WINMX Assorted Textfiles/Ebooks.tar/Text - Futurist - Bear, Greg - Clone Wars.txt

Text File | 2003-07-06 | 5KB | 71 lines

C L O N E   W A R S !
First Published by The Seattle Weekly, ⌐ 1997 by Greg Bear
The nightmare seems to be named Dolly, after Dolly Parton-cloned from a cell
removed from the udder of an adult sheep. Next come the monkeys, cloned from
monkey embryo cells. Then come cries of concern, outrage, and even horror from
the moral trend-setters and other pundits around the world, some professional
doom-meisters, others just eager to hop on to this new bandwagon and get their
names on media Rolodexes as "experts" or "opinion makers." Books will soon
follow.
My first reaction, I'm afraid, was a big yawn, and no real opinion whatsoever.
I've been writing science fiction since I was eight years old and reading about
clones for at least that long, and to my mind, riddled with imaginative
scenarios, the cloning of a sheep is pretty ho-hum. Not to say it isn't
important-but it just confirms what I've known since my youth, that things are
changing and nothing will ever be the same.
I've long since been immunized against future shock. I do not fear legions of
marching Hitler clones, I don't even anticipate clones of Robert Heinlein or
Philip K. Dick growing up to push me out of the science fiction market. (I've
already dealt with competition from a clone SF writer-Gregory Benford, my good
friend, is twin brother to physicist James Benford.)
Here's what will probably happen.
At some point in the next twenty years, a company will offer parents the service
of "backing up" their children. If a child dies, the mother can give birth to a
genetically identical child some time later, and start over again with the
equivalent of a twin of the original. The twin will not have the original's
memories, and will not behave exactly like the original, but with reasonable
care and suitable upbringing, the grief of such a loss might be mitigated.
Another company, working with a progressive HMO, might offer to produce tissues
and organs from a modified clone of your own body, in case you should need them.
The organs will be grown not by a whole body duplicate of yourself (I
presume-that might be too bizarre to be acceptable), but will probably be
produced using more sophisticated, less gruesome techniques. Clone marrow, for
example, might provide you with your own private blood supply. Hearts, corneas,
livers, lungs, skin, etc., could be replaced at will. A severe burn victim could
be given a new genetically identical skin; accident victims might have limbs or
organs regenerated in a healing bath of nutrients. It probably won't be cheap at
first, but demand and market efficiencies should reduce cost in the long run.
This could put to an end such horrors as the theft or purchase of organs from
the poor.
Genetic engineering and the mastery of the human genome will make cloning just
one more technique in a broad repertoire. For many years I've written of a near
future that allows citizens to design their own body shapes; we will also be
able to augment or improve what nature gave us. Mental functions might be
repaired or advanced, eliminating neuroses and psychoses. This opens up the far
more interesting (some would say alarming!) prospect of modifying the mix of
talents, abilities, and personalities in human society. In fact, aging and
education already accomplish similar transformations every year.
I'm not much concerned with theological implications. We've been messing with
nature and playing God for centuries, using blunt but effective techniques such
as selective breeding in animals, and surgery and drug therapy in medicine.
We're already committed to taking control of our lives and our environment. For
too long, we have clung to the nurturing yoke of ancient philosophies and ideas;
the yoke sac is now almost empty and needs to be re-evaluated, perhaps put aside
with other childish things. What our ancestors could not possibly imagine is now
part of our everyday lives, and we still haven't been struck by God's vengeful
lightning. Ethical and legal issues are going to be very complicated, even
troublesome, but they are not going to be insoluble.
In the long run, we will either succeed, and become the true managers and
conservators of the resources of Earth and the solar system-even the stars-or we
will fall by the wayside as another interesting but ultimately unsuccessful
experiment. We must take responsibility; that seems to be what we are designed
to do, for better or for worse.
The President can't stop it, and neither can the Pope. I certainly don't want it
stopped. I'm getting older year by year, subject to more illnesses that these
technologies might cure.
The public needs to play catch-up with the startling present. Dolly is just one
more step on a long, sometimes scary trip into a future that not even I can
safely predict. I think it will be a better future, but it may not. It will be
made and lived in, after all, by a world full of folks who by and large never
read, and even shun, science fiction.