike to exert their power. So I suppose the production of goods is automatized.
This was prominent in Star Trek, both in the prime timeline and the new films. A race of genetic supermen bred to be superior. Sparked off a global war in the early 90's (we must have missed that one). The general message of that story and tyrants like Khan was that superior ability breeds superior ambition. It's certainly likely that something akin to that would happen, and it could get quite ugly for the "lesser" people. Of course you could have some sympathetic supermen in there with feelings towards the lower classes. Sounds like you're going to be steering it in quite a political direction, and there is a lot to play with in that regard.
Ok, I've developed this idea a bit. The MC will be a member of the underclass who is a servant/ friend to a member of the ruling class. The novel starts as this member of the ruling class goes into all out attack mode, which on the surface is in defence of their friend, but in reality is perhaps some psychopathy played out as a result, or perhaps somewhere in the middle. The upshot is, they want to win their argument at all costs, because overwhelming arrogance is the one defining characteristic of the ruling classes. What follows is a clash of egos that threatens to collapse their fragile hold. I think my MC's friend does actually have a certain dislike for the current inequality and would happily watch it crash down. They are the minority, and help from a person in privilege in this situation is required, the underclass could not achieve this alone. Not quite sue where to go from that.
This sounds like Gattica. You are aware therefore it has been done? So I'd look at previous version such as Gattica. Figure out what's different about your one and make sure that distinction matters; it shouldn't just be in trivial minutia. Give the theme a slightly different angle maybe. Also, shouldn't this be in setting or plot development?
It deals with cybernetic enhancement but it's a similar issue. Most of the same metaphors and questions come up
Sorry Oscar, for the coming genius of typo correction, but I'm precious about the spelling on this one (+ my darling Uma Thurman) and want to lecture pinky educate the readers of this this thread. It's Gattaca. See Cytosine, Guanine, Thymine, and Adenine—they be the components of the letters of the film's title...and the DNA that, when tweaked, makes them there super people.
Seems Seems good, and timely. One could argue that this is happening right now. Without starting a political debate, we are on the verge of making even basic healthcare a privilege of the wealthy. Economic advantages have already separate reality for the families of the wealthy, where they have access to education, food, and safety that poor people don't. Mutterings of genetics making people poor have surfaced again. It isn't too hard to conceive of a world 30 years from now where advanced genetic screenings would be used to find suitable matches for scions of powerful families. That cybernetics could be used to keep aging patriarchs and matriarchs of wealthy families alive. Personally, I see a new age of Feudalism coming, and in that world it isn't impossible to think that powerful corporations wouldn't offer genetic or cybernetic enhancement as a form of stick and carrot to make their vassal employees more productive. That would all make for an excellent backdrop to a novel.
