I really enjoyed this story, just because of the depictions of the future and how blurry that line between reality and virtual reality can get in a setting that futuristic. I think that it tied in really well with everything else we've read. Ferron's mother's addiction to the virtual world reminded me of "The Lifecycle of Software Objects." The whole concept of the skins and the individualized advertisement really came across like "Liking What You See."
One interest that I've had in science fiction is the concept of transhumanism. This is an actual debate going on in the world today as we become more and more able to make modifications to our own bodies. The most common example of escaping the "wetware" (the term for our biological bodies in this context) that we see today is the implantation of magnets in your fingers to allow people to feel electrical currents. I felt like a lot of that was coming across in the skins, and what seemed like to me the ability to tweak different aspects of your personality as the opportunity arose.
Similarly, Ferron's genetic modification to be completely and unyieldingly loyal and obedient to her mother encapsulates a lot of this.
How does everyone else feel about the depictions of human modification in "House of Aryaman"? Are they realistic? Is this something that you could see happening at some point in the future?
I don't really think this is going to happen, but parents genetically selecting traits for their kids and creating "designer babies" is currently part of the debate over genetic modification.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I definitely think that we will eventually have the technology to drastically change our appearances through surgery/hormones/etc. like Jessica Fang/Coffin/NotSpoilingWhoElse did. Plastic surgery that could do that would be a hit for a variety of reasons and a good source of revenue, so will probably be one of the first modifications in the story to be developed.
I actually think that transhumanism will happen eventually. It's already begun in some ways, integrating technology into the body mainly for medical reasons. Bioengineering and genetic engineering have come a long way in the past few years, and I don't see any reason why progress in those fields will slow down, save for ethical reasons. I don't necessarily think that it will happen exactly as the way Bear describes them, especially with the idea of the mind working as a computer and reading and storing messages as if the eyes were a monitor screen, but I think it has a high likelihood of happening at some point in the future.
ReplyDeleteWill it happen eventually? Unless we drive our own species to extinction first I don't see why not. As the technology becomes more and more accessible across cultural boundaries, the perceptions of what is considered ethical to do (as far as gene therapy in babies) would be quite interesting. The integration of technology into the human body is an interesting topic as well. My main concern would be whether or not another person could gain access to or control over my body's tech. I would hope, however, that people don't have these decisions made for them (unless its to avoid a potentially fatal issue). Although justifying something as 'being in a person's best interest' rings a bit hollow.
ReplyDeleteAre they realistic? I do not really know about it anywhere in the near future, but eventually i could see the possibly of this. Technology today completely runs our universe, and all the advancements in medicine are constantly progressing, and I think with this progression it is very likely that this will happen in the distant future.
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