The New Librarians

[jporter]

There is a whole new breed of librarian and a new library in the making.
Clinton's limp wristed sanctions against human cloning are meaningless. The
genetic information curently being harvested, and the gene manipulating
tools and techniques being developed, portend an interlocking network of
bio-data bureaucracies, which threaten to redefine civil liberties. Current
tests of bodily fluids for subversive compounds are intimidating, but
nothing compared with the ability to plug a subject's genetic profile into
a huge, cross-referenced data base. Not just talking about the joint
academic/industrial effort known as, "The Human Genome Project," but
something a whole lot more sinister than that.

The ability to read fingerprints or retinas like bar codes is already being
marketed. The ability to scan the DNA from a few buccal squam's, or other
easily accessible samples, for a growing number of indentified traits,
"defects," etc., is rapidly becoming marketable, and will become more
attractive as the data base and "markers" become more refined. (Why hire
someone with a tendency toward unprofitable behavior, predicted by their
"genescreen," let alone sell them health or life insurance?).

 Laws are useless to protect against the temptation represented by this
type of power, except that they serve to push the technology into the
waiting arms of the non-civilian sector, guarding "our" national security.
The technology of dominance and control is taking on a life of its own. But
our legal system is in chaos concerning these issues- Who has jurisdiction,
the states? the feds? The technology can easily be perfected in third world
sweatshops by multi-nationals. There are a million loopholes. At the same
time, the capacity of the State's gulag continues to grow, while the courts
clear away the annoying underbrush of due process, first in the name of
protecting us from dangerous sex and serial offenders, and then what?

 The ability to "upgrade" certain sections of a subject's "code," in
general, or in isolated organs, is also being perfected. This is preceding
apace. It will not only be used to fight disease, but also to enhance
various characteristics of those who can afford "genoplasty." There is
already a flourishing world wide black market for growth hormone, a crude
non-genetic answer to shortness. The newer much more specific enhancements
to many other areas and systems, including the cognitive, will be
irresistable to the wealthy. It is clear already that the more priviledged
classes of the west are prepared to allow the profit motive to keep life
sustaining therapies, for H.I.V. e.g., beyond the reach of those who cannot
afford "the margin." This will be even more likely for genetic and other
types of sophisticated performance enhancers.  As the number of performance
enhancing and life prolonging interventions really begins to proliferate,
speciation is a real possiblity. So much easier to dominate and control
another species, isn't it?

 Not science fiction, this. The technologies of domination and control are
way beyond what most foax realize. Some are here now. Given what everybody
on the list seems to agree on: rationality, common sense and paranoia are
all symptoms of the same human need, would it be stretching things too far
to assume that there are "departments" concerned with the integration and
use of (or the defense against) these techniques for the purposes of
profit?

And you're worried about a little marijuana, 'twas truly the good old days.

jody