Ye Shall Be As Gods? – Class 5, Period 3

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

She sat behind her desk, legs neatly crossed, looking thoughtful and slightly distant as she waited for her class to gather. When they had, Juli leaned forward and began her planned lesson. If they weren’t ready to listen to her, well… that was rather unfortunate for them. She was ready to speak.

“Last week,” she said, glancing briefly at all of her students one-by-one, “we discussed the terminology of referring to those who have been altered on a genetic level. Unsurprisingly, some terms were deemed more offensive than others. Today, we will be carrying on with the topic of human modification.”

“This time though, we’re not talking about the language.” Juli stood up, and moved to lean against the front of her desk. “This time we’re talking about the purposes of human modification. What do you think the most prevalent purpose of it is? Something as simple as giving the parents precise control over what their child will look like, perhaps? Making sure that their children are born healthy? Or more complex than that say… governments designing their own living weapons? Perhaps merely the need of society on a whole to see just how far they can push the boundaries of science. Altering people simply because they can.”

She looked thoughtful. “All of these reasons have been used before, in various incarnations, in different times. Are any of them correct?” A faint smile flitted across her face. “That is, I believe, something that must be decided on an individual basis.”

“What do you think is the most common reason? Is it one that you, personally, can agree with? If not, why? Can you back your opinion with a reason, or is it just a gut feeling that leads you to think as you do?”

“After that I give the floor to you, my students, for open discussion of the various reasons—valid or not, in your opinion—that people might have for advocating the continuance of human modification.”

“Please,” she said, again with a small smile, “at least try to respect each other’s opinions even if you cannot agree with them.”

[Please wait for the OCD up! Have at it!]

Comments

Sign In

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Neatly!

Re: Sign In

[im-afrog.livejournal.com]

Adam Park

Re: Sign In

[redintraining.livejournal.com]

Sky Tate

During the Lecture

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Listen, chat, pass notes, or interrupt Juli and ask a question.

Re: During the Lecture

[redintraining.livejournal.com]

Sky was in a rather good mood coming to class this week. He'd gotten a kiss. He'd arranged a date. So this helped him not completely lose his composure when Dr. Mizrahi mentioned the "governments making their own human weapons" part of the lecture. And by "not losing his composure", he merely dropped his pencil and pursed his lips tightly, breathing hard through his nose.

Calm down. CALM DOWN, he told himself. I am NOT gonna lose it again. His hands began to shake.

Re: During the Lecture

[multiplez]

Yeah, Z was pretty much freaking, too, but not quite to this degree. She tore a corner off a page in her notebook, wadded it up, and tossed it at Sky to get his attention.

Re: During the Lecture

[im-afrog.livejournal.com]

Adam did not like thinking about the government making their own weapons. It wasn't right and it definitely didn't sit well with him. Especially if those weapons were human.

Not cool.

Re: During the Lecture

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Boooring. The names-part last week was much more entertaining.

Grinning, Anemone glanced at her bag, where someone might notice a wee little nose and a pair of little black eyes sticking out. Gulliver had wanted to come to class today too, and she hadn't been inclined to say no.

Re: During the Lecture

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge is pretty much just wishing he'd been given the power to become *invisible*, because that's what he'd like to do right now.

Re: During the Lecture

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

Anathema was against the government doing anything. Especially the American government.

Re: During the Lecture

[sound-loyalty.livejournal.com]

Kabuto leaned back in his seat and toyed with his pencil. Professor Mizrahi really knew how to pick topics he could have fun with...especially with this crowd.

Re: During the Lecture

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

As the accidental result of a what boils down to the government trying to make living weapons, Peter had a lot to think about before he spoke this week.

Answer the Question

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

“What do you think is the most common reason for human modification? Do you agree with it? If not, why?”

Re: Answer the Question

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Weapon!" Anemone singsonged, swinging her feet. "Why waste time with a human when you can send something better and stronger after your target? It makes sense."

Re: Answer the Question

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"I can't say for sure one way or another if I agree with it, any more," Jen said slowly. "On one hand, from my own experience I could say it's most commonly cosmetic reasons and nothing to be too concerned about, but well . . . like I've mentioned there are definite negative consequences too. And on the other hand, if I look at it from a slightly different perspective, I could say that you could interpret it as someone trying to exert control over someone else's destiny."

The awful, palpable hurt in Wes's eyes through his shattered helmet visor as Mr. Collins, upon discovering that the Red Time Force Ranger was his own son whom he'd groomed to take over his company, walked away in disappointment and disgust.

"Even in some tiny way," she added. "And I don't think I can agree with that."

Re: Answer the Question

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"To make someone better and only if it's for medical reasons."

Re: Answer the Question

[sound-loyalty.livejournal.com]

"Generally, the most common reason I've experienced myself has been for the sake of knowledge." Kabuto shrugged. "That, and to make people stronger. Orochimaru-sama does both, and I support him completely in it. They all want to be stronger; they're simply getting what they desire."

Re: Answer the Question

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

"Power," Peter said. "And that's either the power modifications can give you or for the power you can gain by creating them. If you can figure out a way to make people more fit for war, or sports, or just general life, they will very often take that and run with it. And if you're able to do that for people, you're going to make a lot of money from it. It all comes down to power."

"And I'm not a big fan of it for personal reasons that I think I've mentioned briefly in the past."

Discuss!

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Human modification! Created just to be weapons? For control of appearances? Just ‘because they can’? What do you think?

Talk to the TA

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Once he’s around of course.

Re: Talk to the TA

[sound-loyalty.livejournal.com]

Oh, he's around. And just as annoyingly smug as last week.

Talk to Juli

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

She’s around both before and after class if you have need of her.

OOC

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

*flops*

Re: OOC

[redintraining.livejournal.com]

... This is gonna sound horrible of me no matter how I phrase it, but thank you for giving me another chance to torture Sky this week. XD Because he hasn't suffered enough already, of course...

Re: OOC

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Thanks for another chance to play with Anemone's complete inability to understand basic moral or ethical issues! Maybe someday she'll actually get a clue... *sighs*