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4.4: Existentialism, Genetic Engineering, and the Meaning of Life - The Fifths (Noah Levin)

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    30151
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    22 Existentialism, Genetic Engineering, and the Meaning of Life: The Fifths
    Noah Levin83

    I write this letter on behalf of the Fifths to the Ninths so that they may understand our decision. We have decided to fully adopt the Constitution of the Future World, the one that you are to live by, immediately for us all future generations. And, in doing this, are nullifying the Articles of the Journey as our governing documents. Most importantly this means that all planned genetic pairings, genetic selections for offspring, and educational and work placement based on genetic predispositions will be halted immediately, with all citizens of this craft free to mingle and mate with any they so please, birth offspring with or without genetic screenings and selections, and pursue whichever studies and careers they so choose. We, the Fifths, are the generation in the middle; the one with the least connection to solid ground and those generations that have or will touch it. Our great-great-grandparents, the Firsts, set off on this mission and few of us remember any of them directly; you, our great-great-children, will complete the journey, and few of us will remain to partake in your joy. Our choices are limited and those that came before and those that come after are entirely reliant upon our willingness to contribute to your dream. We are not allowed to have any dreams of our own. Indeed, we can’t. This voyage was expected to take 247 years and 57 days. As I write this, the vessel has traveled precisely as was predicted and it should complete the journey exactly as expected. We understand the hope that drove the Firsts to embark and leave a dying plant behind, and we have this same hope for your future on a new world light-years away from Earth. It might seem selfish of us to make this decision and turn away from the plan, thereby jeopardizing the mission for everyone. But it is only selfish of us to make this decision if we are not afforded the gift of having any hope of our own. It is this hope, the only hope we can find for ourselves, that has led us to this point.

    Our lives were completely planned for us. Many details of our conception were planned 100 years ago when this ship took off: the general time period of our births, the pool of mates that would make up our parents, and the general sets of genes that would be selected for in every single one of us. The Firsts hinged their hopes on their own future progeny carrying out their plans. Without us – and you – their efforts would be for naught. It’s a burden for all of us, and one that bears heaviest on us Fifths. Our lives are defined by the voyage; neither by the home left behind nor the one to come. We will only ever know this ship as our home. So how do we come to love and care for homes and planets that will never be ours? To put it bluntly: we don’t.

    Whether by design or by choice, I do truly love – and am very gifted at – my profession: soil engineer. I have been genetically gifted with an extremely acute sense of smell, which most of the time is more burdensome than beneficial. I can smell and taste every note of every odor and flavor hundreds of times stronger than the average person. To control this, my body was also designed such that there are no communications between my stomach and my brain to warn of danger. Should I ingest something dangerous, my stomach cannot ask the rest of my body to release it. It’s potentially hazardous, but this danger is worth it for what I can do: I can tell when soils are perfectly fertilized for their chosen crops to grow beautifully. It would seem reasonable to leave this to machines and allow them to maintain the precise chemical balances for plants to grow, but our noses and minds work in complex ways we are often unaware of that allow us to perform the delicate calculations required more expertly than a machine. Our subconscious mind works constantly to learn from the complex data we constantly take in. A machine can also make a mistake, and if no person had the ability to check the resultant product the soil generators put out, entire crops could be lost. My job is one of the most important on the ship, and I am the only one suited to do it. I simply could not choose not to do it without risking everyone and everything, and I cannot condemn you to a similar fate. We all should be able to choose the prisons that will restrict our lives.

    On the planet we left and the new planet you will live on, there will be freedom. Freedom to move, to love, to live, to study, to play, to work, and to die as you see fit. We have not been afforded this necessity; freedom is not even a luxury can work toward. Just as those that are imprisoned unjustly, we must fight for what freedom we can find. Our prison was crafted in a dream from hope, whose beginning and end are love: love from the Firsts to you, the Ninths. We have everything provided for us on this ship and we are not imprisoned here out of hate or revenge, but love. And love can create the strongest chains. But this ship is a prison, nonetheless, and our lives are those of slaves. Dryden once wrote, “Oh! Give me liberty! For were ev’n paradise my prison, Still I should long to leap the crystal walls.” How true this is.

