In this chapter, we break down what we believe would happen in a world with advanced biological technologies such as chip implantations and DNA splicing children. Getting into the mindset of being in that reality we did ‘a day in the life as a student’. This turned into an overview/story with a darker theme. After we tried thinking of positive outcomes of this world and the benefits that would come from it. We then tried to imagine what school would look like, in this world we decided to take a negative take and have two schools, one was a nice school and the other was not, the idea here was that it created a divide between science children and natural children that would turn into a society of hierarchy. As we dove into the school we thought of possible classes and advertising the school’s might and their target audience (one bright and happy, the other not so much).

A world of Biological Technologies

A Day in The Life as a Student

It was Angel’s first day attending high school after her neuro link implantation. She wasn’t excited as it was her first time attending school without her best friend Alex. She and Alex grew up together and attended the same elementary schools but since they were born differently, they were separated to different high schools. While Alex was born by DNA splicing, Angel was born naturally. She was texting Alex using her neuro link on her way into her class when suddenly the doors opened automatically, she slowly crept in and noted that her text disappeared and the timestamp of attendance was seen in the neuro links. She realized by walking into the school, her implant was highly restricted to web searches and emergency calls. During her first class, her teacher decided to do a pop quiz to see what they remembered over the summer. She watched as her teacher flicked a switch and more restrictions on the neuro link were put into place. The test relied completely on her knowledge, she wondered if her best friend’s school did the same. After the test, she decided to grab lunch. She grabbed some food assuming it was free, similar to how her grade school was. She realized it was not free when a score appeared red with a negative in front. It was at this moment she realized she was being watched and anything she does could negatively impact her score. She wondered what the score meant, was it her credit score? Social score? Whatever it was she knew in order to get a good job she needed to have a good score. As she started thinking she knew this wasn’t the limitation on the chips, the tracking most likely applied to sports they did, social interactions, volunteering. It was like a resume that automatically created itself with all the good and bad.

When the day was done she texted Alex to see if her school was similar, it must be since they both received the chip. Alex explained how amazing her school was. Everything was specific to the individual, attendance was tracked but nothing was turned off. Alex ranted about how amazing the classes were and how they focus on what she wanted to be in the future; a doctor. She explained how she made a few friends how their classes were specific to them and how they spent a lot of the day uploading information to their chip and practicing recall from it so they didn’t have to spend unnecessary time learning it. Continuing she talked about the café and how it was similar to grade school only the food was 10 times better. Angel never understood why she and her best friend had to attend different high schools, but now she realized why. There was a hierarchy and separation between DNA Splicing born and naturally born. With technology being so accurate in creating a child that they could control their hobbies, interest, and intelligence level, their school focused on those activities. They were born to become what they were designed for. Looking at the classes offered by her school she realized they didn’t always lead to amazing jobs. They focused on manual work, often jobs with lower pay rates. This would create a divide furthering the hierarchy of naturally born vs artificially born to a more noticeable rich vs poor society. She would have to work extremely hard to get a good job to provide for her family and it would come easily as it is to Alex. She also wouldn’t get to attend the same events as Alex as she would have to pay whereas Alex’s chip automatically let her in. She wondered what stores she couldn’t get into whereas Alex could wondered what activities would impact her score that determined her future, and wondered if Alex would still want to be friends once she came to the same conclusion as Angel did.

A Positive Outcome

In many of these examples listed above some could argue that this is already the reality of our world. But the difference here lies in the possibilities and the opportunity that the technology presents. Imagine a world where everyone is connected to the world’s collective knowledge. It can be brought to you in the blink of an eye. In this type of world, education would be a breeze, anything and everything a student would need to know would be at their fingertips. The memorization part would just be a byproduct. Yes… the class system could be discriminating but it could also give some people something to strive for. Other than DNA splicing when you’re born you can always add upgrades on later. want to learn Vector calculus in 0.2 seconds? Only $100 to get it instantly downloaded! That sounds like a steal! How about downloading the entire Japanese language in 0.5 seconds? So now you can take that huge trip you’ve always wanted to! In terms of DNA splicing, imagine a child who would have originally been born with some mental or physical disability could now be safely brought into the world without those things. Here in Canada, we have free healthcare. What if that could translate into free genetic restructuring so that every child born in Canada has the option to be in the same “class” as others. And perhaps it would be live DNA splicing for people who have already been born and are just living their lives but would like to keep up with Society. The point is that there is so much more that technology can do for our society and we shouldn’t fear its unknown future. Instead, why don’t we look at what we have now and appreciate how useful it can be!

Courses

At DNA Splicing School:

This school would be more hands-on and career-focused as everyone in the school has a path chosen for them.

• Engaging in social interactions
• Fundamentals of recall memory
• Application of recall memory
• Neurochip applications
• Discovering reliable information
• Life science (taxes, savings, other important information)
• Persuasive writing and speaking
• Physical activity (gym)
• Creative class ( a class to explore individuality and creativity away from the chip)
• Career Class (This class would be specialized to each job, it would teach how to apply the knowledge given through the chip, and important information to succeed in their career)

And naturally Born School:

This school would be similar to schooling now, a mixture of everything from academic classes to trades. Although this school would be much harder to be accepted into corporate jobs or “higher-paying jobs”

• Math
• English
• Science
• Biology
• Computer science
• Wood workshop

Basic classes that could lead you anywhere you want to go.

Advertising

The first few advertisements we made for this future are negative ones that go along the these of division among the people. The negative ones are targeted at the ‘naturally born’ students and the positive ones are advertised to the ‘DNA born’ students. The goal of these advertisements was to show the favoritism within the system.

‘Naturally Born’ Advertisements

‘DNA Born’ Advertisements

The last advertisement we made was aligned with our positive ideas that could come from this future. This advertising is showing that with an (imaginary) click of a button, you could own the knowledge from a variety of educational books.