GENETIC ENGINEERING

   In his remarkable prophetic essay Daedalus, or Science and the Future (1924) J.B.S. HALDANE looked forward optimistically to a day when biologists have "invented" a new species of alga to solve the world's food problem, and in which "ectogenetic" children born from artificial wombs can be strategically modified by eugenic selection. Nothing was known in 1924 about the biochemistry of genetics, so Haldane spoke mainly in termsof "selective breeding", but he nevertheless anticipated not merely some of the possible practical applications of direct genetic manipulation but also the likely response of the popular imagination. He observed that there is always extreme resistance against "biological inventions" because they are initially perceived as blasphemous perversions. Following the decipherment, in the late 1950s, of the genetic code carried by DNA molecules, the genetic engineering of bacteria has become commonplace, and contemporary sf reflects the strength of this resistance in no uncertain terms. Despite the strong tradition of technophilia which exists in HARD SF, there is still relatively little sf championing the cause of geneticengineering.The careful "engineering" of living creatures by surgery is featured in a few early sf stories, most notably H.G. WELLS's The Island of Dr Moreau (1896), but it was not until Haldane wrote his essay that more ambitious projects of human engineering were featured - in Olaf STAPLEDON's LAST AND FIRST MEN (1930), and in Aldous HUXLEY's satiricaldevelopment of ideas from Daedalus in BRAVE NEW WORLD (1932), in which ectogenetic embryos are nutritionally and environmentally controlled to fit them for life as "alphas", "betas" or "gammas". Julian Huxley (1887-1975), brother of Aldous and friend of Haldane and Wells, wrote anotable horror-sf story along the same lines: "The Tissue-Culture King" (1927). Haldane's sister, Naomi MITCHISON, later extrapolated ideas fromDaedalus in a sceptical way in Not by Bread Alone (1983). In the early sf PULP MAGAZINES David H. KELLER wrote several stories about quasiblasphemous tampering with human form and nature, most notably "Stenographer's Hands" (1928), about a eugenic experiment to breed theperfect typist, with reduced initiative and a wasted body but jolly capable hands. An early pulp-sf story involving true genetic engineering was "Proteus Island" (1936) by Stanley G. WEINBAUM, which echoes its model, The Island of Dr Moreau, in presuming that "the nature of the beast" cannot be changed as easily as its physical form. Artificial organisms designed for particular purposes appear in minor roles in several stories, a notable example being the "familiars" employed by the fake witches in Fritz LEIBER's GATHER, DARKNESS! (1943 ASF; 1950), and, once A.E. VAN VOGT had used "gene transformation" to create superhumans in SLAN (1940 ASF; 1946), vague and unspecified forms of genetic engineeringbecame standard methods of creating the pulp-sf SUPERMAN. The most adventurous use of genetic engineering in 1940s sf was in Robert A. HEINLEIN's BEYOND THIS HORIZON (1942 ASF as by Anson MacDonald; 1948), thefirst story to describe (not altogether convincingly) a society which routinely uses eugenics and genetic engineering to ensure the physical and mental fitness of the population, and to address the moral questions thus raised.The first sf writer to cultivate a more accurate understanding of possible genetic engineering techniques, and the first to confront these possibilities with a far-reaching but disciplined imagination, was James BLISH. Titan's Daughter (1952 in Future Tense as "Beanstalk"; exp 1961)features a race of giant humans created by stimulated polyploidy (spontaneous polyploidy - doubling of the chromosome complement - is notuncommon in plants, and usually results in giantism) and echoes Wells's The Food of the Gods (1904). Blish moved on to consider the possibleutility of genetic engineering in adapting humans for the COLONIZATION OF OTHER WORLDS in his PANTROPY series, written around the novelette "SurfaceTension" (1952) - about microscopic humans engineered for life in small pools of water - and collected in THE SEEDLING STARS (fixup 1956). The final section of the book looks forward to the day when Earth, much changed by time, will itself become an alien environment to be re-seeded with "adapted men". This idea, of specially engineering individuals to "conquer" alien worlds, was taken up by other writers of the period,including Philip K. DICK in The World Jones Made (1956) and Poul ANDERSON in "Call me Joe" (1957). The idea that an engineered race might be necessary to undertake SPACE FLIGHT itself was later developed by Samuel R. DELANY in "Aye, and Gomorrah . . ." (1967). Other stories from the1950s dealing with experiments in genetic engineering are Masters of Evolution (1954 as "Natural State"; exp 1959) by Damon KNIGHT and "They Shall Inherit" (1958) by Brian W. ALDISS. The notion of modifying animals into human form was developed extensively by Cordwainer SMITH in his stories of the Underpeople, who cannot breed true, having been modified by somatic engineering - a modification