we all know Elon Musk. The rather eccentric (ew) billionaire and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX (among other companies); what we call a business magnate. His footprint, on both the business world and pop culture has made him arguably one of the most closely watched figures of the 21st Century. And he has made it a personal mission to take humanity to freaking Mars!
Leaving aside for a minute the controversies of Elon and the general debate around the whole question of private space industries and their mission of making humanity an interplanetary species and its ethical dilemmas, lets focus on the exciting.
Establishing base on Mars will be humanities greatest achievement to date. The sheer reality of taking humans to another planet and living there might be difficult to even comprehend on first thoughts. The technologies, time, science, math, resources, money to even make this possible is simply a monument of human achievement and progress. We really went from gazing at the stars to launching spaceships and humans into space. We made an International Space Station. And have already landed robots on other PLANETS. Still, we have the most incredible ways to go before humans set foot on Mars. It’ll be a frontier of human possibilities and science. Every last decimal that can be calculated, will have to be calculated. Every human need, from the rate of breathing to the last oxygen levels and radiations and more will be calculated and the margin of errors will still remain as thin as imaginable. We wont just have to land a human on Mars…we would have to also establish a base to support life. Food and water and Oxygen and protection from the harsh elements of outer space.
And maybe not tomorrow or even in a couple decades, but that day will come. Much like all other frontiers of human technology and science, it is a milestone in human evolution that even if we wanted to – we can’t wish away.
Talking about frontiers of human discoveries and science; there is another incredibly fascinating and arguably even more controversial technology at our hands… CRISPR or Cas-19.
explain gene editing.
NOW lets cut the BULLSH#T – IF ELON OR BEZOS ASK TOMORROW TO EDIT HUMANS WITH CRISPR FOR MARS MISSIONS, WILL WE LET IT HAPPEN?
The will we let it happen bit is honestly exaggerated because it will be more accurate to ask if we will even have a say in the matter? Are we as a species in any position to have a say or control over the possibilities CRISPR will unlock?
And no, I am not asking from a CRISPR -future tech possibility doom fear mongering position. I’m asking from an unchecked limits of capitalism position.
Why this thought? Because I just watched Blade Runner 2049. Not only was it a surprisingly great movie – the movie elements I will dig into later – but it got my mind running on very real possibilities we might face in the not-so-distant future.
Let’s set the scene in 4 parts.
A. CRISPR. CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology or tool for gene editing. Genome editing is loosely a group of technologies that allow us to change an organism’s DNA. We can add, remove or alter specific locations within the genome. CRISPR-Cas9 is one such technology with massive potential because it is fast, accurate and cheaper – compared to other technologies (as a side note, CRISPR- Cas9 is already being challenged by a new technology which is being called the Retron Library Recombineering or RLR technique.) (expand on and write this out).
Point is simple, we are on the edge of a brand new realm of human technologies which has immense potential – yet can be equally dystopian in their applications. There is immense excitement in the scientific community around CRISPR-Cas9 and now RLR and a strong consensus that we do not and must not apply this to edit humans – especially at birth – to essentially create “edited” humans in hopes for desired traits. As you can imagine easily, it is a pandora’s box – technically already opened by Chinese scientist X who used the procedure to remove HIV from two twin babies. (EW SO POORLY WRITTEN) He’s in jail fellas… Okay so crash course on this because it is a serious matter – convention. Agreements. Bodies. Regulations.
B. MARS MISSIONS- it is no secret that Elon Musk is committed to landing humans on Mars – providing a second “home” for our species for the first time. And fellow uber rich Billionaire Jeff Bezos also wants in on the race to “colonize” MARS. Be assured, we are a way from that reality, but the race has started, and most countries will enter it too as we begin our new space age – with specific focus on Moon bases followed by landing on MARS. (expand on the Space race).
I am someone interested in science so usually keep up with this news in depth (and have only given summaries here for everyone to follow). But again, the fact is simple. Humans are looking to the Moon and MARS to establish bases. The reasonings for why the likes of Elon Musk believe in such an endeavor can be a little iffy – but I doubt that humanity will put a pause on this inevitable journey. These are extremely difficult missions however and establishing a sustainable base for humans on Mars will be a miracle of human engineering and capabilities.
C. Blade Runner 2049. I had A and B in my head for a long time, both being topics I often think about. Yet, somehow I had never connected the two. That is until I watched Blade Runner-2049. Honestly, an excellent movie, though you have to go in prepared to surrender to the film’s dystopia. And boiiii have I not felt such a dystopia in a long time. The movie does such a brilliant job of conveying the feelings of a world where “robotic” humans are a reality. And the truth is, while the conversation around Blade Runner has often been approached from the angle of robots and the progress of robot and AI technologies – a concept much explored by the entire genre – there is a much less “robot and AI” technology driven reality it highlights.
