From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Sep 11 2001 - 09:04:54 MDT
On Mon, Sep 10, 2001 at 06:00:19PM +0100, Adrian `Guru Zeb` Harper wrote:
> Gattaca is the story IMHO mostly about sibling rivalry, self determination
> and environmental forces
> verses genetic predisposition in terms of personal development. Many ppl i
> know felt it had an anti-genetic
> technology message. I myself felt it to be a more complex examination of
> genetic information/manipulation
> issues mostly focused on the fact that genetic predisposition/potential of
> an organism once played out
> during it's development does not guarantee on which side of the
> predisposition/potential curve that
> individual organism will come to rest. Once again highly recommended.
I agree. A very good film, actually. Michael Nyman's music fitted the
golden light and Lloyd Wright architecture perfectly to create a very
retro futurism.
As for the anti-genetic message, I think that was the message the
creators did try to convey. There was a sequence left out that showed
famous people that might have been geneteically selected away (from
http://us.imdb.com/AlternateVersions?0119177):
A short sequence which shows some famous people who may had not
been born if science had decrypted the human DNA sooner: Abraham
Lincoln (Marfan Syndrome) Emily Dickinson (Manic Depression)
Vincent van Gogh (Epilepsy) Albert Einstein (Dyslexia) John F.
Kennedy (Addison's Disease) Rita Hayworth (Alzheimer's Disease)
Ray Charles (Primary Glaucoma) Stephen Hawking (Amyotrophic
Lateral Sclerosis) Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Asthma) The last
sentence is: "Of course, the other birth that may never have
taken place is your own."
I think this pretty clearly shows at least some of the intention. But
like any good film, the story refuses to be simple. It can also be
viewed as a firm defense of the human ability to shape one's own life.
It is a bit like Shelly's _Frankenstein_, which is usually regarded as
being anti-science, but actually - even though Shelly might have been
ambivalent on this point - says that what was lacking in Frankenstein
was not research ethics, but that he did not think through and take
responsibility for the consequences of his actions. See the article
about it in last week's Nature, for example.
The thing that truly made me love Gattaca was how the astronauts
dressed: a shuttle filled with people in suits and tie. The day we can
achieve that, space will be open to us. :-)
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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