The screen was dominated by "gene-edited babies" a few days ago. The cause was a sensational news:
"A pair of gene-edited babies named Lulu and Nana were born healthy in China in November. A gene of the twins has been modified so that they can naturally resist AIDS after they are born."
The reason why the news tries to make people excited is:
"This is the world's first gene-edited baby immunized against AIDS, and it also means that China has achieved a historic breakthrough in the use of gene editing technology in the field of disease prevention."
I am afraid it is difficult to say clearly what impact this incident has on society, but when I watched this news, I suddenly remembered that there was a science fiction movie in 1997, which was about the story of "gene-edited babies."
The title of the film is "Gattaca", which is generally translated as "One Thousand One Hair" or "Variant Different Shame".
Let's first take a look at what story the movie tells.
In the future of human society, all parents can customize babies, gender, specialties, personality and even other. The simplest thing is to avoid all kinds of genetic diseases caused by genetic defects. Vincent is an out-of-date, naturally conceived person. After birth, through genetic testing, it is found that his risk of heart disease is 99%, and his life expectancy is about 30 years old. Vincent was labelled as an "inferior person" from birth, and the kindergarten refused to accept him. In desperation, his parents decided to customize another child through gene editing, and his brother Anton, who was born healthy and smart, was born. The birth of this younger brother was Vincent’s nightmare. Vincent, who was a few years older than Anton, was crushed by his younger brother in all aspects such as body and intelligence, but Vincent was still a man who refused to admit defeat. The two brothers often swim in the sea to see who swims farther and who is afraid to swim back. Of course, there are no exceptions. Vincent has never beaten his strong brother. This cruel torture continued until the two brothers reached adulthood. Vincent dreamed of working in the space agency and flying into space. This is actually an illusion to escape depression. And his father told Vincent that the only possibility to get into the space agency was to be a cleaner. Although his parents never disliked Vincent, Vincent once again felt the vicious discrimination against "natural persons" in this era after the failed interview with the Aviation Administration. Vincent finally won the routine swimming competition between the two brothers. This was the only time that gave Vincent a trace of luck. As long as he worked hard, everything was possible. Vincent resolutely left home and never went back. My father was right. People like Vincent could only find the lowest job in society. After cleaning the toilet for a few years, Vincent could finally join the space agency as a cleaner. No matter how tenacious and hard Vincent is, he can even memorize the thick "Astronautical Science", but only a drop of blood is needed to determine his fate. There is the blood of a naturally born "inferior person" flowing in his body. This society does not need it. ID card, blood with genes is ID card. In order to realize his dream, Vincent decided to take risks. Some of the top-ranked gene-editing people may also be unlucky, may be physically disabled, may be mentally weak, and they have to live, and their most valuable is their blood and identity, and they can rent their identity to those who want to change their class. "Inferior". Vincent found the best identity embezzler, and he was paired with Jie Long, who was genetically engineered very well. He was a foreigner who was injured in an accident and paralyzed his lower body. This kind of identity theft is not a simple one-shot sale. Because of the space agency’s identity verification and training requirements, Vincent needs to transfer Jeron’s The blood is carefully pasted in the fingerprint bag, and the urine bag needs to be tied to the thigh every day to cope with the urine test. It is also necessary to carefully clean up the hair and dander that has fallen off at any time, and scattered Jielong's hair and dander on the scene. Vincent and Jie Long formed a very wonderful symbiotic relationship. After several years of living together, the proud Jielong was gradually overwhelmed by Vincent’s strong willpower, and Vincent also proved through his efforts that he was not inferior to the genetically engineered elite in any respect, except for his unqualified blood. Harvested the love of beautiful colleagues. Vincent’s Titan 14 aerospace plan was approved, and he will fly into space in a spacecraft in one week. At this time, the director of the space agency was murdered, but Vincent lost an eyelash on the scene without noticing it at this critical moment. The man responsible for investigating this murder turned out to be Vincent’s excellent younger brother Anton, who is already a senior police officer. The rope of fate is like a twisted DNA chain, which tightly locks Vincent. After a series of hesitation, struggle, evasion, and resistance, the ending of the story is extremely sighing. Anton saw through Vincent's identity, but also knew that Vincent did not murder anyone, and was finally moved by Vincent's courage to fight against fate. Vincent finally set foot on the spaceship to realize his dream, and Jielong, who provided him with his identity, left a cupboard full of blood and urine samples, and went into the incinerator to destroy his body, fulfilling Vincent forever. move. Vincent finally set foot on the spaceship to realize his dream, and Jielong, who provided him with his identity, left a cupboard full of blood and urine samples, and went into the incinerator to destroy his body, fulfilling Vincent forever. move. Vincent finally set foot on the spaceship to realize his dream, and Jielong, who provided him with his identity, left a cupboard full of blood and urine samples, and went into the incinerator to destroy his body, fulfilling Vincent forever.
The film title "Gattaca" is actually a coined word and has no meaning in itself. It is the name of the airline in the film. The real meaning is that human DNA is composed of four nucleotides: A, C, T, and G. However, the Chinese name "A Thousand Jun Yifa" is a wonderful metaphor, with a heavy weight hanging from a strand of hair, which fully expresses the tension and depressive atmosphere of the film.
