Audio: Readings by the author
|
The Meaning of Life:
Rapid developments in Genetic Engineering Technologies foreshadow further widespread, intensified medical intervention - the race to find the schizophrenic gene is underway. The debate as to whether there is a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia runs parallel. Setting aside the arguments and evidence for and against a link, imagine if such a gene were identified. It would certainly be regarded as a faulty gene, an abnormal mutation, undesirable in much the same way as schizophrenics are viewed in real life, and as in real life, the powers that be would undoubtedly attempt to prevent this trait finding expression. Perhaps babies would be weaned on neuroleptic drugs or maybe eugenics implemented? Mothers encouraged to terminate pregnancy or offered the opportunity to have offspring modified through gene editing; parents invited to make ‘informed decisions’ guided by specialists prone to produce and promote a Sanitised World - the imperfect schizophrenic deleted from the book of life.
Medical science is literally in our veins, are we also to allow it to enter and alter our genetic composition, to manipulate and contort the course of human evolution, to interfere with our destiny?
I was once told of an experiment that involved the premature extraction of a butterfly from its chrysalis, when the butterfly unfurled her wings, she was devoid of colour, a neutral grey.
Butterflies communicate across great distances. Entomologists presume that they do so by means of pheromones and that when a pair encounter each other, they engage in an adversarial ‘dog fight’. My interpretation is very different, that antenna function as transmitters and receivers [why else would insects have aerials on their heads!] I see butterflies summon each other, and in flight, I notice that their spiralling interplay forms a double helix, mimicking DNA…they do not duel, they dance; the code of life on display for all who care to see.
Could we not create a climate in which we value and validate the acute perceptiveness of the psyche-sensitive, and celebrate such states as clear and unmistakable evidence of humankind evolving here and now, unfolding before us?
Should we not embrace and encourage, rather than despise and fear, the potential we possess as sentient beings to explore and experience the labyrinths of our Psyches? For only by doing so, can we make new discoveries, learn about ourselves and each other, be free to see our true colours, and realise our true selves.
Rapid developments in Genetic Engineering Technologies foreshadow further widespread, intensified medical intervention - the race to find the schizophrenic gene is underway. The debate as to whether there is a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia runs parallel. Setting aside the arguments and evidence for and against a link, imagine if such a gene were identified. It would certainly be regarded as a faulty gene, an abnormal mutation, undesirable in much the same way as schizophrenics are viewed in real life, and as in real life, the powers that be would undoubtedly attempt to prevent this trait finding expression. Perhaps babies would be weaned on neuroleptic drugs or maybe eugenics implemented? Mothers encouraged to terminate pregnancy or offered the opportunity to have offspring modified through gene editing; parents invited to make ‘informed decisions’ guided by specialists prone to produce and promote a Sanitised World - the imperfect schizophrenic deleted from the book of life.
Medical science is literally in our veins, are we also to allow it to enter and alter our genetic composition, to manipulate and contort the course of human evolution, to interfere with our destiny?
I was once told of an experiment that involved the premature extraction of a butterfly from its chrysalis, when the butterfly unfurled her wings, she was devoid of colour, a neutral grey.
Butterflies communicate across great distances. Entomologists presume that they do so by means of pheromones and that when a pair encounter each other, they engage in an adversarial ‘dog fight’. My interpretation is very different, that antenna function as transmitters and receivers [why else would insects have aerials on their heads!] I see butterflies summon each other, and in flight, I notice that their spiralling interplay forms a double helix, mimicking DNA…they do not duel, they dance; the code of life on display for all who care to see.
Could we not create a climate in which we value and validate the acute perceptiveness of the psyche-sensitive, and celebrate such states as clear and unmistakable evidence of humankind evolving here and now, unfolding before us?
Should we not embrace and encourage, rather than despise and fear, the potential we possess as sentient beings to explore and experience the labyrinths of our Psyches? For only by doing so, can we make new discoveries, learn about ourselves and each other, be free to see our true colours, and realise our true selves.