"...split humankind into a mass of useless humans and a small elite of upgraded superhumans..." (Chapter 9, p. 408)
In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, the Zacharians (see also here) are an unsuccessful attempt to manufacture a superior leadership for humanity. Maybe the Argolids, the ruling dynasty of the Terran Empire, are a similar attempt?
In Anderson's Time Patrol timeline, a group similar to the Zacharians is the Exaltationists.
Lastly, for now:
in Doctor Who, the Daleks are meant to be a perfected master race;
in Star Trek, there is that group led by Khan.
9 comments:
With CRIspr, it probably will be possible to edit human gene lines soon -- it's already been successfully done on an experimental basis.
Just eliminating genetic faults would drastically change the ambience of human life.
Then there are the cosmetic possibilities -- I suspect there will be a lot more people who look like Chris Hemsworth and Kate Blanchett.
Not just in the Western world, either.
I was at a wedding in Bangalore a few years ago (standing in for the bride's Dad, long story) and one notable thing was that everyone in the movie posters and advertisements and so forth looked like they came from Kashmir or the Punjab, not like the little dark Kannada-speakers who are the basic local population. And a lot of the specifications in the marriage columns of the local newspapers specified the same sort of appearance.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling,
Paul: while I'm skeptical of the wilder claims made for "transhumanism," I can see it being possible to use genetics to eliminate or reduce illnesses or defects caused by genetic flaws or merely for the cosmetic reasons suggested by Stirling. We see Poul Anderson touching on such ideas in stories and novels like "Ghetto," ENSIGN FLANDRY, THE GAME OF EMPIRE, the HARVEST OF STARS book, etc.
Interesting, this suggestion you made that Manuel Argos may have been a renegade Zacharian. I said "renegade" because nothing he says or does in "The Star Plunderer" leads me to think he wanted to set up a genetics based leadership of the kind some Zacharians might have wanted (as we see in THE GAME OF EMPIRE).
Mr. Stirling, I have been aware of ideas and speculations about using genetic science to improve human health and extending lifespans as long ago as the first time I read ENSIGN FLANDRY as a boy nearly half a century ago. But, so far, I've seen nothing really SOLID along those lines in public. I can't help but think the practical, widespread use of such thing is still a very long time away.
Sean
Not as far as it used to be. It's actually been done successfully on human embryos recently, which is "proof of concept". Only regulatory concerns kept the embryos from being brought to term, not technical problems -- and when there's practical advantage, money or power, at stake, regulations are like wet tissue paper.
Kaor, DAVID!
Which only goes to show that ceremonial words, forms, titles, gestures, honorifics, etc., really DO matter. Something I discussed in one of my articles talking about how Anderson and Stirling used such things. HOW you address another being indicates how you intend to treat him, and any entity he may represent or stand for.
Sean
Dear Mr. Stirling,
True, I have read of such experiments on human embryos like that. And I have some qualms and reservations about that. I don't want experiments on human beings that will possibly HURT them, esp. if they are not able to give informed consent to such things. And I utterly DETEST even more the killing of such embryos, because it is the crime of abortion or infanticide. I would have insisted, if possible, that such embryos be brought to full growth and "birth."
And sometimes laws and regulations DESERVE to be like wet tissue paper! Such as "laws" enjoining the destruction of human lives like these embryos.
Sean
Sean is sending comments that do not appear in the combox although I receive email notifications of them so I copy the comments from email into the combox. Above, I have mistakenly copied a comment into the wrong combox.
Kaor, Paul!
And many thanks for your patience and kindness as regards my mysteriously disappearing combox comments. I simply don't understand how comments which SEEM to properly upload to a blog piece then vanishes. Frustrating, to say the least!
Sean
I keep wondering if CRISPR (or some newer biotech method) could be used to make a highly selective spermicide (or ovacide). This could then be used for something like what Heinlein had for the society in "Beyond this Horizon".
Ie: if you know you are carrying an undesirable allelle such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia, you could use that technique to make sure that only your gametes that *don't* have that allele go into making your child.
In Heinlein's novel people were not allowed to select for variations with no known benefit or harm such as eye color, to avoid accidently taking away variations we didn't know were useful under some circumstances.
Kaor, Jim!
Well, at least that is better than abortion/infanticide!
Ad astra! Sean
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