Oryx and Crake

Margaret Atwood

How Far Can We Go? How far into the (near) future will we be able to splice the genes of a...more

How Far Can We Go? How far into the (near) future will we be able to splice the genes of a Raccoon with Skunks to provide a docile, yet ordourless house pet? How far into the (near) future will we be creating a particularly vicious blend of wolf and dog. How far into the (near) future are we to creating the perfect pill that will lengthen our stay in life? How far into the (near) future are we to ending the need for plastic surgery in an attempt to appear younger and healthier than we are? There would be no need if we had a pill, right? How far into the (near) future are we to destroying life on earth systematically with the very pills and vitamins we advertise as the perfect pill? How far into the (near) future will human existence attain human perfection at the hand of man? How far into the (near) future will we have the ability to create a transgenic pig to specifically grow foolproof human-tissue organs for transplant? Pigs with a rapid maturity and ability to re-grow organs taken and will never die. All in the pre-emptive step to splice the genes of humans with whatever man decides. How far into the (near) future will we be in creating the perfect fabricated human? We are already in the age of Genetic Engineering, Molecular Engineering and Transhumanism. For those unaware, the last of the three is …”an emergent school of speculative philosophy that is predicated on the idea that the human species is not confined to what biological evolution has thus far produced, and instead suggests that humanity has entered a new era, sometimes referred to as the post-Darwinian era, in which the species has the power to direct its own evolution.” From Campus Program Reference: Transhumanist Declaration In 1999 the WTA (World Transhumanist Association) compiled the Transhumanist Declaration. It declares the following: 1. Humanity will be radically changed by technology in the future. We foresee the feasibility of redesigning the human condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth. 2. Systematic research should be put into understanding these coming developments and their long-term consequences. 3. Transhumanists think that by being generally open and embracing of new technology we have a better chance of turning it to our advantage than if we try to ban or prohibit it. 4. Transhumanists advocate the moral right for those who so wish to use technology to extend their mental and physical capacities and to improve their control over their own lives. We seek personal growth beyond our current biological limitations. 5. In planning for the future, it is mandatory to take into account the prospect of dramatic technological progress. It would be tragic if the potential benefits failed to materialize because of ill-motivated technophobia and unnecessary prohibitions. On the other hand, it would also be tragic if intelligent life went extinct because of some disaster or war involving advanced technologies. 6. We need to create forums where people can rationally debate what needs to be done, and a social order where responsible decisions can be implemented. 7. Transhumanism advocates the well-being of all sentience (whether in artificial intellects, humans, nonhuman animals, or possible extraterrestrial species) and encompasses many principles of modern secular humanism. Transhumanism does not support any particular party, politician or political platform. Transhumanism has no rigid doctrines, but the Transhumanist Declaration is a good summary of its core ideas. Note: For years we have been genetically modifying wheat in the Prairies to get the best hybrid that can survive our climate. Since biblical times (or before that for some of you to imagine) humans have been controlling animal husbandry. Imagine, a world in the not so distant future. A world where the great power is in the hands of large coroporations and their private security forces; where the middle class have been virtually eliminated, where the disappearance of safe public space, allows for few alternatives; where intellegence breeds intellegence, a world where if you show signs of above exceptional thought to science; where science and math outweigh art and literature as legitimate education ; where if you are among the gifted who will contribute to the society, are expected to live in these highly protected Compounds, cleverly disguised as protected communities, but are nothing more than Research and Development companies creating and creating and creating…a fix for this, a fix for that…the perfect this the perfect that. The perfect human life. The centre of the universe of creation. Creation at the hand of man. These thoughts are not new inventions. Nothing we haven't already invented or started to invent. We all have thoughts of the “What if” and then we are able to set forth its axioms. What if we continue down the road we're already on? How slippery is the slope? What are our saving graces? Who's got the will to stop us? Consider recent events leading us to the (near) future: 2001: Scientist to Clone Humans “Scientists from Italy, the US and Isreal said last week they would begin preparations to try to produce the first clone of human being.” --The Washington Post October 2002: Genetically Altered Pigs Provide Transplant Hope --CNN.com November 2002: Stem Cell Mixing May Form a Human-Mouse Hybrid “The goal