Close-ups of hair appeared many times in the film. The act of mutual proof of genes between people is to pull out a piece of hair and give it to each other. And the whole film implements a low, depressed, tense, and heart-wrenching atmosphere, from the music to the pictures. The few outdoor scenes are either the endless sea of stars or the vast technological background, where the characters appear extremely Small and weak.
"At the End of the Day" is a 1997 film. The science fiction film has never been seen at the Oscars, and only won an inexplicable art direction award. It was "Titanic" that was really hot back then, which was originally a huge disaster caused by arrogant human technology, but what the world generally cares about is only the short-lived love in the disaster.
Every time there is a natural disaster or a man-made disaster, the news media will always try to find a miraculously surviving baby, or even a pig that survives a catastrophe, and then human compassion begins to overflow, and then it diverts attention and no longer thinks about the depth of the disaster. reason.
"At the End of the Day" was probably classified as an inspirational movie before, but this time the appearance of gene-edited babies turned out to be a cruel prophecy.
Let’s think about where the creative inspiration for the movie might come from. Don’t forget the birth of Dolly the “clone the sheep” in 1996, which caused a great sensation all over the world at that time, and there followed deep concerns about ethics and morality. Many countries have laws prohibiting human bodies. Research on cloning. But Yi Ge pessimistically believes that as long as this technology is born, it cannot be completely banned.
And the birth of the "gene-edited baby" reported triumphantly by the Chinese media this time may be a key node in the history of human evolution. It may soar to the sky or fall into hell.
There is a scene in the movie where Vincent takes a beautiful woman to enjoy the concert, and the musician has six fingers with one hand. Is it the legendary "six-fingered piano demon"? It is said that the music is also specially written for people with 6 fingers, and only he can play this special piece of music. Where is this terrible place? God knows that avid music fan parents, will they customize seven fingers for their children?
What about other industries? The three-meter-tall giant plays basketball, and others only need to put it in for a dunk; what's the 100-meter record? I have customized a supersonic scud! Clairvoyance, downwind ears, three heads and six arms are no longer myths. There is also a scene in the movie. Jie Long said that he is a genetically excellent athlete, but he only won a silver medal in the swimming competition. The strong player has the strong middle player. All this depends on how crazy his parents are.
Does anyone think that the human world has become more and more colorful at once, and that there are all kinds of people? But you have to make sure that everyone has a heart to get along with each other and has the cultivation of mutual understanding and respect, and these are the things that human beings have never lacked most. As a result, copper-headed iron arms, Wolverine, Ice Law, Fire Law, Magneto, the emergence of "X-Men" like the big chaos between special people is basically inevitable, and ordinary people born naturally will have nowhere to hide. cannon fodder.
If the technology of customized babies is popularized, combined with the human consciousness of "don't let children lose on the starting line", this will be an imaginative contest, and what weird human babies will be born is really unpredictable.
As part of the publicity campaign, they published a "genetic engineering ad" when the film "The End of the World" was premiered. As a result, thousands of people believed it to be true and called for the use of genetic technology to modify the DNA of offspring.
And since the development of human beings to the present, the evolution of DNA is the result of millions or even hundreds of millions of years of natural selection, and man-made gene editing is tantamount to "pulling seedlings to promote growth."
It's like genetically modified foods that have been quarreled for many years. Everyone knows the good side. The output is greatly increased, and humans will be free from hunger forever. But who knows what impact foods that can kill pests have on the human body? This of course takes time to test.
And the consequences of gene editing, even a very sensible small-scale editing, can prevent AIDS, or immune sugar disease, high blood pressure and other common genetic diseases. How can this be verified? Is it time to inject Lulu and Nana with HIV to verify the effect of gene editing? But for their next generation in a few decades, who knows what the impact will be?
There is also a key point. This excellent technology that can change the next generation forever cannot be provided to the general public for free.
The physicist Hawking, who has just passed away for half a year, once predicted that humans will evolve themselves through genetic modification, however, it will also cause serious human catastrophes. Once the rich have the opportunity to edit the genes of their children, there will be a race for new races, which will surely destroy the survival of ordinary people. People who have evolved will progress at an ever-increasing rate, and those who have not evolved will be eliminated.
There are a few very disturbing details in the film. When Vincent decided to run away from home, he tore off himself from the family photo, and then his parents and Anton looked like a complete family, and Vincent was simply an extra one. The real reality is that all natural persons who cannot afford the cost of genetic modification will be discriminated against by society until they are completely extinct.
Vincent pretends to be Jie Long to interview an astronaut, and he only needs a drop of urine to prove his ability. This inadvertently fits a Chinese saying, "Pee pee and take pictures of yourself." This kind of discrimination engraved in the bones and flowing in the blood is desperate. Vincent has a lot of shower shots in the film. The plot is to prevent dandruff and hair loss. When his identity is about to be revealed, Vincent is alone at the beach, desperately trying to clean the poor birth. DNA has become a stain, how do you cleanse your innocence?
This is the cruel prediction given to us by the movie "At the End of the Day". People below the middle class can only eat and wait to die, while the elites are better off than waiting and watching.
Director Andrew Nicole is the screenwriter of "Trumen's World" and "Happiness Terminal". He also directed "King of War" and "Time Planning Bureau". Combining the feelings of several movies, I found that the director is really good at Explore the greed and ugliness of human nature, place the characters in a depressive environment that cannot be escaped, test the limits of humans, and observe the reactions of people around them. His works seem inspirational, but they always make people shudder.
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