Child's play

"Stanford University:2013"

That was the caption that started the segment on the science channel program Futurescape.  What followed surprised me.  I'm not usually surprised.  I work hard to recognize trends so as not to be surprised in the next moment or two.  The program was called How to be Superhuman.

Yeah, I was expecting that too.  Another program on how bionic replacement of human parts makes humans superhuman.  Oh, but not this program.  The narrator went on to show the research and conduct interviews with the researchers about his statement that followed the caption of the segment.  DNA can be added to because now there is a micro thinking machine (I doubt the word computer will ever be used here) made from bodily membranes that can retrieve and store files from within a  DNA splice.  The genes can now hold any information that can be digitized, which is nearly all information.

That's not bionics.  And, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for how people will look and act in the future because the information is not externally controlled anymore but internally.  Even behavior can be programmed.  One experiment with mice showed that they could have a gene implanted that would make them sensitive only to blue light and not have any sensitivity at all to orange light.  Even though that experiment is simple, the implications are staggering.  As you might imagine, the last part of the program was about the agendas to expect from people and governments in the future.

Genetics no longer is about inheritance, nor is it about merely tampering with portions of the DNA strand.  Now it is a human frontier waiting to be explored, exploited, changed, reformed.   It has been made ready for tremendously great alterations, for tailoring every human being for living on Earth, Mars, or any other planet with specified behavior, appearance, brain function... everything.  Brave New World can now be relegated to the past.  It can definitely be shown to be  pure fiction since what is going to happen in the real future has now supplanted the prediction of Aldous Huxley.  As shocking as it has been for 3 generations since it was written, Brave New World is child's play.