Ask Lemmy

Oh don't worry, we'll all die to global warming within one, maybe two, generations of that starting

The plot of the film Gattaca explores this, the idea of what society looks like when there's a class of genetically engineered, "superior" people, vs. the naturally born, "inferior" class.

Yes.

But it’s already here. Education is already doing what you’re fearing. Rich people tend to have access to better education and thus having access to better salaries, positions, etc.

There is already a separate class of rich people

The thing you are afraid of is already happening

Rich people and their kids get world class health care, including helicopter flights to hospitals for life saving surgery. The rest of us die in the waiting room.

Rich people and their kids never have to work a day in their lives. We all have to work until we die.

Rich people and their kids get to enjoy luxury, fulfillment, gratification and a style of living that we cannot possibly imagine. We have to pirate movies because we can't afford to see them in theaters.

ha, dude this already exists. you can almost reliably determine success by zip code, because poor people dont deserve healthcare or education or to do anything but work their fingers to the bone to stay alive.

the whole genetic piece is just the final chapter

As someone suffering from a terrible genetic disease that will kill me soon, any amount of preventing these diseases under any circumstances gets a thumbs up from me.

As others have said, go see Gattaca. It's completely about this topic and very interesting.

They don't need genetic engineering to have advantage over everyone else tbf.

Ooor they'll turn their kids into "pugs" that are ultra-cute and good at passing certain tests but otherwise useless and unhealthy.

I'd definitely prefer we didn't go down that path, but do consider the endpoint might be more The Time Traveler than Gattaca, because rich people aren't exempt from being dumb.

Here’s a scarier thought, if they can fine tune this shit enough they’ll probably just clone themselves and pull a ship of Theseus on themselves. Removing the only remaining equalizer between them and the rest of humanity.

The rich fucks at the top want to become gods. They won’t call it that but that’s the end game for the ones with the most hand on the wheel.

gattaca, and the cloning show with arnold in

This happens in a smaller way with access to prenatal testing and abortions. Parents with access to those things are at least able to detect and avoid the more debilitating birth defect, while parents without access are more likely to have a child with a severe birth defect. If they're already struggling materially, that can sometimes guarantee that both the parents and child will have no upward mobility.

This has been a thing for at least a few years. Luckily last I checked (pre pandemic) it hasn't taken off bc

1. Eugenics reminds people of Nazis and is bad
2. Genetic diversity might be the only thing that saves us in another pandemic. Kind of like how strains of bananas all go extinct at once if they're genetic clones.

So probably too dangerous to actually take off any time soon. Iirc a Chinese scientist tried it and got sent to jail, seems to be a pretty universal thing

Despite being nearly 100 years old, Brave New World (1931), written by Aldous Huxley, covers the idea of class-based genetic engineering and genetics based class definition, as one of its core themes.

Can’t wait for them to make their kids super smart and then their kids call them idiots.

This already happens with social factors that affect physical development like access to nutrition and a permanent place to live.

Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress. A scifi that deals with the creation of classes based on whether you can afford to buy your children good genes. Politicians are charismatic, ruthless and good looking, because they are bred for politics. In this world people without genemods are sorta out of luck, without any of the tools or enhancements rich genemod people have.

Or, check out GATTACA, good movie.

Nature takes its course.

Remember the rich tried to keep their genes separate from the masses by inbreeding. Look at where that got them.

Back-alley gene editors and ripperdocs. You wanna be competitive? Can't afford legit implants or gene therapy? Take a chance on DIY cybernetics and methlab gene splicing drugs!

Editing a gene is not like editing code. But I'll let the rich folks experience the wonders of body-horror.

Who am I to deny them this nightmare😏

Technology is (at least for now) not exclusive to the rich. There can be billionaires' secret labs and underground diy labs. Since few science fictions pop up in the topic and CRISPER is mentioned, I am going to leave CRISPER cookbook and Chapter 2 which was written in response to Roe vs Wade.

Planet of the Rich, where the apes are billionaires and everyone else is... pretty much the same.

We're getting the movie Gattaca IRL before Half-Life 3 and GTA 6 smdh

We're still overdue for a eugenics war and WW3 before Star Trek timeline.

Are you just now discovering that eugenics is bad?

In Echopraxia, the transhuman pilot repeatedly calls the old guy a "roach".

“I’ve told you before, Daniel: roach isn’t an insult. We’re the ones still standing after the mammals build their nukes, we’re the ones with the stripped-down OS’s so damned simple they work under almost any circumstances. We’re the goddamned Kalashnikovs of thinking meat.”

― Peter Watts, Echopraxia

And one of my favorite Heinlein quotes:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

― Robert A. Heinlein