Gattaca and genetic manipulation
after watching the movie Gattaca...
Genetic manipulation means voluntary evolution for humanity. Our minds would have replaced natural selection as the mechanism for evolution. Humans should or cannot help but try to improve their lives. But then we must not forget human nature. Not all our behavior is due to culture and culture is not independent. Our genes express themselves and give rise to human nature. This does not mean restricted freedom though. Think of it this way. Freedom is something you want and you want freedom because of the expression of genes. But then would you want to not want that particular expression of your genes? But yet again, that desire to not want (wanting not to want) is the influenced by gene expression too. Of course, interaction with the environment plays a part too. But what I’m trying to say is that we are not totally independent of our genes. It is in fact ridiculous to want to be independent of our genes. Our genes define our human nature. And like I said, our particular desire to be free from our genes, is a influenced by gene expression too. Yet we cannot ignore our desire to want to not want. It shows us that human nature is defined to want to modify itself. Maybe this is pathological, maybe it is not. Maybe it is essential to human nature. But what if human nature is defined to modify itself until it is not human nature anymore. This begs the question of what is human nature. Assuming for the sake of argument, that human nature only consist of the desire to modify the human. Then we would be human no matter what, as long as we continuously desire to modify ourselves. But what if we modify ourselves to not want to modify ourselves anymore? So you see we cannot just simply modify ourselves. We must know what we want to achieve by doing that, and what we would become should we choose to do so. Of course, human nature is not only the desire to modify ourselves. And here things get complicated. How much and what sort of modification can we carry out to ourselves before we are no longer human? But perhaps some people don’t care if they are not human anymore. But that still does not allow them to modify themselves at will. First of all, they want to modify themselves. What if they modify themselves until they don’t want to want as a human anymore? Why would they want to do that? Why would a human want to be not human? The human is all there is in the self. When you are not human you are not yourself. And thus if you modify yourself, you are not modifying your self, you are modifying a thing, which is your body. If none of your self gets transmitted to the new body, it is no better than modifying inanimate matter.
The fundamental problem of human nature is human nature itself. Self-consciousness is a tragedy. The self feels separated from the body while it is really not. And from there arises the problems of being human. But also what it means to be human. We have to realize that. And that we are the interplay of instinct and consideration and we need them both.
But then how do we pin down which genetic sequence give rise to the expression to our essential nature? That is something very hard to do. I think an easier thing to do would we to pin down which genetic sequence that does not give rise to the expression of human nature. We can modify those genes, but I don’t think we should touch anything else.
Genetic manipulation means voluntary evolution for humanity. Our minds would have replaced natural selection as the mechanism for evolution. Humans should or cannot help but try to improve their lives. But then we must not forget human nature. Not all our behavior is due to culture and culture is not independent. Our genes express themselves and give rise to human nature. This does not mean restricted freedom though. Think of it this way. Freedom is something you want and you want freedom because of the expression of genes. But then would you want to not want that particular expression of your genes? But yet again, that desire to not want (wanting not to want) is the influenced by gene expression too. Of course, interaction with the environment plays a part too. But what I’m trying to say is that we are not totally independent of our genes. It is in fact ridiculous to want to be independent of our genes. Our genes define our human nature. And like I said, our particular desire to be free from our genes, is a influenced by gene expression too. Yet we cannot ignore our desire to want to not want. It shows us that human nature is defined to want to modify itself. Maybe this is pathological, maybe it is not. Maybe it is essential to human nature. But what if human nature is defined to modify itself until it is not human nature anymore. This begs the question of what is human nature. Assuming for the sake of argument, that human nature only consist of the desire to modify the human. Then we would be human no matter what, as long as we continuously desire to modify ourselves. But what if we modify ourselves to not want to modify ourselves anymore? So you see we cannot just simply modify ourselves. We must know what we want to achieve by doing that, and what we would become should we choose to do so. Of course, human nature is not only the desire to modify ourselves. And here things get complicated. How much and what sort of modification can we carry out to ourselves before we are no longer human? But perhaps some people don’t care if they are not human anymore. But that still does not allow them to modify themselves at will. First of all, they want to modify themselves. What if they modify themselves until they don’t want to want as a human anymore? Why would they want to do that? Why would a human want to be not human? The human is all there is in the self. When you are not human you are not yourself. And thus if you modify yourself, you are not modifying your self, you are modifying a thing, which is your body. If none of your self gets transmitted to the new body, it is no better than modifying inanimate matter.
The fundamental problem of human nature is human nature itself. Self-consciousness is a tragedy. The self feels separated from the body while it is really not. And from there arises the problems of being human. But also what it means to be human. We have to realize that. And that we are the interplay of instinct and consideration and we need them both.
But then how do we pin down which genetic sequence give rise to the expression to our essential nature? That is something very hard to do. I think an easier thing to do would we to pin down which genetic sequence that does not give rise to the expression of human nature. We can modify those genes, but I don’t think we should touch anything else.
posted by zcer at 12:40 AM
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