Are we close to becoming a Gattaca Society?

[trumad]

I saw the movie Gattaca (again) last night and was taken by how close we are to becoming a society that is monitored and identified in almost every way.

Blood, fingerprints, eye identification, credit checks, background checks, cameras, microchips, spy ware, etc...etc...etc...

No matter how you shake it, we are losing our basic freedoms of privacy and it's happening at very quickly. mhop

[Ready4Change]

1. On the verge.

With DNA reading and in-vitro fertilization, we have the tools to pick out embryos with "preferable" traits. It starts with avoiding clearly undesirable birth defects, but could quickly slide into things such as no tendency for heart defects, etc...

Not even talking the selection of blonde hair or green eyes. Just health issues. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Problem comes when you combine that with corporations screening potential employees DNA. The idea being that hiring someone prone to heart disease is bad for the companies health care plan.

NOW the selection of embryos becomes a future employment issue.

Good luck, lovechild.

[iamjoy]

4. And Further The Economic Divide

Those with money will be able to get the best child money can buy. That strong, healthy, smart child who has been engineered with all the best qualities now has money AND the natural gifts to be "successful"

Those without money, will have to take the child nature gives them.

The class divide will widen, it will be not unlike Brave New World, if you want another comparison

[Democracy White]

5. Ahhh... Brave New World

An excellent read, although its been many years. ( I read it in my freshman year of high school in 1994)

Dee

[whistle]

2. I've never seen it, so is this review pretty close....

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User Comments:

14 out of 17 people found the following comment useful:-
Beautiful Film, makes me cry, 19 December 2004

Author: imdb-45 from New York


I'm not a tearjerker but this one always makes me shed a few tears. It's not perfect but it is such an enjoyable watch and a sweet film. It's very thought provoking. I think that some of the lack of "scifi" which many seemed to criticize was intentional -- perhaps this future is really not as far ahead as the scifi nuts here would like to think.

For those who criticized the character writing, e.g. Jerome being not likable... you missed the point guys. Each individual has their own motives and driving forces, whether you like them or not. Jerome feels like his life of perfection (or near perfection) has been stolen away from him. Vincent is the only one who can at least make his pain subside to some extent and make life a challenge to be conquered once again. Uma's character wasn't more developed and perhaps better that way... we know enough to make the point and not overshadow the main two characters who need the most screen time and analysis.

For those screaming that some of the ideas are taken from Bladerunner, 1984, etc. I say that everything can be claimed to have been somewhat stolen/based upon/borrowed from someone else. But this film was unique. Bladerunner is perhaps one of my favorite films but this is definitely not Bladerunner and to compare the two misses the ultimate point about man's own cruelty and lack of compassion.

Gattaca didn't make it in the theatres as well because it was marketed as more of a Star Trek/Star Wars type film that was really more of a character analysis than a space age adventure. I stayed away. When I caught it on DVD I was so moved that I bought it. This is not mind numbing sci fi. This is the kind of film that reminds you why films were so much more interesting back in the day before most of them relied upon digital eye candy. This is a sweet, sad film about a time where people are made as good as they can be engineered and the horrific, frightening consequences of what happens when science permits us to create our own uberpeople... Very highly recommended.
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<link> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/

[dogday]

3. Corporations already screening urine, credit reports, etc---

pretty soon they will want our DNA.