Human Genetic Engineering

From Gothpoodle

Latest revision as of 15:53, 19 September 2013

Human beings can be genefixed, genetic upgrades, or parahumans. All have full human rights, but some governments restrict the gengineering that can be done. Most nations do not permit gengineering that poses physical or mental health risks, stunts or degrades normal human abilities, or encourages criminal behavior. Some places, such as the European Union and Japan, do not approve any modification that might result in a child suffering social alienation: no tails or fur, for example. A waiver is possible for pantropic changes optimized for a colonial environment.

Genefixed Humans

When parents decide to have a child, they usually visit a genetic clinic and assay their own genomes. They often pay for eugenic genetic engineering to fix defects such as hereditary diseases. This is known as being “genefixed.” Since the 2030s, genefixing has been gradually extended to apply to tendencies to “flaws” such as lantern jaw, knock-knees, poor complexion, crooked teeth, etc. It is also possible to edit gene sequences tending toward certain mental states, such as lecherousness or poor self-control, or to reduce susceptibility to some mental illnesses. It’s generally considered acceptable for parents to do this.

• Baseline Human: Common in Third Wave and not uncommon in Fourth Wave nations. In Fifth Wave nations, “baselines” are usually either immigrants from poorer countries or elderly.
  • Complication: Floater (2028): Baseline humans raised in zero-G or microgravity who lacked compensatory genemods. Most grew up in poorer orbital or L5 communities. They can also represent early Duncanites. They tend to be tall and fragile and suffer in normal gravity.
• Genefixed Human: At a minimum, most parents screen unborn children for any genetic “flaws” and, if they exist, have them fixed. A genefixed human is someone who has gone through this screening, even if no gengineering was needed.
  • First-Generation (2020): Screened for genetic defects.
  • Second-Generation (2035): Screened for physical features which would cause someone to be considered unattractive.
  • Third-Generation (2050): Screened for mental instability.

Genetic Upgrades

A genetic upgrade is a person whose genes have been carefully selected not only to fix defects but to enhance certain traits (such as appearance, health, or memory). If their clones and descendants are included, upgrades make up about one-fifth of humanity. This is closer to one-third in Fifth Wave countries such as France and the United States, where young people lacking upgrades are beginning to be stigmatized.

Genetic clinics offer a variety of “overlay templates,” which provide specific genetic traits while leaving most of the parental DNA alone, or which can be merged with known upgrade gene lines. Such templates do not necessarily bring about simple cosmetic changes (a child can be a member of a wholly distinct species even with 98% of its DNA left unmodified). More ambitious parents may choose not to bequeath their genes to their children at all, calling instead for a wholly customized design. This degree of intervention is expensive and is strictly regulated in some countries, but it is usually possible.

Most upgrades come from proven commercial genetic templates (“gene lines”). Selecting one is vastly cheaper than customized eugeneering, since the work has already been done and hidden defects are unlikely to appear. A more subtle advantage is that certain gene lines establish their own subcultures and support groups. Being an Alpha upgrade means you have several million relatives.