One of edited humans. And this is where all of this comes together.
D. It is no secret space missions and survival on Mars will force humans into the toughest conditions and making a livable reality on Mars will be – potentially – the tallest order humans have faced yet. Now, you are telling me on one hand you have a rapidly advancing gene editing technology and the need for humans to survive in extreme conditions on different planets – where every tiny need for our survival in an unhabitable planet will be calculated to every possible decimal and dollar, the glove does not fit the need of the hand?
What then are we as a people going to do when – hypothetically – Bezos and Musk find a – honestly reasonable – reason to use CRISPR-Cas9 (or whatever tech) to edit our astronauts of the future – our moon (less likely because of closer time frame) and mars habitants? Will we so seemingly – reasonably – enter the age of edited humans. Of classes of humans? And so the question is not far from us. It is already facing us in the face. Will there even be any recourse for “people” or governments to have a say in the matter? Or will the money and “science” and “will of astronauts” be something we can’t interject in?
To me it is a scary thought. Especially coming from a dystopian movie perspective. And the reality is far more tangible and current – especially in todays political moment. It is not a matter of Mars and evolution of technology – the latter (and honestly unless something major outside our control stops us – so is the former) is inevitable. We can’t wish to hope gene editing technologies vanish and never open the pandoras box of altering our species and its future forever. The real question, the one more tangible, is one of capitalism.
No. This is not a take on capitalism vs socialism or why capitalism is pure evil or anything of the sort. It is, much like the movie Blade Runner’s real themes – about unchecked capitalism. Monopolistic, unregulated, self-serving capitalism which doesn’t run on any principles of free (and fair) markets or democracy or equality. But one super powerful moneyed class that dictates the future of the entire planet without much say – for better or for worse. And I for one cannot imagine a situation more demanding of everyone coming together to tackle said issue than the very future and DNA of our species.
Or do we just sit idly and start the division of our species into classes. And the access within those classes – you best be sure – will be reserved in accordance with wealth. Those with money will afford the best solutions and those without will be left behind as our species changes course for good. And we find ourselves, innocently, well within Blade Runner’s dystopia. An inter planetary species and questions of what makes anyone “real”.
Here talk about the movie and what you loved about it most.
And I must be fair. These are my musings. Driven around a movie that I watched. One which made me feel a dread that I hadn’t felt before. Because while it was seemingly presenting a far future fiction, it felt hauntingly tangible. Real. Already in motion.
Technology will evolve. You cannot wish to undo the very direction of time and science. But must we always play catch up to our problems and address them – that too potentially – after the damage already affects us all? When do we becomes a species capable of learning from our mistakes, our weaknesses and better prepare ourselves for what is not only yet to come – but what stares us in the face already. A concept like Blade Runner predicted this truth all the way back in the 1970’s!!
Honestly, since Blade Runner already sank in the doom, it is important to realize we are well on that path. We as a species are incapable of tackling even Covid-19. The rich countries sit with stockpiles of vaccines – some capable of vaccinating their populations TWICE over – the trio of big Pharma, Bill gates and Governments – furiously protecting IP rights – swearing it is crucial for research – which was actually done on tax payers’ dollar – all to protect profits and project power at the cost of millions of lives and crisis hitting the developing world. The fact that we must debate and face such obvious corruption of both greed and morality, with something as tangible and devastating and UNITING as COVID-19 paints the bleakest picture of them all. Phizer doesn’t mind if the virus swims around in the human gene for years and mutates to jump back into the vaccinated west – it is simply round two of profits and new vaccines and advanced boosters for them.
These are all facts. Facing us in the face. These are lives. Lost on the daily. These are poor people in India, unable to find hospitals or oxygen or medicine…or even space to bury their loved ones dying waiting in cars outside hospitals. The great democracy of the west exposes its farce when its biggest loyalty lies not even with the almighty dollar. But with the few individuals whose profits have blinded themselves to a reality or morality, convincing themselves they are only doing what’s best possible for all – looking at you – all powerful philanthropist – Bill Gates.
I’m sorry for such a long rant. I couldn’t help myself. I thought the human conscience had woken up after we did the same exact massacre in the name of the Pharma dollar with HIV/AIDS. But I’m sitting pretty in Paris, waiting for vaccines and the cafés to open up. What difference will it make right? Well maybe it will 30 years from now when I find myself in the Blade Runner movie, just as numb and cold faced to a reality we’ve been seeing coming for decades, but never managed to do anything about it. All because we were never able to course correct our unchecked capitalistic powers.
And I swear I am an optimist.