Future Perfect(s)

We now live in a world where both the surveillance and the genetic engineering represented in GATTACA are increasingly not just possible, but mundane. The moral panic about 'designer babies' and state eugenics that drove GATTACA's narrative no longer dominate media representations of the dystopic future. The threatening biosurveillance that built the film's suspense has, through commercialisation and media uptake, become the perfect Christmas present. So do we still fear the impacts of engineered and artificial perfection? Today we will explore the forces that 'moved the window' on engineered human perfection in the UK (and beyond) and ask: has perfection seeking become perfectly safe?

Weekly Questions

Why were 'perfect' humans frightening in 1997? Are they still?
Has the public accepted the genetic modification of future human bodies?
What forces have helped to reshape attitudes towards genetic and genomic tools for managing human life and identity?
Is artificially perfected humanness now safe?
Has the quest for 'perfect' human bodies generated greater equality? Could it -- and if so, under what conditions?