• Alpha Upgrade (2050): The Alpha was the first commercially successful genetic upgrade certified to be error-free. It has been widely licensed and pirated. Careful eugeneering ensures an attractive, athletic, healthy individual. There are 40 million living Alphas.
  • Olympian (2065): The second-generation Alpha possesses metabolic and glandular modifications to burn off excess fat and optimize crisis response.
• Helot Upgrade (2080): Sometimes called “Social Man,” the Helot genetic template was developed in China about 2080. Its supporters claim that the upgrade makes human beings much better able to live in a crowded urban civilization, reducing aggressive and selfish impulses without curtailing overall intelligence. Detractors point out that these traits are exactly what a would-be ruling elite would desire, making the human population more docile and tractable. In fact, several recent experiments with totalitarianism have used the Helot genotype in an attempt to prevent popular uprisings. The outcome of the experiment is unclear, since the first Helot cohorts are only now reaching adulthood. About 250,000 Helots exist today, most of them in central Africa, southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Peru. Elsewhere Helots are few, since the genotype is unpopular among parents who have a choice of genetic template for their children.
  • Helot II: A more elaborate version of the Helot genotype is rumored to have been developed by TSA scientists just before the Pacific War. This template would have involved a complete restoration of the vestigial human vomeronasal organ, allowing the variant form to be strongly influenced by pheromones. According to anti-nanosocialist propaganda, the TSA elite planned to use dominance and sexual pheromones as a tool of political control; people with the “Helot II” genotype would have been particularly vulnerable to such an attack.
• Ishtar Upgrade (2064): General-purpose upgrades such as the Alpha are common, but more specific packages are designed for parents who want particular types of offspring. The Ishtar gene sequence is one example, created to produce children optimized for professions such as dancer, gymnast, pop star, or model. Biotech Euphrates eugeneers selected a light, elfin build and a facial bone structure to produce distinctive but attractive looks. An extra feature was an augmented liver. In a controversial move, Biotech Euphrates modified the Ishtar neurochemistry with gene sequences thought to enhance ego and competitiveness. Some believe that they went a bit too far . . . There are 150,000 Ishtars alive.
  • Siduri (2079): A second-generation Ishtar that increases lifespan and reduces the ego issues.
• Mahatma Upgrade (2057): One of the earliest genetic templates designed to fulfill a human ideal, the Mahatma upgrade first became popular in the late 2050s. Research dating back to the turn of the century revealed that certain kinds of “religious” experience had an identifiable neurological basis. Based on the Alpha-series upgrade, the Mahatma received careful adjustments to brain structure and neurochemistry, making them particularly open to this kind of mystic insight. Mahatmas are emotionally stable and good at tasks that require concentration. These traits alone would make the template popular, since they significantly improve chances of success in the classroom or workplace. However, Mahatmas are also prone to certain altered states of consciousness, from simple meditative calm to a deep identity-blurring trance. There are about 5 million Mahatmas today, working in a variety of professions. They do seem statistically more likely to be openly devout, or to follow a religious profession. On the other hand, their greater sensitivity to mystic experience does not seem to lead them toward any one specific ideology. Statistically, Mahatmas tend to have the same religious backgrounds as those around them.
• Metanoia-Series Upgrade (2065): Genetically enhanced intelligence remains controversial, due to the subtlety of gengineering required and the difficulty of measuring results. Radical attempts at redesigning the brain often result in insanity. More modest successes have been achieved: GenTech Pacifica’s Metanoia made careful use of gene sequences known to correlate with enhanced memory and concentration, and “Metas” now consistently score 10-20 points higher than baseline humans on the ASIT. The upgrade is increasingly popular, with 1.3 million alive today.

Parahumans

A parahuman is a transgenic person whose genome incorporates genes of nonhuman origin, giving him traits that normal humans do not possess. These can range from the strikingly obvious (a coat of fur) to the subtle (a biochemistry adapted to zero gravity).

Each type of parahuman is technically a different species from humanity. With rare exceptions, they are no longer naturally interfertile with other humans or different parahuman species. If a parahuman and a normal human wanted to produce a child, for example, they’d need to blend their DNA via gengineering. There are several million parahumans in the system. They represent about one-tenth of one percent of Earth’s population. However, over one-third of human beings beyond Earth’s orbit are parahumans.

Pantropic Parahumans

These are humans whose bodies possess genetic modifications that make them better able to live in a hostile environment. Examples include adaptations for Mars or microgravity, and “econiche” parahumans optimized for harsh Earth environments such as desert or ocean habitats.

