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Historical February–March 2015 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
At first, there was universal approval and applause at what science could do for us. Every network proclaimed that mankind would never be the same.
The giant headline on the front page of the New York Times said “Technology Trumps Genetics.” Dr. Perry Pita was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the U.N. Humanitarian Medal in the same week. That honeymoon was brief and far overshadowed by the violence that followed. Of course, technology wasn’t trumping genetics; technology was using genetics to make a more perfect man – and woman.
According to Dr. Pita, the genetic hybrid creator, his inspiration came at a conference held in London on April 19, 2032 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s death.
A presentation, “Has technology stopped evolution?” set Pita’s mind afire with possibilities.
The premise of the presentation was that for much of the past 200,000 years we humans evolved to survive, largely in response to physical settings and challenges to human safety (think lions!).
There is a significant difference in the remains, either skeletal or DNA, from people who lived thousands and thousands of years ago than us today; that’s evolution.
But that evolution ceased, really, a few thousand years ago.
We began to invent and modify artifacts to compensate for our physical shortcomings and to protect us. Physically, we are virtually identical to people who lived 2,000 years ago because we have made the necessary changes in our environment rather than it causing us to evolve.
The written word, eyeglasses, and fire are some obvious examples. Without them, we would be different today. So evolution for humans has ceased; fair enough.
But Pita began to wonder if we shouldn’t be proactive and pursue the changes we want, rather than changing in response to nature – or not changing at all.
A geneticist, he realized that it wouldn’t be all that hard to insert DNA in eggs and sperm, thus changing the characteristics of the un-yet born. What began back in the 20th century with the nuclear transfer that cloned and created Dolly, the sheep, could be kicked up several levels. Rather than picking the DNA of someone who was bright or attractive, Pita mused, why not step out of our species? How could humans benefit from selected DNA of other life forms? Ever sensitive to public opinion, Pita’s first experiments were done in a remote lab outside of Roswell, NM.
The experiments focused on combining other species and were done surreptitiously. No one noticed the squirrels that burrowed into the ground like raccoons, and Spot, the family dog, was also kept out of sight when visitors arrived so that there wouldn’t be questions asked about the fact that he ate while standing on his back two legs.
After fifteen years of experiments – Pita had been awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant for his earlier research on the relationship of the Internet to global warming, so didn’t need employment – Pita made the leap.
He ruled out taking DNA from another phylum, so no bird, reptile, or fish genes would be used, and began looking at what other mammal characteristics might work well with humans.
An obvious source was from our closest relatives, other primates. Working with a fertilization clinic in Juarez, Mexico, Pita sampled and combined, measured and refined, time and time again.
Finally, in 2051 a baby was born that looked human and tested human.
When given the APGAR, the test to determine the health of newborn children (looking at Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, and Respiration), the infant excelled.
She began walking at three months and was running and climbing before her first birthday. Pita could recognize the bodilykinesthetic skills of a chimpanzee in much of what she did, but her appearance was normal, and her smile befriended everyone.
She began to talk at a year, expressed interest in books, and loved being read to. Bananas were her favorite food. Pita was very nervous when he took her for cognitive testing at age, three, and was elated with he learned that her IQ was 118. By now Pita knew that his dream, combining the genetic pools of humans and other species, was do-able; indeed, he had done it!
But he understood that this was such a departure from human history that he would be faced with many doubters and cynics. Perhaps the last such revolutionary position, he thought, was taken by Galileo in the 1500’s. Pita decided to circumvent the argument by unveiling the proof in such a magnitude that there could be no escaping what he had done. Seventeen years later, in 2071, Pita invited reporters and television commentators to what he called The Hybrid Circus.
There was no further explanation, but his reputation – along with the rumors of life-forms he had as pets that looked a bit different – brought over a crowd of 200 media people to his lab in Roswell. Pita had rented a circus tent with portable stands erected inside, and had a popcorn machine aside the door to the tent. Best, he was dressed in a ringmaster’s outfit, complete with top hat and whip! “Ladies and gentlemennnnnnn,” he announced to the seated crowd, “you are about to witness a new chapter in human potential and possibilities.
As you’ll see, we can determine exactly what we want to be!” He stood back and the tent was illuminated as eight young men and women charged to the center ring. Ropes dropped from the tent roof, and they began climbing them, hand-over-hand, quicker than seemed humanly possible. Once at the top, they began to fly on trapezes – no net below – jumping incredible distances and catching one another with one hand and, seemingly, no effort.
The show continued for five minutes and the performers left the tent by walking on their hands.
The crowd was stunned, too shocked to applaud or, even, to write. No sooner had this happened when three horses charged in from the other side of the tent.
They circled once and then stopped, rising on their hind legs in unison for what seemed like a very long time.
As they dropped to standing, it became obvious that these weren’t horses at all, at least not the kind anyone had ever seen.
They had human faces! And then the center horse began to talk. “Greetings, and welcome to the Hybrid Circus,” he said in a very deep voice. “By now, you’re probably wondering what I am.” No one said anything at this point; the two faces on the adjacent horses were silent, and the reporters were stunned.
Then the trapeze artists began to re-enter the tent, walking to the center of the ring as did Dr. Pita, still in his ringmaster’s outfit. (to be continued)
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February–March 2015.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2015_02.pdf, printed page(s) 8; PDF page(s) 8.
