Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 9:37 pm Post subject: I feel like society is morphing into the movie Gattaca
Anyone seen that movie?
The basic plot
A genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel.
Parents get to pick and choose what kind of baby they will have. Isn't that what seems to be going on right now with the prenatal screening and hopes of curing autism?
Wow, so the media fills people heads with all sorts of negative stories of parents horrible lives over autism. Think about not knowing what autism really is like and then you hear while you are pregnant or someone else is that your prenatal tests come back and the child will most likely be autistic.
Can you imagine what could come from that?
Would the pregnant mother to be remember all the things shown on tv and abort over it? Would the doctors highly recommend she abort?
Warsie OG Balla Representin' Da Souf Sydeeee of Chi-City
Joined: Apr 04, 2008 Age: 18 Posts: 1637 Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:07 pm Post subject:
Meh...I'd think the history would end up like what happens in Gundam Seed/Seed Destiny. The Naturals won't allow the Coordinators to take all the good jobs and/or stop it early on, bustin' a cap in their asses when they start that sh** and kicking them off Earth. _________________ I am a Star Wars Fan, Warsie here.
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:29 pm Post subject: Re: I feel like society is morphing into the movie Gattaca
catspurr wrote:
Anyone seen that movie?
The basic plot
A genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel.
Parents get to pick and choose what kind of baby they will have. Isn't that what seems to be going on right now with the prenatal screening and hopes of curing autism?
Wow, so the media fills people heads with all sorts of negative stories of parents horrible lives over autism. Think about not knowing what autism really is like and then you hear while you are pregnant or someone else is that your prenatal tests come back and the child will most likely be autistic.
Can you imagine what could come from that?
Would the pregnant mother to be remember all the things shown on tv and abort over it? Would the doctors highly recommend she abort?
How sad.
YEP, I saw the film! Your description is a little off.
The "genetically inferior" man was simply not selected. Interestingly enough, his selected brother(Supposedly SUPERIOR) appeared to have a better heart but, otherwise, was INFERIOR!
The person, who's identity he bought, was not THAT bright, and ended up a CRIPPLE!
BTW I say the "inferior" guy was better than his "superior" brother because... HE beat his brother at swimming. HE saved his brothers life. HE had LOFTY goals to be the best of the best and HONESTLY achieved that. The "valids"(the "superior" people), didn't want this, so they put up LOTS of road blocks, and HE beat them all! And what of his brother? His brother was a nasty and stupid polic detective, and aspired ONLY to jail his hero brother!
Gattaca is very appropriate for your post though, as the point was that society was encouraged to select only the most genetically fit embryos for conception. If they failed to do so, the children were declared INVALID and prevented from doing ANYTHING over menial chores.(The policeman's brother's official position was JANITOR! They wanted him to spend his life SWEEPING the area used to train people to achieve what he always wanted to do!)
BTW that "inferior" person was to the superior much like a person with AS is to NT! Some see them as CLEARLY inferior even though, in other ways, they are SUPERIOR!!!!
Joined: May 08, 2008 Age: 40 Posts: 155 Location: planet of improbable realities
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:43 am Post subject:
[hmm, I tried replying to this before but it said the thread no longer existed...]
I've always thought that movie was under-rated.
THere we so many good points:
the "genetic counselor" advising a young couple about designing their child says "I assumed you wanted to give your child the best start in life, so I selected light skin and eyes..." and he (the "counselor") is black...
the non-engineered become an underclass because it's assumed they're not as good (before they're ever given a chance to prove otherwise)
wearing glasses is a sign of not being "engineered" and so it becomes a red flag that a person must be filled with all sorts of defects (and the same for dark eyes, since everybody chooses their child to have light colored eyes)
some of the engineered people have horrendous (even homicidal) personalities but it goes totally overlooked because it's assumed they're perfect (and that some no good "god child" (non-engineered person) must be the wrong-doer)
When a person created to be an athlete breaks his back and becomes disabled his life loses all meaning to him
When people are dating they sneak a single hair for a surreptitious DNA scan of each other (which illegal, but not enforced since everybody wants to do it
It totally changes society, and not for the better... Even without negative images specifically about autism I suspect many people would abort; the idea of wanting normalcy is... erm, probably written in the human genome. Like with prejudice people have to be aware of the bias before they can see that that's what it is. The good thing is that's it's not totally impossible to get people to see that.
Here's an alternate ending that IMO is better than the original:
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:24 am Post subject: Re: I feel like society is morphing into the movie Gattaca
2ukenkerl wrote:
catspurr wrote:
Anyone seen that movie?
The basic plot
A genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel.
Parents get to pick and choose what kind of baby they will have. Isn't that what seems to be going on right now with the prenatal screening and hopes of curing autism?
Wow, so the media fills people heads with all sorts of negative stories of parents horrible lives over autism. Think about not knowing what autism really is like and then you hear while you are pregnant or someone else is that your prenatal tests come back and the child will most likely be autistic.
Can you imagine what could come from that?
Would the pregnant mother to be remember all the things shown on tv and abort over it? Would the doctors highly recommend she abort?
How sad.
YEP, I saw the film! Your description is a little off.
