Sorry to share this, but trained monkeys could do most of our jobs, and do them more cheaply. Two bananas an hour. Especially a job that requires a redundant, almost robotic series of movements. This might be our future, if what Emily Anthes wrote in her nonfiction book: "Frankenstein's Cat - Cuddling Up To Biotech's Brave New Beasts," is all true. God help us all. I think it is all true.
The Brave New World of the future is already here. Right now, in secret labs in America and elsewhere, scientists have strapped "bugging" devices to beetles and made the beetles into automatons that will do whatever the scientists make them do. True, apes and dolphins may one day gain more protection due to their higher intelligences. Which means they won't be forced to be living in labs, subject to experiments. But the day is not far off when they have a joy stick that makes you do whatever they want you to do. Maybe they already do. And you know to whom I am referring: Them. The government. The New World Order people. Scientists have implanted devices in insect larvae to control them, and one day, as in the young adult book "Feed" they will put them in us. On the face of it, it seems like a great idea. We can all be as brainy as Einstein. But that isn't what this is about. The book by Anthes is telling us: Wake Up People! The government is going to tinker with your head. This is how they made Glow Fish. They took a gene from a jellyfish that causes fluorescence, and put it in a zebra fish. Voila! A new fad! Imagine them putting something in your kids to make them easier to find in the dark when they are partying with their friends. Hmm.
Changing a wolf into a dog took thousands of years. And look at how many varieties of dogs there are now! Woof. Anthes points out that tinkering with living things comes with a price. Larger dog breeds often have inherent problems due to breeding. All breeds of dog can develop dysplasia, but it is the larger breeds that are most likely to suffer, simply because they weigh more. Because the problem is rooted in genetics, it tends to occur when one or both of your dog's parents was also dysplastic. But because more than one gene location and interaction is involved (polygenetic) , it can skip generations, or affect some puppies in a litter while sparing others. That is what makes the problem difficult for breeders to stamp out.
The World Canine Organization is best known by its French title, Fédération Cynologique Internationale which is abbreviated FCI. It is the largest registry of dog breeds that are internationally accepted. The FCI recognizes 339 breeds of dogs, which are divided into 10 groups based upon the dog’s purpose or function, or upon its appearance or size. The 10 groups are:
- Sheepdogs and Cattle Dogs other than Swiss Cattle Dogs (this group includes most of the dogs found classified as "herding dogs" by other kennel clubs).
- Pinscher and Schnauzer - Molossoid Breeds - Swiss Mountain and Cattle Dogs and Other Breeds (the Molossian breeds include the dogs known as the mastiffs by most other kennel clubs)
- Terriers
- Dachshunds
- Spitz and Primitive Types
- Scenthounds and Related Breeds
- Pointers and Setters
- Retrievers - Flushing Dogs - Water Dogs
- Companion and Toy Dogs
- Sighthounds
There are surprises in this list, such as the fact that the Australian Shepherd is actually a breed created in the United States, while the Pharaoh Hound was not developed in Egypt, but in Malta. France, Germany and Great Britain are responsible for creating more dog breeds than nearly the rest of the world combined. Apparently, those countries are big on tinkering with Mother Nature.
And what of us? Anthes doesn't devote many pages to that subject in her book, the indication obviously being that we also can be improved. And natural selection has made us different than we were in the beginning. One school of thought is that once upon a time all of us were giants, just like the dinosaurs and other unusually large creatures on the planet, owing to the thicker ozone, plentiful food, and more oxygen. This would explain the legends of giants found in every culture, and tales of ancient heroes of Greece, Sumaria, and other cultures. How else did these huge stones get fashioned (some greater than 900 tons in weight)? There are millions of people who think we are the offspring of alien tinkering. And just as we tinkered with animals, they tinkered with us in ancient times. Genesis 6 seems to indicate that, and again - there are legends about visitations. The frustrating part is that no one can prove anything. Unless one day a geneticist is gazing at a gene and spots a message akin to "© God."
Here is what we can expect: Your grandchildren will likely be selecting the traits they want in their children, to make perfect children. It isn't necessarily a bad thing. It probably will be though. Personally, I like the idea that many will do it the old fashioned random way, and let genes do whatever they will do. The possibility of eradicating the bad genes from our DNA is too tempting for us to resist though. A world without disease or deformities appears to be a better world. But I doubt George Orwell would have seen it that way.
