2046 (draft)
i had a dream (nitemare?) last night on genetic engineering. think ive been reading too much CAT (ethics of GE, genetic testing, abortions, medical care etc) and biochemistry. lethal combination. im trying to translate the dream into a readable story, but bear with me during the process ok? names has been changed to protect identities, this story is entirely fictional and bear no resemblance to any living or dead person or company. all rights reserved.
*****
the story will be heard...
*****
The phone started ringing incessantly. But nobody around the dinner table reacted. "No phone calls during dinner" is a well-established rule in my family, and few would dare risking the wrath of my father, even if it means giving peace to our ears for a few more minutes.
"Betty, will you be having your LE today?" Irene called out across the table. Betty has always rejected taking LE since she was young, and many could not understand why. LE is a potent cocktail of performance-enhancing drugs specially created for improving cognitive functions, like memory, concentration and arithmetic functions. Montagene Inc is currently developing the technology to install the relevant genes into custom-made human chromosomes, so that every child born in the US can have his or her brain produce the chemicals directly.
But coffeeshop-talk has always rumored that this technology will never see the light of day outside Montagene's research headquarters. Current sales of the mice-form of LE has been significant higher than the most optimistic projections in Montagene. These "golden mice" (an allusion to the golden goose story which few children have heard of nowadays) are genetically engineered to produced the cocktail of drugs in all their body cells. However, as the drugs are only in significant concentrations in mice stem cells, consuming the mice spinal juices is the easiest way to retrieve the benefits of the drugs.
I can understand why Betty has always been reluctant to consume LE. The sucking of spinal juices out of the mice has never been a pretty sight to me. But as Betty has admitted privately to me before, the killing of the mice is more repungent than anything she has ever seen. And I must confess, it is truly not a pretty sight. The mice are sold alive to customers, as the apoptosis process (cell dying) seems to significantly affect LE in unpredictable ways. Standard consumers like my family have a big 5 feet by 3 feet by 5 feet cage specially designed to maintain the mice in good shape between purchase and consumption. I wonder why such a big cage is necessary, as the mice looks no difference from dead mice. The high concentrations of the drug keep the mice paralyzed, limp to the floor all day long. They can barely lift their heads, the result of a specially engineered (and patented, no less) way to weaken the spinal joints of the neck. But I digress.
Consumption of the drug has been developed into a culinary artform, like the french escargot. The demostration video had showed a tall and serious lady sitting at a formal dining table, with all the appropriate utensils ready. With napkins in place to soak up the excess of mice bodily fluids, she proceeded to lay a limp mouse face down prone across her dining plate. She expertly made two sharp incisions into the neck of the mouse, which always reminds me of cutting a slice out of a whole watermelon. With the mouse freshly dead, she removed a slim, long, metallic straw from its plastic wrapping, poked it into the opening she just made, and started sucking the life juices out of the mice.
The company has recently built a new mice-producing factory in Shenzhen, China, to serve the rising demands of the Japanese for the product.
*****
writing in progress. will be continued... i hope. (ie no promises)
*****
*****
the story will be heard...
*****
The phone started ringing incessantly. But nobody around the dinner table reacted. "No phone calls during dinner" is a well-established rule in my family, and few would dare risking the wrath of my father, even if it means giving peace to our ears for a few more minutes.
"Betty, will you be having your LE today?" Irene called out across the table. Betty has always rejected taking LE since she was young, and many could not understand why. LE is a potent cocktail of performance-enhancing drugs specially created for improving cognitive functions, like memory, concentration and arithmetic functions. Montagene Inc is currently developing the technology to install the relevant genes into custom-made human chromosomes, so that every child born in the US can have his or her brain produce the chemicals directly.
But coffeeshop-talk has always rumored that this technology will never see the light of day outside Montagene's research headquarters. Current sales of the mice-form of LE has been significant higher than the most optimistic projections in Montagene. These "golden mice" (an allusion to the golden goose story which few children have heard of nowadays) are genetically engineered to produced the cocktail of drugs in all their body cells. However, as the drugs are only in significant concentrations in mice stem cells, consuming the mice spinal juices is the easiest way to retrieve the benefits of the drugs.
I can understand why Betty has always been reluctant to consume LE. The sucking of spinal juices out of the mice has never been a pretty sight to me. But as Betty has admitted privately to me before, the killing of the mice is more repungent than anything she has ever seen. And I must confess, it is truly not a pretty sight. The mice are sold alive to customers, as the apoptosis process (cell dying) seems to significantly affect LE in unpredictable ways. Standard consumers like my family have a big 5 feet by 3 feet by 5 feet cage specially designed to maintain the mice in good shape between purchase and consumption. I wonder why such a big cage is necessary, as the mice looks no difference from dead mice. The high concentrations of the drug keep the mice paralyzed, limp to the floor all day long. They can barely lift their heads, the result of a specially engineered (and patented, no less) way to weaken the spinal joints of the neck. But I digress.
Consumption of the drug has been developed into a culinary artform, like the french escargot. The demostration video had showed a tall and serious lady sitting at a formal dining table, with all the appropriate utensils ready. With napkins in place to soak up the excess of mice bodily fluids, she proceeded to lay a limp mouse face down prone across her dining plate. She expertly made two sharp incisions into the neck of the mouse, which always reminds me of cutting a slice out of a whole watermelon. With the mouse freshly dead, she removed a slim, long, metallic straw from its plastic wrapping, poked it into the opening she just made, and started sucking the life juices out of the mice.
The company has recently built a new mice-producing factory in Shenzhen, China, to serve the rising demands of the Japanese for the product.
*****
writing in progress. will be continued... i hope. (ie no promises)
*****
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