would be to test different lines of human embryonic stem cells for…treating specific diseases…Federally financed researchers can work only with “presidential cell lines,’ established before Aug 9/01, which president Bush declared as the cutoff for permissible stem cell work.” --The New York Times 2002: Researchers Create Polio Virus in Lab “Scientists point out the potential dangers.” --The Washington Post January 2003: Cloned Cows Are Engineered to Speed-Up Cheese Making --The New York Times February 2003: FDA Says Food Supply May Contain Altered Pigs --The New York Times February 2003: Dolly’s Death Resurrects Debate on Cloning Ethics --Los Angeles Times EDIT Dec 2004: Pig cloning can provide supply of human transplant organs --http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/120325/1/.html If you had the chance to fabricate an improved human being, would do it? If so, what features would you choose to incorporate? Why would these be better than what we’ve got? Of course, this model would have to be biologically viable – what line of science string would you use if you had only one to choose? • Cell biochemistry • Cloning • Engineer • Gene therapy • Genetically modified food • Genetically modified organism • Genome • Germline • Human Genome Project • Protein engineering • Proteomics I have recently (finally) finished reading a book written by Canadian Author, Margaret Atwood. In the pre-catastrophic society of *Oryx and Crake*, life is fixated on physical perfection and longevity, much as our own society is today. The book includes many details that seem futuristic, but are in fact already visible in our world. Atwood coined many words and brand names while writing the book. Such examples of these are: NooSkins. A company who’s primary mission is to create a flawless epidermis to replace wrinkled or blemished skin. OrganInc Farms. Projects included engineering the Methuselah Mouse as part of Operation Immortality. AnooYoo. Found outside the Compounds in what is referred to as Pleeblands version of NooSkins. Pleeblands is the crime-infested cities and urban sprawl inhabited by those who don’t qualify to live in the exclusive Compounds. CorpSeCorps. (Corporate Security Corps) The secret police, now entirely privatized, devoted to protecting the Compounds and their interests. ChickieNubs. At a research and development Compound, the creation of a chicken without a head who produces ONLY chicken breasts in mass quantities and used for fast food and other restaurants. Although these words were coined for the purpose of fiction and don’t exist in our world right now, how far into the (near) future will we see their submergence as non fiction? Will we be ethically mortified, or will we shrug our shoulders at these developments? A $3 billion project was founded in 1990 called the Human Genome Project. Headed by the United States Department of Energy and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, it was expected to take 15 years. Due to widespread international cooperation and advances in the field of genomics (especially in sequence analysis), as well as huge advances in computing technology, a rough draft of the genome was finished in 2000 (announced jointly by US president Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on June 26, 2000), two years earlier than planned. In 2003 a joint press release announced that the project had been completed successfully, with 99% of the genome sequenced with 99.99% accuracy. For what purposes was the project created? For what purposes could the project be exploited? Genetic Engineering involves “..the isolation, manipulation and reintroduction of DNA into model organisms, usually to express a protein.” The aim is to introduce new genetic charecteristics to an organism to increase its usefulness. Like, increasing the yield of a crop species or introducing an original charecteristic, or to produce a new protien or enzyme. Example: the production of new types of mice like the OncoMouse, for cancer research, created through genetic redesign. Things I’ve been thinking about. Things I’d like to challenge you to think about. Things I’d like you to comment on. I highly recommend taking in this read: *Oryx and Crake* by Margaret Atwood. “The narrator of this riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bed-sheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people once lived and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone, except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of his as a kind of monster, he explores the answer s to questions in the double journey he takes – into his own past, and back to Crakes high tech bubble dome where the Paradise Project unfolded and the world came to grief.” Says Margaret Atwood, writer of *Oryx and Crake* -"…Perfect storms" occur when a number of different forces coincide. So it is with the storms of human history. As novelist Alistair MacLeod has said, writers write about what worries them, and the world of Oryx and Crake is what worries me right now. It's not a question of our inventions - all human inventions are merely tools -- but of what might be done with them; for no matter how high the tech, homo sapiens sapiens remains at heart what he's been for tens of thousands of years - the same emotions, the same preoccupations. To quote poet George Meredith, ... In tragic life, God wot, No villain need be! Passions spin the plot: We are betrayed by what is false within.”    hide