• Aquamorph (2075): GenTech Pacifica’s Aquamorph is one of the more visible econiche parahumans. Aquamorphs store oxygen in the myoglobin of their muscles, much like cetaceans. Thousands live on Earth, many near the Elandra sea habitat.
• Drylander (2077): Drylanders were designed to live comfortably in some of the world’s most arid regions, tending wilderness preserves or assisting in desert reclamation projects. They appear nearly human from a distance, but have a number of transgenic features that become apparent up close. The type’s metabolism has been carefully altered to conserve water and deal with wind-blown dust. The large eyes have been radically modified, giving them keen night vision and protecting them with a nictating membrane. As a result, Drylanders can function quite well in the cool desert night, and many of them prefer a nocturnal existence. Drylanders were first developed in the United States. Many of the subspecies still live in the southwestern U.S., but others have spread to desert and steppe zones all over the world. The largest communities today are in western Australia and in northern Africa, where major desert reclamation projects are underway.
• Misha (2055): This parahuman type was one of the first human subspecies to be created. The type borrows a great deal from ursid genetics, giving it thick body hair (effectively fur), strong resistance to cold, and a moderate ability to hibernate. Side effects of the modifications include a bearlike temperament and an increased need for sleep year-round. Mishas can function without special clothing or equipment in temperatures as low as -75°. When the temperature gets below -60°, however, they feel a strong urge to find shelter and hibernate. This occasionally helps them to survive extreme conditions, but it can be inconvenient when there is work to be done. Drugs and other treatments can mitigate the hibernation urge, but have undesirable side effects. Misha parahumans were first developed in Russia, and are still most common in Siberia. Mishas (and the nearly identical Kodiak type) have spread to Alaska, Greenland, northern Scandinavia, Nunavut, and Antarctica. Although their tolerance for warmth is almost as good as an unmodified human’s, they do prefer colder climates and are rarely found in the tropics. They find employment in all kinds of cold-weather industries.
• Ranger (2079): This parahuman type is fairly recent, depending as it does on several radical modifications of the basic human sensorium. The goal was to produce a genotype which would be able to survive in almost any wilderness environment, alone and with a minimum of technical support. A magnetic-field sense was borrowed from migratory birds, and several sequences for acute hearing and smell were also added. The digestive system and metabolism were upgraded to allow the consumption of almost anything organic. The genotype’s unusual senses are not perfectly integrated into the brain, leading to irritability and chronic insomnia. Meanwhile, subtle tinkering aiming for a self-reliant attitude may have been too successful. Ranger-series parahumans have begun to appear in the Amazon basin and in the wilderness regions of Canada, Russia and the United States. They often find employment as wilderness preserve rangers, scientists, or guides. In recent years several Isolate communities dominated by this parahuman type have been founded.
• Tennin (2058): Duncanite gengineering optimized the Tennin metabolism for life in zero-G and microgravity environments without bone and muscle wasting. Now Tennin make up a majority of the Duncanite population. They tend to be tall and thin, with good looks and unusually long toes usable as grasping fingers. There are about 160,000 Tennin. Avatar licenses the genes; many non-Duncanite spacers pick it for their children.
• Wu Tsao (2084): Gengineered by the Wimmin’s Pantropic Collective of Margaret Station, these parahumans are a fusion of Tennin and Metanoia. They are exclusively lesbian females who can give birth to clones of themselves.
• Yousheng (2068): Xiao Chu created this pantropic parahuman design for Mars settlement. They’re similar to an Alpha-series upgrade, but have modified lungs and biochemistry for surviving on the surface with minimal protection, as well as radical hormonal and reproductive cell genemods. The latter reflect Rust China’s desire to increase its population, but have also led to accusations that Xiao Chu is “turning humans into bioroids.” Rust China offers economic subsidies to colonists who choose to have Yousheng children.
  • Viking (2080): Since 2080, Colonial Genetics has offered a licensed version without the hormonal and reproductive modifications.

Homo Superior

Adaptation to a specific ecological niche is only one goal met by genetic engineering, and not the most common. The most frequent approach is to give the variant type greater general capability, making it “human, only more so.” In 2100, most of Earth’s population is made up of these Homo superior variants. The Alpha, Ishtar, and Metanoia-series upgrades are the most common, but others have appeared recently on Earth.