    We have made our decision for the same reason our great-great-grandparents left and for the same feeling you will have when you complete the journey: hope. One cannot hope if one does not grab what little liberty one can. Life is short and humble, and can get its greatest value from contributing to a cause greater than oneself. We are doing that, and we are grateful; but we must be able to do so willingly and on our own terms. Life is what we make of it, and we want to live. Sisyphus was condemned to forever roll a rock up the hill, driven to reach the top, but always failing with one step left. Day after day Sisyphus experienced this unending task, his punishment for defying the Gods. It was the worst the punishment the Greeks could come up with, but Camus knew the secret to transforming this hell into heaven: make the task his own, and find pleasure in the punishment itself. “One must imagine Sisyphus happy,” if he can do this, Camus mused. We are all luminous cave flies whose life is given to feed their young that will in turn live for the same purpose to feed their young in an endless cycle. But if we make the cycle our own and find our own value in it, then life is wonderful and beautiful. We do this not just for ourselves, but for all that follow: the Sixths, the Sevenths, the Eighths, the Ninths, and everyone that will follow in the new world. We must be free to choose so that you are free to choose. I have accepted – even chosen – my place, but I cannot condemn my children to face the same limitations I have faced.

    You might have assumed we would be happy, like Sisyphus, in choosing to embrace our fate, especially given that we are provided with everything we need, even a purpose with a goal aimed at a purpose bigger than us. So many spend their lives searching for this, but that search is the real value. I would spend all the money in the world to have one day on solid ground. No; one hour. No; one single minute would be enough to content my heart. It’s not about being provided for; it is about being able to use those resources wisely to obtain those things that bring value and meaning into our lives. Because of the decisions of those before us, we had no choices. It was a chain that we could only break for you, the future. We give our own lives to the chain so the Sixths can have their lives for themselves. They can choose to give this freedom to the Sevenths if they please, as well, or they can take it back. That is up to them, but we are giving them the right to choose what they want to do.

    We have decided to govern ourselves by the laws and rules in the Constitution for the Future World rather than devise special rules for ourselves. It would be unfair, and we could not come up with something more finely crafted. The guidelines that the Firsts drafted and that the Seconds revised are remarkable, and you were to have the best government mankind has ever devised. We cannot envision a better foundation for the world that comes, and all we want is to live by those rules ourselves. We are not changing anything: we are merely accelerating the freedom that is to be given to you, the Ninths. It is something you and your children will take for granted, but we must steal it if we want it for ourselves. We want Freedom. Liberty. Choice. Failure.

    We are uniquely situated in life to best understand its irony: we come from dust and will return to dust, but we all somehow believe the period between holds great importance. Why are our lives lived if not for others? And once those others are gone, as will inevitably and eventually happen, what’s the point in any existence? It can only be to live. It’s as simple as that, and that is all we are asking. No, it’s what we are taking: our chance to live. To dare to dream our dreams for ourselves for our short lives. Part of our dreams include you. Indeed, I am going to give everything for you, and I want to. It is my choice, and in order for you to truly live, the choice to live must begin with me. I can understand and appreciate why the Firsts designed my life the ways they did. They wanted to give me the best chances I had to succeed; but in doing this, they undermined my ability to have any genuine success. Success is empty if it’s handed to you, regardless of the intention.

    I can only hope history looks back on us, and all those that came before, as making the right choices. We hold no ill will toward the Firsts. They sacrificed everything for all of us and bequeathed this sacrifice to us. It is an honorable burden we must bear, but it was not the burden we chose. I know not what the future holds, but I know it will be ours. And yours.

    For Review and Discussion

    1. Genetic engineering is closely advancing to the point that we will be able to choose which genes our children will be born with. Would you make use of such technologies if you were going to have a child? Why or why not?

    2. Suppose you find out that you were genetically pre-disposed to be the world’s best coffee pourer. You could pour 100 cups in a minute to the exact level they needed to be without spilling a drop. Would this influence your future life plans in any way?

    3. What gives us meaning in life? Does your answer to this impact your plans for the future in any way?


    This page titled 4.4: Existentialism, Genetic Engineering, and the Meaning of Life - The Fifths (Noah Levin) is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Noah Levin (NGE Far Press) .