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You should check out Gattaca [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/]. It's a great movie that explores some of the negatives

by lfuller 11y ago

You should check out Gattaca [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/]. It's a great movie that explores some of the negatives that crop up from a society that genetically sequences all citizens from birth.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
I thought that movie pulled the punch. Turns out, the 'normal' guy actually had some genetic defect that SHOULD have excluded him from service. So it wasn't about discrimination after all.
- magicalist 11y ago
  I thought that was the whole point. The movie wasn't about easy answers. In many ways they were right and he was the inferior human, but this led to horrible discrimination, relegating "natural" humans to second class status (but horrible discrimination built from a series of perfectly reasonable business decisions). It was also a movie about the power of the human will, but it wasn't about will conquering all, it was an exploration of a possible world where our notions of fairness and someone with sufficient drive surely overcoming all obstacles may be completely upended.
  - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
    I got something else out of it. I thought the guy was a dirty cheat, risking billions in exploration costs just so he could personally be on the mission. What if he'd had a heart attack during the flight? The main plot of the movie torpedoed the big question of discrimination entirely. And then there was the matter of wearing business suits on a space mission. Just weird.
    - magicalist 11y ago
      > What if he'd had a heart attack during the flight? Yeah, that was part of the point. That was shown multiple times to be a high probability event. There's a reason the movie ends at lift off.
caskance 11y ago
Not really. It explores some of the negatives that crop up from scientifically illiterate parents crippling their child due to their own misinformed decisions. Vincent was sturggling against his hippie antivaxxer parents who wanted a "natural" child. Unfortunately, naturalist audiences interpret the enemy in the film as society and see his parents' decision as pure and noble.
- bduerst 11y ago
  Don't be so patronizing. The film visualizes a possible society where the line between genetic therapy and genetic enhancement is crossed. From a bioethical perspective, this isn't "Anti-vaxxing", it deals with misconceptions of genetic predeterminism in humans. Sure you can minimize harm by preventing a child born with tay sachs (genetic therapy) - but you're not minimizing harm by picking a child that will be taller and have blue eyes (enhancement) just because they're statistically likely to be more successful in life. The main character's roommate provided this contrast as a "failed" olympic athlete, whose life was chosen before he was born.
fao_ 11y ago
It's on my viewing list! To be honest I don't think that Gattaca at is that much risk of happening. Given the current state of the technology, actual non-vital changes to the embryo (or perhaps even those too) would most likely be banned (It's already banned in many countries, with good reason: [1]) [1]: http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=304 http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=304)

by lfuller 11y ago

JoeAltmaier 11y ago

I thought that movie pulled the punch. Turns out, the 'normal' guy actually had some genetic defect that SHOULD have excluded him from service. So it wasn't about discrimination after all.

magicalist 11y ago
I thought that was the whole point. The movie wasn't about easy answers. In many ways they were right and he was the inferior human, but this led to horrible discrimination, relegating "natural" humans to second class status (but horrible discrimination built from a series of perfectly reasonable business decisions). It was also a movie about the power of the human will, but it wasn't about will conquering all, it was an exploration of a possible world where our notions of fairness and someone with sufficient drive surely overcoming all obstacles may be completely upended.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  I got something else out of it. I thought the guy was a dirty cheat, risking billions in exploration costs just so he could personally be on the mission. What if he'd had a heart attack during the flight? The main plot of the movie torpedoed the big question of discrimination entirely. And then there was the matter of wearing business suits on a space mission. Just weird.
  - magicalist 11y ago
    > What if he'd had a heart attack during the flight? Yeah, that was part of the point. That was shown multiple times to be a high probability event. There's a reason the movie ends at lift off.

caskance 11y ago

Not really. It explores some of the negatives that crop up from scientifically illiterate parents crippling their child due to their own misinformed decisions. Vincent was sturggling against his hippie antivaxxer parents who wanted a "natural" child. Unfortunately, naturalist audiences interpret the enemy in the film as society and see his parents' decision as pure and noble.

bduerst 11y ago
Don't be so patronizing. The film visualizes a possible society where the line between genetic therapy and genetic enhancement is crossed. From a bioethical perspective, this isn't "Anti-vaxxing", it deals with misconceptions of genetic predeterminism in humans. Sure you can minimize harm by preventing a child born with tay sachs (genetic therapy) - but you're not minimizing harm by picking a child that will be taller and have blue eyes (enhancement) just because they're statistically likely to be more successful in life. The main character's roommate provided this contrast as a "failed" olympic athlete, whose life was chosen before he was born.

fao_ 11y ago

It's on my viewing list! To be honest I don't think that Gattaca at is that much risk of happening. Given the current state of the technology, actual non-vital changes to the embryo (or perhaps even those too) would most likely be banned (It's already banned in many countries, with good reason: [1]) [1]: http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=304 http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=304)