• Brownie (2055): One of the earliest attempts to engineer humans for increased health and longevity was the Brownie variant. Rather than tinker with the inner workings of cell biochemistry, the Brownie’s designers chose to improve gross human physiology. A Brownie appears strange in a world where so many people have been designed for tall, slender attractiveness. Brownies are short and stocky, with heavy layers of muscle and fat padding torso, upper arms, and upper legs. Their spines are curved, giving them a naturally forwardleaning posture. Their knee joints have been re-engineered to bend in both directions, giving them a slow, awkward looking gait. Their voices sound muffled and nasal, the result of tracheal reconfiguration. Strange as it may seem, all these modifications tend to make the Brownie tough and durable. Brownies are very resistant to disease, falls and other accidents, and the slow progress of time. They age just as quickly as unmodified humans do, but their bodies simply don’t wear out as rapidly. Although the first cohorts of the subspecies are not yet old enough to demonstrate their durability, most estimates indicate that the average Brownie can expect to live well over a century with minimal medical intervention (and therefore very low medical costs). There are about 1 million Brownies in the world today, mostly in Europe and the United States. A surprising number have made their way into space – the template’s modifications to skeletal structure have made Brownies nearly immune to bone-mass loss in zero-G. Although the merits of the design are rarely questioned, the Brownie template is unpopular due to its odd and unfashionable appearance.
• Herakles Parahuman (2086): Pushing the limits of genetic technology, the Herakles series represents one of the most elaborate Homo superior designs available in 2100. The first cohorts are only now approaching adulthood. The expense of the genotype (and its apparent problems) have limited the type’s appeal. There are only about 10,000 Herakles parahumans alive, most of them in Greece. The muscles, skeleton, and nervous system have all been engineered for maximum performance. The immune system and overall biochemistry have been broadly modified to allow virtual immunity to toxins, infectious disease and cancers. Several changes to cell structure allow dramatic extension of lifespan. Finally, modifications to the brain allow a Herakles to get by with very little sleep. The sum of these modifications appears to have stretched the state of the art in human gengineering to its limit. Next-generation designs will probably supplement genetic alteration with symbiotic viruses or other techniques. For now, the Herakles is plagued with minor metabolic and psychological problems.

Ideal Parahumans

These are humans whose genomes were modified to conform to an individual or group’s idea of what the human body should be like, or a particular aesthetic vision.

