Two seemingly separate news stories I’ve posted suddenly seemed like they might be related.
First, from earlier today, was a story out of China where the claim was made that the first gene-edited human babies have been produced. If the story is true, the babies have been modified to be more resistant to the likes of AIDS. Now, this makes all kinds of sense for a country like China which has what you might call a “relaxed” view on things like human rights and experimentation. My conspiracy cogitation immediately went to China working on “superbabies” that would be resistant to biological weapons, thus giving China an edge on the world scene: not only making the future Chinese populace safer against plagues but also foreign bio-weapons… and *Chinese* bio weapons that may be used against outsiders.
But another thought occurs, going in a very different direction, based on a slightly earlier story. The Chinese “social credit” system is beginning to take effect, using government ideologically controlled metrics to run Chinese peoples lives. If people say the wrong thing or buy the wrong thing or otherwise behave in ways the government doesn’t like they get “points” taken from their “social credit” score, and if it drops too low they lose the right to travel or own pets or who knows what all else. This story doesn’t seem related to the gene editing story. But… consider the possibilities.
Assume for the moment that the Chinese government is willing to think in terms not just of the short two to four year election cycles that the US government thinks in, but in terms of generations. And when you’re in a one-party totalitarian state, that begins to make sense. So if you have gene editing, social credit and generations of planning, what might you consider?
Obviously improving the national breed to make them resistant to foreign attack, and to make them more effective workers and soldiers, makes sense. But if you are a totalitarian regime based on communist ideals, it also makes sense to tinker with the breed to make them more compliant. Now, at the moment I don’t imagine that there is any genetic tinkering that can be done to alter the minds of the babies directly, to make them better subjects of the nation. But… if you tinker with them so that they may become dependent upon some new substance that only the government can provide, then you connect that need to the social credit scoring system, you have built in a *fantastic* new way to enforce compliant behavior. As in “Jurassic Park,” perhaps the ability to produce some vital some amino acid has been deleted. Or perhaps you make them *very* susceptible to the common flu, but also very receptive to annual vaccine dosing… they’re perfectly fine so long as they get the government shot, but if they don’t they soon become very, very ill. Or perhaps you make them addicted to or otherwise dependent upon some synthetic drug… the drug doesn’t make them feel great or high or whatever, but the lack of it makes them feel debilitatingly awful. (Let’s call it “Ketracel White.”)
A system like this need not be mentioned to the public, of course. However, with a public kept in the dark about how they’ve been adjusted, seeing some of their members fall out of favor with the government due to their “improper” behavior and suddenly fall extremely ill in a way that the local hospital cannot deal with… that could be fantastic PR for a totalitarian regime.
Currently, and likely for the foreseeable future, this sort of tinkering can only be done on “test tube babies.” So it will take a *long* time to filter out into the general populace, but if the governmentally desired new traits are made dominant, then each new generation created the old fashioned way will also have this. The difficulty comes in foreign relations. A Chinese citizen goes overseas or defects or whatever, they’ll take their gene code with them. On one hand, the Chinese government might be fine with this: you leave the motherland, you die in agony. On the other hand, if this happens a few too many times, other countries will start piecing things together and will sooner or later start doing genetic testing on Chinese defectors and/or their corpses, and will figure out what’s been done. Foreign countries will of course spread the word both among themselves and attempt to do so within China. This could cause trouble… but of course if the Chinese government plays it right they can convince their people that these problems are actually a conspiracy from outside.
Further down the line gene editing should be possible via retroviral infection. You could rewire the entire public by simply bringing them in for their annual shots. This sort of thing will *really* wind up the anti-vaccers.