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"All fiction is propaganda, and the fiction we like is the propaganda we believe in, and the fiction we don't like is the propaganda we don't believe in."
- Samuel R. Delany
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| Automated DNA Typing | ||
| A device that takes quick samples of DNA and compares each sample to a database. |
In the future society depicted in the film, employment is strictly controlled. Certain positions have absolute genetic requirements.
In fact, for particular jobs, you must prove every day that you are who you say you are. And you must prove that you are genetically pure and worthy - every day. To make sure, you give a small blood sample taken by an automated DNA typing machine.
 (Employees provide a DNA sample upon entry)
 (A droplet of blood from each employee is analyzed) |
| Technovelgy from Gattaca,
by Andrew Niccol. Published by Columbia Pictures in 1997 Additional resources -
|
DNA typing (also called genetic fingerprinting, DNA testing, DNA typing, and DNA profiling) was invented by Sir Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester in 1985. Since human beings have almost all genetic material in common with each other, genetic fingerprinting exploits highly variable repeating sequences called minisatellites. Two unrelated humans will be unlikely to have different numbers of minisatellites at a given locus.
At present, DNA typing can be (to some extent) automated, but it is too time-consuming to provide a good access-control technology as shown in the film.
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and Technology from Gattaca
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and Technology by Andrew Niccol
Tech news articles related to Gattaca
Tech news articles related to works by Andrew Niccol
Automated DNA Typing-related
news articles:
- DNA Fingerprint Database For Workers Gattaca-Style Proposed
- Gattaca-Style DNA Databank For 3 Million Americans
- Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Passed
- Spartan DX Real-Time DNA Check
- Eyedox Genetic Test To Exclude Color Blind
- Boy Banned From School For Bad Genes
- Court OK's DNA Collection Like 'Gattaca'
- Kuwait Creates Mandatory DNA Database For Citizens
- Is Genetic Testing At Businesses A Bad Idea?
- Should You Submit Your DNA To A Database?
| ErythroMer Artificial Blood |
| MouthPad Supports Head And Tongue Tracking |
| Drug Induces Hibernation-Like State In Humans |
| Drug To Regenerate Teeth In Humans |
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'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.'
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?''
'I opened the oblong box, where lay the automatons side by side...'
'They tied the memory to the bloodline and that was their record!'