• Ariadne (2066): One of the more controversial ideal-parahuman types has been the Ariadne, first developed in the 2060s in the United States. Some social movements of the time called for the complete emancipation of women from male domination – through the creation of a human subspecies that would not require males to survive or reproduce. The Ariadne subspecies fell short of that goal, as genetic engineering was unable at the time to produce true parthenogenesis. Even so, with modern reproductive technology the new subspecies has been able to get by. Ideological fervor has allowed Ariadne communities to survive despite their inability to reproduce themselves “naturally.” Today there are about 200,000 Ariadnes. Most of them live in Isolate communities or have emigrated to the space colonies. Although most of Earth’s Fifth Wave societies have relaxed their intolerance of the Ariadne lifestyle, such prejudice has been intense at times. Most Ariadne communities remain convinced that they are persecuted and cannot live safely in the global society. Ariadne scientists are among the leaders in reproductive modifications. For the most part the Ariadne genotype is a typical Homo superior type, slightly above the human average in intelligence and overall health, engineered for longevity and disease resistance. The “fight-or-flight” response has also been carefully improved to give the variant superior emergency reflexes. The controversial aspects of the variant are in its reproductive systems. Ariadnes cannot become pregnant unless they wish to, and they cannot bear male children. Male fetuses are spontaneously aborted by an autoimmune reaction by the time they reach the hundred cell stage. Meanwhile, the brain and hormonal mechanisms responsible for gender identity have been subtly modified, giving Ariadnes a strong predisposition toward homosexuality. Not all Ariadnes function as homosexuals, but most of them are at least bisexual, and fully heterosexual individuals are quite rare.
  • Ariadne II (2086): The product of collaboration between Earth-bound Ariadnes and geneticists on Margaret Station, the new version of the genotype will attain reproductive self-sufficiency once the first cohorts reach adulthood.
• Avatar (2061): Like the Ariadne, the Avatar design was motivated by social conflicts over gender roles. Rather than try to redefine what it meant to be masculine or feminine, this design reinforces typical gender stereotypes. As such, it is an exercise in sexual dimorphism, in which the physical and psychological differences between males and females of the subspecies are exaggerated. Male Avatars are strong, robust, alert, stoic in the face of pain, and strongly egoistic. Female Avatars are dexterous, soft-voiced, and retiring. Both sexes are engineered for great physical attractiveness, and have extreme secondary sexual characteristics which make their masculinity or femininity almost fiercely obvious. The Avatar design is a fairly early variant, having first appeared in the Middle East. It has been surprisingly popular, even outside the strongly patriarchal cultures where it was first marketed. Today it can be found almost everywhere in Africa, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. There are about 500,000 Avatars today. Male Avatars tend to gravitate toward high-risk occupations such as the military, while female Avatars (especially those who overcome their natural shyness) are often successful as diplomats, negotiators or entertainers.
• Kouros (2082): Cultural struggles over “gender politics” have often bred extremism, such as that which gave rise to the Ariadne parahuman design. One response to the gender wars has been to withdraw from the field of combat entirely. For example, members of the “asexual” movement of the 2060s used bodysculpting and other techniques to remove all sexual characteristics, expressing not only a rejection of gender politics but a rejection of gender itself. In the early 2080s a variation of this ideology gave rise to the Kouros-series design. Kouros parahumans are true functional hermaphrodites, able to perform either the male or female role in sex or reproduction. Indeed, a Kouros can reproduce alone. The physical appearance of a Kouros is distinctive and not in any sense androgynous. Facial features and body shape were each designed to be significantly different from either male or female norms. The result is sometimes considered attractive but is often disturbing to non-Kouros humans. In an attempt to give the Kouros a distinctive mindset that was neither “masculine” or “feminine,” the designers concentrated on creativity and communication skills. One unplanned side effect is a breakdown in emergency response reflexes, which often causes the Kouros to “freeze” in stressful situations. The oldest cohorts of the new subspecies have reached adulthood, and have almost universally avoided military service (but are showing some promise in linguistics, diplomacy, and the creative arts). There are about 50,000 Kouros in the world at present.
• Sigma (2079): One branch of the Transhumanist movement was led by the “cyberprophets,” pop-culture philosophers who claimed that the ultimate end of human evolution would be in communion with machine intelligence. To that end, in the early 2070s they commissioned the Pandora parahuman design in an attempt to build humans who could think as quickly as a sophisticated AI. The Pandoras were a mixed success at best, so the sponsors attracted considerable controversy when they purchased the Sigma design as an extension of the Pandora template. Despite the cloud over their conception, the first Sigmas have reached adulthood and are showing promise as scientists, engineers, and web managers. There are about 80,000 Sigmas. The emphasis of the Sigma design is on cognitive speed and mathematical ability. The speed of information processing across neurons has been increased, and the brain’s structure has been modified to grant greater mathematical and abstract-reasoning ability. An unplanned but desirable side effect has been to make almost all Sigmas lightning calculators. Modifications to the brain’s sleep centers have enabled them to get by with very little sleep for days on end. Unfortunately, all these modifications to the brain have led to borderline mental instability. Further, the interface to the brain’s speech centers has still not been perfected. While Sigmas do not exactly stutter, they have great difficulty slowing their speech patterns down when conversing with non-Sigmas, and this has much the same effect.
• Ziusudra (2073): This Biotech Euphrates “ideal” parahuman is designed for high intelligence and lengthened lifespan. The Ziusudra looks fully human. Its many transgenic genemods include a redesigned heart, arteries, spleen, and gastrointestinal tract, plus alterations to cellular repair systems to aid longevity. Currently, 11 million exist. There are many licensed or reverse-engineered variations.
  • Nyx (2084): Genehackers Inc. reverse-engineered the Ziusudra and made radical modifications to sleep-regulating structures in the brain, but seem to have compromised some of the parent design’s attributes. They need less sleep but don't have the increased lifespan.

Specialized Parahuman

These are humans physically or mentally optimized for a particular occupation. A small degree of specialized enhancement (for example, a body well-suited for athletic pursuits) is considered ethical, but overspecialization that takes away some of a person’s free will or dignity is not.