David Ramirez, author of The Forever Watch – is here today to talk about breeding programs in genre fiction. If you haven’t run across one before well then I guess you better read his book. 
Read my review of THE FOREVER WATCH
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Why Do Breeding Programs Keep Showing Up in Stories?
Eugenics, the management of genetic traits across a population, is an old idea.
It is a powerful theme in fiction, one that never seems out of fashion. It was done by Lensman’s benevolent Arisians, it produced longer-lived and then functionally immortal humans in Heinlein’s novels, it ruined the planet in Star Trek’s Eugenics Wars, it was inherent to the society of GATTACA, it found its way into Man of Steel’s Kryptonians, and it is even touched upon in the very un-futuristic 300, in which the Spartans kill their deformed children.
It has been around since Plato. Why does eugenics have such longevity?
Stories portray eugenics-crafted societies as being orderly and full of exceptional people. Its related offshoots like embryonic genetic manipulation, or more recently, transhumanist technological augmentations, are portrayed as cure-alls for diseases, for inequality, as transitional steps during The Singularity, as producing necessary superhumans to survive a crisis, and more.
As an ingredient of dystopia, eugenics stories cover the politics of inequality, sometimes handled softly, sometimes taken to extremes.
Eugenics, rarely considered a sexy subject, is intrinsically linked to sex and fertility. Historical romances in which the heroine and hero face the barrier of class or tribe or caste also have to do with eugenics. When the main obstacle is that one must not marry beneath oneself, when the upper class or the nobility has an obligation to continue its divine bloodline and not taint it with lesser strains—that’s as much a part of eugenics as sterilizing the mentally ill. There are few freedoms that matter to people as much as the freedom of each individual to choose with whom one can have children.
Its use can seem wonderful and can seem terrible, just like other great ideas that show up again and again in SF, like nanotechnology, AI, and robotics. Tied into science and technology, it also has heavy consequences for relationships and society. It encompasses both the hard and soft sides of Science Fiction.
It appeals to the idea of a better future through better humans, and it frightens as a tool of oppression. A recent treatment of eugenics as a part of this type of world-crafting is Veronica Roth’s excellent Divergent, in which society has tribalized according to a caste system of virtues, with an underclass of Factionless. As is often the case with these stories, it all works at the start until the cracks of the problems beneath that society show through.
But eugenics has something extra that most SF concepts don’t—it was enacted in real life with real and horrifying consequences. It was not just the Nazis that had a eugenics program. The rest, I leave to readers to Google. It is a dangerous idea, one with a lot of baggage that is difficult to separate from its historical past.
As a dangerous idea, it is one that keeps on giving to the world of stories.
Specific to The Forever Watch, why is Breeding Duty, in which women sleep through forced pregnancy with genetic partners selected for them, important for the ship’s society? It is part of an exploration of the extremes to which a society can be driven. For more than that, please read the book, which I hope will surprise most readers with the direction that TFW’s dystopian elements take.
DAVID RAMIREZ is an ex-scientist who divides his time between Oakland, CA, and Manila, Philippines. Once a molecular biologist who worked on the Human Genome Project, Ramirez returned to the Philippines to get married. He currently dabbles in computer science and programmed part of the information system for the chronobiologists of EUCLOCK, a cooperative project between European research groups on the study of circadian rhythms in model organisms and humans.
Find the Book: Amazon | Goodreads
Stalk the Author: Website | Facebook
Tabitha (Pabkins)
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DannyBookworm
What a great post… and it also got me thinking. The idea of Breeding programs apparently never gets old and especially with the hype of Dystopian book lately in YA – this has been covered a few times already. Of course you now made me curious about your book and how it might surprise me 🙂
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blodeuedd
Breeding programs are always creepy, but in a good way, it makes me not want to see a future like that
blodeuedd recently posted…A Dangerous Madness – Michelle Diener
Aimee @ Deadly Darlings
Breeding programs are really common these days, especially in YA dystopians. They bring chills up my spine and hope for the best for the world we live in. This Breeding Duty is intriguing, but definitely not something I would like for our world. x)
Aimee @ Deadly Darlings recently posted…If These Fictional Guys Were Real…
Carmel @ Rabid Reads
In all honestly, breeding programs creep me out, but I can’t seem to escape them as they pop up frequently in YA and SciFi. They are kinda like train wreaks; I want to look away, but am also oddly fascinated by the concept.
Carmel @ Rabid Reads recently posted…Early Review: Banishing the Dark by Jenn Bennett
Kel
Really interesting post! It’s true, eugenics with good or evil intentions does make for excellent sci-fi fodder. 🙂
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Jessica @ Rabid Reads
Wonderful post! I completely agree–the topic of eugenics is incredibly compelling. It’s one of my favorite themes in sci-fi across the board.
Jessica @ Rabid Reads recently posted…Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead
Jessica @ Rabid Reads
So I already commented on this post, but it’s not showing up, so that’s the deal if it shows up later, and you’re wondering why I’m commenting twice . . . just sayin’ . . .
Anyway, YES! Eugenics is one of my favorite themes in sci-fi. I’ve always been fascinated with the concept, and if I was better at science, I would have given serious consideration to studying genetics in college. I’m crap at science, however, so I must content myself with reading sci-fi versions of it (which are more fun anyway, so there). Great post, Tabitha!
Jessica @ Rabid Reads recently posted…Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead
Tabitha (Pabkins)
Totally odd that the spam filter ate your first comment. Luckily I go through every page of the spam folder every day or two and found it. *cackles madly* For exactly this reason that I catch at least one REAL comment out of every 120 fake ones. Some of that spam on rare occasions can be hilarious.
But I agree with your this is a fascinating them and I always find it interesting to see the different ways it is handled.
Tabitha (Pabkins) recently posted…Review: Thief’s Magic by Trudi Canavan