of the genes in the specialized cells of a differentiated embryo or an adult organism which does not affect the germ plasm. (The different implications of somatic engineering and the engineering of egg cells are not always appreciated by users of the theme.)Interest in genetic engineering was inevitably renewed in the 1960s,although many early stories concentrated on the very modest notion of producing CLONES. Alarmism was rife: the UK tv series DOOMWATCH, whose purpose was overtly propagandistic, helped to awaken many people to some of the implications of biological engineering. Its first episode became the basis for the novel Mutant-59 * (1972) by Kit PEDLER and Gerry DAVIS, about the "escape" of a bacterium engineered to metabolize plastic, and many other episodes also featured biological engineering of various kinds. The idiosyncratic note of horror struck by many of the scripts recurs inmany subsequent tv plays, including two about the possibility of creating "transgenic" hybrids of human and ape (APES AND CAVEMEN): First Born(1989), notionally based on Maureen DUFFY's satire Gor Saga 1981), and Chimera (1991), adapted by Stephen GALLAGHER from his own novel Chimera (1982).The first attempts to use genetic-engineering techniques to cure genetic deficiency diseases have already been made, and the possibility of eliminating such diseases has become a commonplace background element in sf. The notion that a radiation-affected world might desperately require such processes of repair is ironically developed in David J. SKAL's When We were Good (1981) and Christopher HODDER-WILLIAMS's post- HOLOCAUST TheChromosome Game (1984). The use of somatic engineering for cosmetic purposes is the focus of such stories as "Cinderella's Sisters" (1989) and "Skin Deep" (1991) by Brian M. STABLEFORD. The possibility of furtheraltering the human condition by genetic engineering remains much more controversial. The plight of ordinary humans growing old in a world already inherited by their engineered superchildren is explored in Anvil of the Heart (1983) by Bruce T. HOLMES. Other alarmist tales in a similar vein include Robin COOK's Mutation (1989) and Geoff RYMAN's The Child Garden (1989), which feature very different developments of the assumptionthat programmes of improvement involving genetic-engineering techniques might have unforeseen and unfortunate side-effects. Relatively modest functional modifications of humans include adaptation for aquatic life and for life in low gravity: Inter Ice Age 4 (1959; trans 1970) by Kobo ABE is the most notable novel dealing with the former theme, Lois McMaster BUJOLD's FALLING FREE (1988) the most notable dealing with the latter (andalso raises interesting questions about the obsolescence of functional modifications). Frank HERBERT was consistently interested in the more bizarre variations of the theme, as displayed in The Eyes of Heisenberg (1966) and Hellstrom's Hive (1973), although the superman-breedingprogramme in DUNE (1965) is a pedestrian affair of long-range eugenics. Genetic-engineering techniques are fundamental to the Protean futures ofmany stories by John VARLEY, including THE OPHIUCHI HOTLINE (1977) and "Options" (1979), a story of promiscuous sex-changes. The widespread useof such techniques is also a premise of Bruce STERLING's Shaper \& Mechanist stories, culminating in the novel Schismatrix (1985), and ofC.J. CHERRYH's monumental Cyteen (1988). Charles SHEFFIELD's series begun with Sight of Proteus (1978) is more extravagant, and the technology involved is highly fanciful.Exotically engineered human societies established on other worlds are featured in several sf novels, the most notable being the hermaphrodite society in Ursula K. LE GUIN's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (1969). More recent COLONIZATION stories involvinggenetic engineering include The Warriors of Dawn (1975) and The Gameplayers of Zan (1977) by M.A. FOSTER, Manseed (1982) by JackWILLIAMSON, and The Garden of the Shaped (1987) by Sheila FINCH.As real-world genetic engineering makes rapid progress, sf writers have acquired a better sense of what actually goes on in the laboratory, reflected in such stories as Richard S. Weinstein's "Oceans Away" (1976), which deals with the creation of intelligent cephalopods, and John GRIBBIN's Father to the Man (1989), one of the most intelligent storiesabout an artificial half-human being. There is still, however, a marked tendency for the strategic endeavours of scientists to be unceremoniously set aside in favour of the miracles of MUTATION, as they are in Greg BEAR's BLOOD MUSIC (1985). It cannot be said that sf writers have as yetexplored the real potential which genetic-engineering technologies hold for the radical remaking of the human world, but a beginning of sorts is made by the speculative future history The Third Millennium (1985) by Brian Stableford and David LANGFORD, and by Stableford's various spinoffshort stories, some of which are collected in Sexual Chemistry: Sardonic Tales of the Genetic Revolution (coll 1991).

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   See also: BIOLOGY; MEDICINE.