Near Human

Have you ever imagined growing your own set of wings? What would it be like to have a dog’s sense of smell? The strength of a gorilla? Now imagine if someone introduced physical alterations such as these in your body without your consent?

We find ourselves in an era where the “animal-human hybrid” science fiction fantasy of the past has become a reality. With the recent development of CRISPR gene editing technology and other biotech engineering procedures, raising questions about the ethics of tinkering with human life has never been more important. Scientists in China recently successfully edited the genes of twin girls while they were embryos, ostensibly to protect them from contracting HIV. Pigs with edited genomes enabling their organs to be harvested and transplanted into humans are now being bred on a regular basis. Although the international scientific community is struggling with the challenge of reaching a consensus on the ethical implications of this technology, the real problem is that these issues are currently treated as matters of research ethics, when in fact they raise political and social questions of fundamental importance to all of humanity.

Another subject within the “Near Human” web series that is intriguing to me is the intense scrutiny young people are exposed to in the social media driven world. The internet fish bowl can be simultaneously a forum for new ideas and an engine for conformity and marginalization. How will these online social dynamics play out in the near future, when physical and mental traits among individuals may be determined before birth by other humans who hold the power and authority to do so?

Lastly, the use of the documentary format and style of the series is meant to bring some believability, immediacy, and even some comic relief within an entertaining sci-fi story that hopefully gets people thinking and talking.

-Paul DellaPelle