Change Agent

by Daniel Suarez

Light field projectors like these had largely replaced physical televisions, computer screens, and mobile OLED displays in the last decade or so. Beaming imagery directly onto a viewer’s retinas instead of spraying photons all over the place had many advantages—authentic augmented reality being one. Environmental sustainability another. Privacy another still.

Synthetic biology was the transistor of the twenty-first century. Yet political realities in America made it increasingly unfeasible for entrepreneurs there to tinker with the building blocks of life. Every cluster of human cells was viewed as a baby in America. A quarter of the population wasn’t vaccinated. A majority of Americans didn’t believe in evolution. Social-media-powered opinions carried more influence than peer-reviewed scientific research. In this virulently anti-science atmosphere, synbio research was hounded offshore before it had really begun. Activists crowed over their victory. The rest of the world did not let the opportunity pass it by.

Balanced ecosystems grow from the bottom up over time, not from the top down all at once. We don’t design complex systems; we evolve them. It’s what Nature does. And Nature is the best teacher.”

If we make edits that don’t fit the environment—even though we think they’re cool—then bad things could happen to future generations that we didn’t expect. And we don’t want that. That’s why we only let sick people correct genetic errors—changes that will make them the way humans evolved to be.

Nature did not select for empathy and social bonds because Nature was kind—but because those were survival advantages. Completely selfish, unfeeling people don’t care for the greater good. They don’t appreciate goals beyond themselves. And that limits them.”