The "genetically inferior" man was simply not selected. Interestingly enough, his selected brother(Supposedly SUPERIOR) appeared to have a better heart but, otherwise, was INFERIOR!
The person, who's identity he bought, was not THAT bright, and ended up a CRIPPLE!
BTW I say the "inferior" guy was better than his "superior" brother because... HE beat his brother at swimming. HE saved his brothers life. HE had LOFTY goals to be the best of the best and HONESTLY achieved that. The "valids"(the "superior" people), didn't want this, so they put up LOTS of road blocks, and HE beat them all! And what of his brother? His brother was a nasty and stupid polic detective, and aspired ONLY to jail his hero brother!
Gattaca is very appropriate for your post though, as the point was that society was encouraged to select only the most genetically fit embryos for conception. If they failed to do so, the children were declared INVALID and prevented from doing ANYTHING over menial chores.(The policeman's brother's official position was JANITOR! They wanted him to spend his life SWEEPING the area used to train people to achieve what he always wanted to do!)
BTW that "inferior" person was to the superior much like a person with AS is to NT! Some see them as CLEARLY inferior even though, in other ways, they are SUPERIOR!!!!
My impression is the guy was not inferior. The movie however deemed him inferior.
I don't understand something. When you type in caps does it mean you are angry, passionately expressive, calm or what?
I'm asking in a calm manner. Not offended or anything just wanted to know.
Joined: May 26, 2008 Age: 18 Posts: 4285 Location: Sydney, Australia
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:49 am Post subject:
wasnt it like he was infereror in that he had disabilities and he was born before genetic alterations were made, he took the identidy of a man who was suposidly superior, but had an injury cripling him. I have actualy thought about this beforein a way movie a quite possible step in a direction simular to the book 'Brave New World'. In that people are almost entirely designed, it would be an aspie hell. This stuff may prevent diseases, but it is taking away uniquety. _________________ They're sinking cities with a GIANT WOOOOORM!!!!
7th virtue: Humility
[hmm, I tried replying to this before but it said the thread no longer existed...]
I've always thought that movie was under-rated.
THere we so many good points:
the "genetic counselor" advising a young couple about designing their child says "I assumed you wanted to give your child the best start in life, so I selected light skin and eyes..." and he (the "counselor") is black...
the non-engineered become an underclass because it's assumed they're not as good (before they're ever given a chance to prove otherwise)
wearing glasses is a sign of not being "engineered" and so it becomes a red flag that a person must be filled with all sorts of defects (and the same for dark eyes, since everybody chooses their child to have light colored eyes)
some of the engineered people have horrendous (even homicidal) personalities but it goes totally overlooked because it's assumed they're perfect (and that some no good "god child" (non-engineered person) must be the wrong-doer)
When a person created to be an athlete breaks his back and becomes disabled his life loses all meaning to him
When people are dating they sneak a single hair for a surreptitious DNA scan of each other (which illegal, but not enforced since everybody wants to do it
It totally changes society, and not for the better... Even without negative images specifically about autism I suspect many people would abort; the idea of wanting normalcy is... erm, probably written in the human genome. Like with prejudice people have to be aware of the bias before they can see that that's what it is. The good thing is that's it's not totally impossible to get people to see that.
Here's an alternate ending that IMO is better than the original:
I think most of us agree it was a good film. They COULD concievably do MOST of that today!
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 6:52 am Post subject: Re: I feel like society is morphing into the movie Gattaca
catspurr wrote:
My impression is the guy was not inferior. The movie however deemed him inferior.
I don't understand something. When you type in caps does it mean you are angry, passionately expressive, calm or what?
I'm asking in a calm manner. Not offended or anything just wanted to know.
I think the movie tried to get the idea across that he WASN'T inferior. The society that the movie showed considered him inferior. Society started to move a certain way, and the authors built a story around a potential outcome.
wasnt it like he was infereror in that he had disabilities and he was born before genetic alterations were made, he took the identidy of a man who was suposidly superior, but had an injury cripling him. I have actualy thought about this beforein a way movie a quite possible step in a direction simular to the book 'Brave New World'. In that people are almost entirely designed, it would be an aspie hell. This stuff may prevent diseases, but it is taking away uniquety.
His parents were URGED to select, and they STARTED to, but they decided not to. The father changed to name of his first son at the last minute when he was found to have a bad heart. It is ironic that his brother, who he saved and who got his name, ends up harassing him.
I didn't get the idea that they made any changes, etc... It was basically using technology we have today. They would get several eggs, test them, several sperm, test them, create the embryos, and use selected ones. If the child was born healthy, they were declared "VALID". They could have about any job they wanted The others were declared "INVALID", and basically allowed only jobs that say a slave in the 1800s could get in the US.
The story centers around an INVALID wanting to get a job that even most VALIDS never dared aspire to.
BTW Interesting trivia. The doctor's prejudices and ego lead him to strongly suspect the guy is an invalid. He reveals that towards the end, but HE has an invalid son and appreciates the irony and the success of the guy, and lets him go!
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the "genetic counselor" advising a young couple about designing their child says "I assumed you wanted to give your child the best start in life, so I selected light skin and eyes..." and he (the "counselor") is black...