'Oryx And Crake' (2003) by Margaret Atwood ***** Margaret Atwood's second essay in pure science...more

'Oryx And Crake' (2003) by Margaret Atwood ***** Margaret Atwood's second essay in pure science fiction after her modern masterpiece 'The Handmaid's Tale' (1985) is, if anything, an even more nightmarish portrayal of a possible future - though this time not explicitly feminist but rather "anti-scientific meddling with nature" in message. The story works on many different levels being at its most intimate the life story of Jimmy one of the privileged elite living in the safe Compounds while the rest of humanity fight it out amongst themselves in the harsh, unforgiving Pleeblands outside. At the beginning though we meet Jimmy as Snowman - the last normal human being alive on Earth following some undefined apocalypse. He struggles to survive in an overgrown wilderness populated by all manner of genetically mutated beasts and a race of altered humans known as Crakers who appear to worship Snowman as some kind of God! What led to this weird state of affairs is related in fragments by Jimmy's rambling reminiscences to his previous life - one of happy indolence in a world of casual immorality and genetic tampering gone mad, that appears scarily prescient of where our present society is headed. We learn of Jimmy's lifelong friend and mentor, Crake, a scientific genius who created the new "perfectly adapted" humans as his own pet project and it quickly becomes clear was somehow instrumental in the wiping out of the rest of humanity so they could inherit the Earth - sparing Jimmy as the only immune "old human", though whether as punishment or reward is open to debate... We also hear of the beautiful but enigmatic Oryx, Jimmy's illicit lover and partner to Crake whom he rescued from a life of sexual abuse in the Pleeblands. Made cold and ruthless by her experiences she manipulates both men while acting as teacher to (corruptor of?) the newly created Crakers in their Garden of Eden-like isolation dome. So we have a brilliantly created dystopian nightmare of brutal class segregation that crashes into full-scale apocalypse at the instigation of a Frankenstein-figure for the new millennia who not only creates an entire race but wipes out the old one for them to replace in the most insanely Messianic gesture of liberation to the planet imaginable - and all this fuelled by a classic love triangle scenario in which a femme fatale comes between best friends!! The fact that Atwood makes this hugely ambitious conceit work as a gripping narrative and pulls all the disparate strands together perfectly to reveal a deep rooted disgust at the human race and our arrogant tampering with nature is nothing short of miraculous! I would compare this work alongside any of the great dystopian sci-fi classics from Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ (1932) and H.G. Wells’ ‘The Shape Of Things To Come’ (1933) through the greatest of them all ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (1949) by George Orwell to ‘A Clockwork Orange’ (1962) by Anthony Burgess or any of the future nightmares dreamt up by that most pessimistic of all dystopian authors J.G. Ballard in ‘High Rise’ (1975), ‘The Unlimited Dream Company’ (1979), ‘Cocaine Nights’ (1996), etc. Atwood has at least equalled the power of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and provided a story that almost demands repeated rereading to fathom the many different layers of allegory with which she works. One can’t help wondering who she intended the reader to empathise with. On the surface Crake’s actions seem indefensibly arrogant but the world she creates for them to live in is so horrific with its internet driven blasé acceptance of child porn and its genetic reducing of animal life to little more than living meat trees that one can’t help feel more than a tinge of understanding for him. It’s a deep depressing book that some may find too heavy going and I did struggle to get into but the rewards for perseverance are great and the catalogue of horrors are leavened throughout by Atwood’s trademark deadpan humour. By the end the level of tragedy becomes almost unbearable and the lone figure of Snowman – as Jimmy so cocky and initially dislikeable – becomes a truly mythic figure of head-down survival and indomitable spirit while the Crakers seem increasingly ridiculous, derisory figures with their blue glow-in-the-dark willies and "reprocessing of their own excrement" (yep, they do!). On the surface it’s the biblical creation myth again, reworked for the new millennium, but who exactly is God (Crake?), who Adam (Jimmy?), who Eve (Oryx?) and most importantly... who is the Serpent??? This is a book I know I will come back to and has to rank as a strong contender for the first truly great sci-fi novel of the 21st Century!!   hide

