快猫短视频

IT鈥橲 2099. Bill Strether, Ambassador to the Court of St James鈥檚, is
intrigued, then seduced, then sickened by the state鈥檚 latest display of power:
the manipulation of the human genome. But he soon scents something rotten in the
state of Europe. For these projects, while ensuring the health of the people,
also, worryingly, maintain the state鈥檚 rapidly ossifying political
hierarchy.

The Ambassador (Little Brown, 拢16.99, ISBN 0316648302) is
Edwina Currie鈥檚 vision of a genetic dystopia, with its swift speciation of the
populus into Nordic haves and trogloditic have-nots. But the former MP鈥檚 latest
foray into fiction is a traditional, easily-consumed thriller, eschewing the
hard-won sophistication of contemporary science fiction. Indeed, easy is the
operative word. Currie鈥檚 political extrapolations鈥攁 fundamentalist US with
a stable union, expensive medical advances available through a 1970s-style
national health service鈥攁re not slapdash so much as ephemeral. They are
reminiscient of the painted flats that Alfred Hitchcock used in his later films
to stand in for an outdoor scenery he cared little for.

Nor, more worryingly, is Currie鈥檚 eye altogether on the science. Her
simplifications of genetic engineering are simply not reasonable. The idea that
manipulating the human genome can effect single-percentile changes in
personality鈥攎ake someone 2 per cent more intelligent, say, or 3 per cent
more docile鈥攚ouldn鈥檛 satisfy even the most casual X Files viewer.
And this is a real problem, because if the focus of The Ambassador is
not on the genetics, where is it? If selective breeding were ever a plausible
political act, we would already be living in Currie鈥檚 future. 鈥淏ut power over
our genes?鈥� our hero ponders, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a power only God should have.鈥� The truth
is we鈥檝e always had that power over ourselves, as much as over our sheep, or our
cows. Wielding it does not interest us. Indeed, it repulses us. Hitler lost.

Watch Gattaca (1997), Andrew Niccol鈥檚 all-too-plausible dystopia
in which the actuarial tables of responsible, kindly-motivated insurance
companies suppress the aspirations of a genetically-screened populus. Currie鈥檚
concerns are flimsy by comparison.