Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later • Hacker News Board

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#11

Post by kanzure » Sun, Feb 05, 2023, 6:29 PM UTC

Gattaca set the field of biotech back by decades. Countless hours have been wasted pointing to the movie for why we should not go down the slippery slope of genetic choice. Cool movie though, that's part of the problem.

"If the audience is supposed to accept that genetic determinism is true in Gattaca, then no amount of Vincent's hard work should make Vincent a hero. He's just a fraud. If the audience is not supposed to believe that in the world of Gattaca genetic determinism is true (that is, it's false), then it should be interpreted as a story of discrimination, and a story of the underdog's heroic hard work overcoming the negative effects of a corrupt, wrong, erroneously-discriminating society."

from http://www.ln.edu.hk/philoso/staff/sesardic/Gattaca.pdf & https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32386006

Besides, Vincent could just purchase a ticket for a rocket ride instead....

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#12

Post by blitzar » Sun, Feb 05, 2023, 6:31 PM UTC

imperio59 wrote: post #2

Most works that touch upon core issues like Gattaca does tend to be relevant many years later. This is why we still read greek philosophers, works from the Renaissance, works from the time of the American Revolution (The Federalist Papers, for example), etc...

The works that touch on these core issues are not often as well executed as Gattica - sometimes you wind up with Mean Girls ... ok that is a bad example as that is a timeless classic as well.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#13

Post by mynegation » Sun, Feb 05, 2023, 6:32 PM UTC

rzzzt wrote: post #5

I understand this article appeared in Nature Genetics and so explores the genetics aspect of the movie (which is admittedly heavily emphasized, starting with the G-A-T-C letters highlighted in the title and opening credits), but I always thought it is about the practice of discrimination in general, regardless of what "quality" is chosen to put people in sets of "A" and "B". How literally should the audience take thi…

It is up to you. Like any good piece of art (literature, painting, sculpture, documentaries, movies, fiction etc), saying something specific to the audience is just the first order effect and sometimes not even the most important one. Inspiring you to get on a process of discovery, interpretation, asking more questions, is what any great art aspires to do.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#14

Post by IncRnd » Sun, Feb 05, 2023, 6:35 PM UTC

blitzar wrote: post #12

imperio59 wrote: post #2

Most works that touch upon core issues like Gattaca does tend to be relevant many years later. This is why we still read greek philosophers, works from the Renaissance, works from the time of the American Revolution (The Federalist Papers, for example), etc...

The works that touch on these core issues are not often as well executed as Gattica - sometimes you wind up with Mean Girls ... ok that is a bad example as that is a timeless classic as well.

That's the first time I've seen someone compare Mean Girls with Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, and The Federalist Papers.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#15

Post by kanzure » Sun, Feb 05, 2023, 6:36 PM UTC

narrator wrote: post #10

We can do editing of somatic cells of adults now. Gattaca assumed that was all static and unchangeable.

We can do some editing of some of the somatic cells in adults, and those edits have some effect. Reaching all of the somatic cells is actually quite difficult. We have had significantly better results with germline genetic engineering in animal models.

If you really need to reach all the cells, that's how you'll do it. For example, if your trait is developmental in nature.

Try it at home: https://diyhpl.us/wiki/genetic-modifications/

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#16

Post by ericmcer » Sun, Feb 05, 2023, 6:36 PM UTC

DoctorDabadedoo wrote: post #6

sourcecodeplz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely on my re-watch list, together with Idiocracy.

Mike Judge with his Idiocracy and Office Space is almost like someone had a crystal ball for early 21st century.

How did he get away with Idiocracy? I thought it was a good movie and somewhat prescient, but if you peel back the layers it is basically advocating some kind of population control or eugenics policy. Or it is just a comedy, but I hear it frequently cited as a dramatized version of a plausible future.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#17

Post by brmgb » Sun, Feb 05, 2023, 6:37 PM UTC

kanzure wrote: post #11

Gattaca set the field of biotech back by decades. Countless hours have been wasted pointing to the movie for why we should not go down the slippery slope of genetic choice. Cool movie though, that's part of the problem. "If the audience is supposed to accept that genetic determinism is true in Gattaca, then no amount of Vincent's hard work should make Vincent a hero. He's just a fraud. If the audience is not supposed…

Or as I like to put it Gattaca put the spotlight on research which had been treading the line of ethics for a decade with a dangerous lack of supervision and helped convince people that putting the brakes on it was welcome. That’s fiction playing its role.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#18

Post by apples_oranges » Sun, Feb 05, 2023, 6:38 PM UTC

I believe advances in AI will make the core plot idea of the film obsolete. It is a good movie, but even the most genetically perfect human will probably not have a fraction of the intelligence of AI. He will be, relatively speaking, a mere dummy like the rest of us. Thus the future as shown in this film will not happen.

However, good sci-fi is actually always about the present. And the movie has a lot of interesting things to say about the human condition in the late 1990s and now.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#19

Post by fallingknife » Sun, Feb 05, 2023, 6:39 PM UTC

rzzzt wrote: post #5

I understand this article appeared in Nature Genetics and so explores the genetics aspect of the movie (which is admittedly heavily emphasized, starting with the G-A-T-C letters highlighted in the title and opening credits), but I always thought it is about the practice of discrimination in general, regardless of what "quality" is chosen to put people in sets of "A" and "B". How literally should the audience take thi…

The part that I could never get over is that the discrimination against the main character actually made sense. He's trying to hide his heart condition to go in an important space mission.

edit: HN is rate limiting me so I can't reply, but to davesque's comment below:

> no one wants to live in a world where their life and capabilities are pre-determined

But we do live in that world. It was determined that I would never play in the NFL the day sperm met egg. (Probably earlier than that, actually, as I doubt there is a single genetic combination of my parents that makes an NFL player). On that same day it was determined that I would never have to study in school.

I guess I'm just more comfortable with the fact that genetics plays such a decisive role in our lives than most people, and that's probably why I didn't see the movie as particularly interesting.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#20

Post by js2 » Sun, Feb 05, 2023, 6:39 PM UTC

anonporridge wrote: post #8

The great thing about Gattaca is that the cinematography ages incredibly well on top of the amazing plot. A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that look incredibly dated only a decade later. Gattaca chose to focus on the story and create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later.

Despite Gattaca being one of my favorite movies for years I only recently learned, right here on HN, that the cinematographer is Sławomir Idziak, frequent collaborator of Krzysztof Kieślowski, which explains why Gattaca looks so much like one of my other favorites, The Double Life of Veronique.

> create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later.