Gattaca
At the end of the CTY Genetics class, we watched Gattaca. The premise of this movie is that a natural-born, genetically flawed individual is born into a society that is near-perfect with genetic engineering, and DNA samples are used to identify every individual and to place them into social/economic classes (e.g. working as a janitor vs. being an astronaut). These samples are used as the sole basis for jobs, and the life of the person is “known” at birth by looking at the DNA samples. Go read the Wikipedia page for a more comprehensive plot.
Gattaca has a really interesting set design and lighting–the people, not the technology, are focused on. It has a stark feel, with everything given a sterile look. If you gey a chance to watch it, you definitely should.
hey its drewman702, is gattaca a good movie?
drewman702
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Yes, I know who you are from you IP address and your username…
Gattaca is a good movie.
And on a sidenote, the string GATTACA can be found in the human genome (e.g. http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTracks?position=chr4:128630091-128630126&db=hg18&ss=../trash/hgSs/hgSs_genome_71c3_978b60.pslx+../trash/hgSs/hgSs_genome_71c3_978b50.fa&hgsid=111852539)
lietk12
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Dang I cant even say drewman702 with out it getting changed to drewman702?
Why is that? Really weird.
drewman702
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Because it’s my blog and I can modify the comments.
Also, I think your username is obvious enough.
lietk12
Sunday, August 31st, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Hail, fellow CTYer! Do I know you? (I went to CAR.05.1, LOU.2.06 and LOU.2.07). Thanks for commenting on my blog. Anyways, I’ve seen GATTACA, and while I liked the movie, I thought the premise was a bit weak. In real life, not only is genetic technology in its infancy, but even if it were as developed as it was in GATTACA, I think people will probably stick to traditional forms of bigotry first. Race, gender, class, and beliefs tend to be more in-your-face and visible than your personal DNA even in an era of personal DNA profiles. Also, I seriously doubt anyone will get to regulating DNA. “Positive eugenics” has been considered, but I doubt it will be enforced. E.g. even if people start screening babies’ genomes (something I’m not opposed to, given that it can discover diseases earlier than otherwise) I doubt (hopefully) that people will go from there and enforce GATTACA-style social control.
Rourke
Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 12:54 am
No, you don’t know me.
I do agree that the premise is weak–the technology involved in identifying *everyone* seems almost post-Singularity (if the Singularity actually exists).
Discrimination can be changed with technology. Gattaca assumes a future where people are tolerant of race (and I think gender).
s
I’m wondering if positive eugenics might have a slippery slope like it has been in the past. Racial bias may occur with implementation of positive eugenics, and it might degenerate into negative eugenics. I’m only for screening against specific life-threatening or debilitating diseases at the moment, until we can figure out how well screening privacy, information issues, etc. will work.
Positive eugenics doesn’t have to be enforced–if the government (or some organization) provides a reward for at least some of the genetically advantaged to reproduce, then there will still be more of the genetically advantaged.
Gattaca is a good movie for people to watch if only to get people to start thinking about the ethical issues that must be considered (e.g. the GINA bill that passed).
lietk12
Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 9:13 am