>>39717263Believe it or not, I'm a lifetime member of the Society for Transhumanism.
Essentially, we're a little group that helps pull funds for research and application of Transhumanist ventures, for the gain of being first on the waiting lists, and of course receiving profit back on investments.
What is Transhumanism? Its about evolving Humans to our next stage through external means. There are a few factions, but the major divide is between the Naturalists (which isn't as Natural as you'd think) and the Machinists.
Naturalists believe in Genetic modification and Gene Therapy to ail Humanity of its woes, Machinists believe in the introduction of technology into our bodies to ail our woes. Despite there being differences in viewpoints, the two factions get along stunningly and in tandem; our only enemy is Mortality after all. Well that and ethics boards.
But yeah, Gene Therapy is well invested in atm because that faction figured that it would be "better accepted into the current/future Mainstream" with Tech Modification (Tech Mod) being introduced a little bit later, to appeal to the "futurist" generation. Both are invested and researched...but finding willing ethic boards, and likewise finding willing participants to test out the applications is sadly in the low. Then again, money and connection trumps moral obligation and hard forces pathway doors open.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there were "Genetic Slugs" used as a workaround to swooce by ethics boards. Like living Human Dummies that are functionally human, but have nothing going on upstairs.
Sure sure, you can say "Science fiction." but that is what this Society is for, "Turning Science Fiction Real." And sometimes, you gotta spit in God's eggs to make an Omelette.