***SPOILER ALERT***In this distopic novel, the world as we know it has ended with only Snowman and...more

***SPOILER ALERT***In this distopic novel, the world as we know it has ended with only Snowman and the genetically modified Crakers the only surviving human survivors. This novel is the scientific equivalent to Atwood?s previous distopic novel, "The Handmaid?s Tale", was to evangelical Christianity. Biotech companies are the new elite manipulating almost all biota to humankind exactly what it wants. There are chicken plants that just produce breads or drumsticks. There are pigs that produce human organs is multiples. There are coffee plants where the beans all mature at once cutting down production costs. And finally there is the ultimate virus invented by Snowman?s friend Crake. This virus is distributed in a drug that is marketed as Blissplus a sexual stimulant. It has a time delay so that all people on the planet are affected basically simultaneously. Chaos ensues and the only people remaining are Snowman and the beings Crake has invented all of them safe in the "Paradice" dome as the rest of humanity self destructs. The Crakers are meant to be an improvement on humans, they eat and digest only plant matter, are more like animals in their sexuality, are resistant to the now dangerous sun, repel insects and best of all are free of religion (perhaps). Snowman is worried about the word he is losing every day. Unlike Crake is a word not a math person. The novel extrapolates the direction our society seems to be headed in with genetic modification and drugs as the answer to everything. The end of the novel does show signs of hope the Crakers make a graven image of Snowman and Snowman discovers and takes the risk of meeting other human survivors.   hide

Just when you think nothing new can be added to the worn dystopian sci fi genre, Atwood updates it...more

Just when you think nothing new can be added to the worn dystopian sci fi genre, Atwood updates it using facts and information from our current generation, with chilling results. I couldn't help but think of the film Children of Men; their plots are nothing alike, but they both inject originality and new insight into the apocolyptic future genre by relating future events to our contemporary lifestyles and technologies. As usual, Atwood's poetic prose, unique phrasing and adept characterization stand out. But what I find most striking is how well researched this novel is; Atwood has clearly done her homework, using scientific facts as platforms for imaginative speculation. Oryx and Crake is a facinating blend of anthropology, sociology, linguistics, psychology and biology. It also bears a startling relevance to our current world, and the future our generation faces. Profoundly disturbing, and all too painfully human.   hide

Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake is the best kind of science-fiction novel - a well-crafted,...more

Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake is the best kind of science-fiction novel - a well-crafted, compelling story that explore ideas about science. The ideas explored in the novel are the ethics of genetic engineering and a dystopian look at where it could potentially be taking us. Atwood's prose is effortless to read, sparse yet lucid in it's description, and is sprinkled with her usual wit. Like other Atwood books, the narrative structure and plot is complex - the novel combines two stories that take their time building steam and ultimately come crashing together. As good as the prose and the plot, the thing that stays with you once you put down Oryx and Crake are the questions that Atwood raises. A writer of a lesser caliber would attempt to spell it out , but Atwood trusts the reader to reach their own conclusions. Recommended.   hide