There are many different applications which
genetic engineering could employ in the near future.
Genetic engineering was intended to be used for bettering society,
which it may do in the beginning. However, after genetic engineering
has been developed and expanded in ways which at this time we
cannot fathom, problems may arise which were unexpected.
Lee M. Silver explains this process in the prologue "A Glimpse
of Things to Come" in the book Remaking Eden. This
is Silver's view of what may occur in the years 2010, 2050, and
2350. In the year 2010, he predicts that a mother and father
will be able to choose their children from an "embryo pool."
Then, by the year 2050, it will be possible to have an embryo
that has a "special gene [that] will provide [the embryo]
with lifelong resistance to infection by the virus that causes
AIDS." And then by 2350, there will be a class of society,
which had synthetic genes (the GenRich) while the lower class
of people (the Naturals), does not have synthetic genes.
Similar to Lee M. Silver's vision of the future, is the plot in the movie GATTACA. For more information of GATTACA, visit these sites:
http://www.spe.sony.com/Pictures/SonyMovies/movies/Gattaca/the_film/production_notes.htm
http://www.GATTACA.com
http://www.becal.net/toolkit/damaris/gattaca.html
According to Freeman Dyson (author of Imagined
Worlds), genetic engineering will not be used to better humans.
Instead, it will be used for chemical processing.
"A genetically engineered bacterium or fungus designed for
a particular purpose is in essence nothing more than a self-reproducing
automaton made of protein and nucleic acid instead of metal and
silicon. Genetically engineered automata are likely to be particularly
effective in the business of chemical processing. They could
be programmed to metabolize unwanted chemicals polluting land
or water or air. They could convert pollutants efficiently into
harmless or useful byproducts. Genetically engineered scavengers
could replace existing chemical and garbage-disposal industries
at the same time as self-reproducing machines replace existing
construction and transportation industries. The technologies
of automata and of organisms are engaged in a competition to
take the leading role in the industrial revolution of the twenty-first
century. Until now, computers and automata have been in the lead,
but molecular biology and genetics are not far behind" (Dyson
120).
Glenn Zorpette and Carol Ezzell, in their
article "Your Bionic Future," gives several predictions
of what we will see within the next decade regarding science
and technology. Some of their predictions are:
- The cloning of a human being,
- "an artificial womb for women who can't become--or don't want to be-pregnant,"
- and the production of replacement hearts
and livers.
The article can be seen in its entirety at http://www.sciam.com/1999/0999bionic/0999ezzell.html.