Lab of the Distant Relatives: Edigenics

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6 episodes in total. (Duration: 15 minutes per episode)

It is Taiwan of the near future, a time when the gap between social classes, the rich and the poor, is greater than now. Most people use Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Technology to select the best embryos for pregnancy, and edit genetic codes to further “optimize” their offspring. A new biomedical startup company, NOLANDOR, claims that they can engineer the DNA sequences of embryos to increase kids’ IQ. This so-called IQ+ gene editing procedure is technically challenging, expensive, and affordable only to the richest. The procedure makes the kids’ ears pointy like elves. The pointy ears are the only phenotype of IQ+ kids recognizable by sight.

Approx. 10 years into the IQ+ clinical trial, when the first generation of IQ+ kids start schools, two IQ+ kids are attacked and the pointiness of their ears are cut. As the suspects do not seem to have Body Assistors 1 installed, they are difficult to be tracked down by the police. The police can only speculate that it is the initial stage of an organized, large-scaled hate crime against this upper-class-only technology. The violence heats up debates among the public. Some urge the need to stop all gene edit practices. Others believe that gene edit is an adaption strategy to accelerate human evolution for the ever-changing world. Then, the third IQ+ kid is attacked.

In the six 15 min sessions of radio programme, the police and experts discuss the violent attacks on IQ+ kids and the panic spread. 

1.Body Assistors are micro-devices. When a body assistor is planted in the forehead, it senses the electronic signals of a brain to control near-by smart electronics. The information and signals of Body Assistors can be easily collected and managed by the government, making Body Assistor a gateway to monitor people. 

Director: Ge Chang-Huei 

Cast: 

  • Reporter: Zin Ge 
  • Police chief: Chen Poting
  • Genetic engineer: Theresa Tsun-Hui Tsao
  • Noland Biogene Company: Wu Mu-Ching
  • Professor of philosophy: Isaac Huang
  • Respondents:  Jing Wei-Min, Wang Ren-Zheng, Huang Yu-Ru, Cy, Liou Tian-Ya, Huang Cheng-Xian, Chen Wen-Hui, Lee Lon-Zhong, Zhong En-Yu, Wang Yue

Lab of the Distant Relatives

Although the Theory of Species does not mention the pneuma of living creatures, it describes all organisms as distant relatives. From a legal perspective, Article 983 of Taiwan’s Civil Law Code states that one should not marry a collateral relative by blood within the sixth degree of kinship. According to customary human avoidance behavior, distant relatives are relatives beyond the seventh degree of relations. The theory of the Six Degrees of Separation shows the convergence of the social community era, while relatives beyond the seventh degree are on the enlarged magnetic field of divergence. Our lab works firstly on creating the optimal impacts, and then studies to avoid physical risks. We are always preparing a control/contrast room for the experimental lab, in which diverging / distracting thoughts procreated immortally. We wish to discuss the end-of-world standpoint on human reproduction by “Edigenics”.