“Our leaders tried everything from regulating birth rates among the population to outright euthanasia, nothing seemed to work. This was a dark time in our planet’s past; there were resource wars, and millions were killed. Until the next scientific breakthrough in gene manipulation; they figured out how to custom design babies. But, not just eye and hair color; no, they were able to select skill sets and interests. At this point, we could basically order babies to fulfil specific needs. If we were projecting a shortage of medical professionals, we could order up a batch of babies that were predisposed to be interested in medicine and science.”
With a confused look on his face, Snap asked, “How did that stop the wars and starvation?”
“It didn’t. Not at first, anyway. It took a few hundred years; but, eventually, you had enough people that were genetically predisposed to being good administrators and planners that they were able to put mandates in place to regulate the population growth. Through certain factions yielding, education, and regulation; everyone agreed to the concept of limited reproduction. Now, every child born on Vitahic, is authorized by the governing body, and genetically predisposed to fulfil a projected future need. Of course, with this system in place, we never have too many people to feed; nor do we have unemployment.”
Snap shook his head. “But, are your people happy?”
“Like I said, at first it was a very rough transition. But, now, after a few hundred years, most people understand that there is a tradeoff necessary when you are living over 300 years. When the life span of your average citizen grows from 80 to 325 years; that person consumes more than triple the resources. Something must give. Plus, they are genetically engineered to be, not only healthier; but, stronger and smarter. We are not producing dumb, or lazy people on our planet – why would we?”
“Wow. So, everyone on your planet is as smart as you, and the others I met today?”
“For the most part, yes. Everyone on Vitahic is born with a very high IQ, as humans call it; emotionally stable; an appropriate amount of personal drive; and, a predisposition to be interested in a needed skill set.”
“So, you have people that are genetically engineered from birth to be garbage collectors?” Snap asked.
“There are very few menial jobs on Vitahic. Most of the labor-intensive or repetitive jobs have been taken over by automation. But, yes, we have certain jobs that require fewer skills and people are genetically designed for those jobs. It is not a problem, because, like I said, they are designed to enjoy that type of work. It’s not so much that we can manipulate the DNA to create a person that will invent the next advance in a particular field of study; it more like, we can design person that will grow up to be a good scientist, or a good soldier, a good nurse, or an educator.”
“Sounds to me like you are not giving your people the opportunity to choose who they will become,” Snap countered.
“No different than here on Earth, you are a prisoner of your DNA. You did not get to choose your genetic makeup. The difference is, here on Earth, if too many teachers are born, then, you have teachers running around with no jobs; while there is shortage of nurses,” Furier explained. “What caused you to go into the military?”
She had made a good point, without even realizing it. Snap immediately understood, and slowly responded, “My grandfather and father were both in the military.”
Furier smiled, she saw that he got it. “See, it’s not that much different on Earth. We just plan a little further ahead. Another problem we don’t face is having narcissistic, egomaniacs managing the direction of our planet; and stumbling into wars that could kill millions of people.”
“How do you avoid that?” Snap asked.
“Simple. One of our genetic templates is for an Administrator. Of course, we have thousands of Administrators, each with different responsibilities, but they all are cut from the same Administrator blank, if you will. They are predisposed to being fair, even tempered, empathetic and selfless. Of course, like everyone, some are better than others; but, when you have thousands of them across the planet, the better ones rise to the top and balance out the weaker ones.”
“So, no individual nations, or wars?” Snap asked.
“Once genetic manipulation was widely accepted by the population, we have not had any warring nations on our planet. Once you realize that there are otherworldly enemies that threaten the very existence of your entire planet; trivial differences among yourselves become irrelevant. The people of Vitahic think of themselves as Vitahicians, and they all work together for the common good of the planet – not just their region.”
“So, are you at war with other planets?”
“We are experiencing a moment of uneasy peace with another planet. But, we have engaged in interplanetary war in the past. That’s one of the reasons we are reaching out to Earth; hopefully, to establish an ally.”
“I can’t even imagine what an interplanetary war would be like? Were you in it? Did you fight?” Snap asked.
“No. The war ended when I was just a child. Our planet sustained a tremendous amount of damage; entire cities were destroyed. I remember them rebuilding, well into my years at the Academy. No one on Vitahic wants to see that happen again. We try very hard to maintain diplomatic relations with the enemy; but, we also are building our defenses, just in case.”
Snap could tell this was a touchy matter for her and decided to change the subject, “So, I know you are genetically designed for a purpose; but, are you raised by a mom and dad, a family unit?”
Furier paused for a moment, and stared at the fire, before saying, “Yes. I have a mom and dad, but it’s not like human families. We are not as close. We don’t have marriage anymore. We did, a long time ago. But, the government got rid of marriage after life expectancies increased. People could not stay together for hundreds of years, it just wasn’t working. Now, some people mate for life, but it is rare. My mom and dad are no longer together, I see them when I can, but not really that often.”
“Okay, Okay. I hope you don’t mind me asking these questions?” Snap asked, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable.
“No. It’s okay. I am enjoying the conversation.”
“So, what do people on your planet do? When they are not flying around the galaxy in a space ship?” Snap asked.
“A lot like your planet. Everyone works. They enjoy outdoor activities and entertainment. We have less crime, war, and strife, than you have on Earth. Some are raising children, while others are exploring hobbies and developing new technologies. A few still observe ancient religions, but not as many as do here on Earth.”
“You said they don’t have corporations, like we do. Where do people work?” Snap asked.
“Most of the means of production are managed by what you would call a government, those ‘Administrators’ I was telling you about.”
Snap laughed, “Here, that’s called ‘socialism’. I can think of a few people that would have a problem with that.”
“Yeah, another tough transition. There is no way we could have moved from capitalism to socialism without the technological advances in genetic manipulation. But, after a couple of hundred years, the people began to trust the Administrators, they saw that they were fair, competent, and not greedy. Once we established that level of trust between the people and the Administrators, it was easy to turn things over to them. After all, they really could manage things better than the rest of us; in the same way the Captain of a starship can chart a course more accurately than a supply officer.”
“Well,” Snap said, thoughtfully. “What about the bad administrators, you mentioned?”