Salambô’s Python (coding)
This is episode 14 of The French Tech Comedy Season 2.
Episode 13: Holy Trinity: Jesus, Buddha, Selfie
Previously in The French Tech Comedy: In Season 2 of The French Tech Comedy, we follow characters like Japanese oncologist and bioinformatics engineer Takafumi Nagato, who is leading the lab of Bioinformatics for personalised CAR-T-therapies in a Tokyo clinic, and his patient, Chinese giant TenBa’s founder Ken Ba, a zillionaire from Shanghai. Yuki, Taka’s sister, is a French-speaking geisha, meaning “artist” in Japanese, in touch with the French Tech. She just got married to a French engineer who was working in Taka’s lab, Nono, and has secretly donated her healthy T-cells to Taka’s patient who, after his second cancer relapse, decided to try an innovative treatment called “liquid biopsy”. Indeed, Ba is becoming an expert in genomic precision medicine. In his case it is a matter of life or death. Among Yuki’s friends in the French Tech branch is Frederic Mougin, a biologist, founder of the startup Gene-i-us:
“We are developing a patient-centric tool for patients to collect, share & monetize their medical, genomics, lifestyle, IoT data with academics & pharma industry.”
Yuki had promised she would introduce Mougin to people working with Facebook Singapore; among them: Nono. What biz plan can Gene-i-usimplement, in order to work with Facebook? Mougin is using a lot of buzz words, but when it turns out Ba’s cancer mutation has entered the stock exchange market, thanks to the efforts of a pharmaceutical company, his oncologist, Taka, fears a Ba Gate. More than ever, the privacy of genetic data is instrumental in the process of developing precision medicine. Singapore is the Chinese Mecca of I.P. and patents. A cryptocurrency, that is seen by financial specialists as a security, is used as a way to reward (healthy and sick) patients in exchange of their DNA data. Yuki is wondering if this kind of money will revolutionise the whole financial and pharmaceutical market as we know it, or will all digital currencies end up behaving like any other tradable financial asset? After all, a security is a tradable financial asset. Ba, Taka’s cancer patient, is trying to gain insight into the situation… While spending a few days in Malaysia both for business and vacation, TenBa’s founder gets to meet with a total stranger who in fact he only knows too well: Simone, Malaysian Chinese actress Michelle Yeoh’s niece. Between Ba and Simone, things are complicated. But it is only the beginning… Simone is trying to make an algorithmic cryptocurrency that could mimmic biological processes within the human body. Meanwhile, Manga artist Koba writes about the blurring frontier between curing and enhancing in the genomic precision medicine era, and the consequences in society. At school, Simone needs to present her Science Fair project alone. Overanxious auntie Michellehad bribed a student from Simone’s class. She wanted her niece’s science fair presentation to be filmed, live. A few days later, she sent a link to a video to a friend of hers, Chinese giant TenBa’s founder Ken Ba, a zillionaire from Shanghai. She’d compiled a 10 minutes extract for him to see, and a question:
“ — What do you think?” Ba said the video was very interesting and offered to have lunch in Ipoh, Michelle’s home town, next weekend, and discuss things. Simone, meanwhile, is stuck in Bangkok, where Ba has sent her a T-shirt as a thank-you gift, she’s not sure why. Also, as a hacker having served time in a Beijing prison, she is suffering from post-traumatic stress. In Singapore, rockstar US physician Tamir Subramanian is a keynote speaker at Facebook’s “The Patient Will See You Now” Breakfast. In the conference room nearby, a Facebook Open Day Q&A session for students from local high schools has just started. Simone is attending, she gets to meet with Nono, who ends up inviting her for lunch at the famous Facebook cafeteria. How to program a digital currency with its own blockchain, taking advantage (or mimicking) the underpinnings of the biological mechanisms of epigenetics? Simone, Nono and Yuki are trying to reflect on this. Yuki and Simone end up talking about reincarnation and video games, while shopping at Daiso, in Suntec City mall, Singapore. Close nearby is South Beach Tower, with the Facebook company at level 22. Rockstar US physician Tamir Subramanian, editor in chief of the Transversal J Med, is interviewing Geronimo Faber PhD, who is spearheading the global crusade to defeat ageing. Nono is watching the one-on-one interview, a video that was just posted on the Transversal Journal of Medicine’s website. The whole thing is boring, and Faber still needs money. Nono revamps the boring video, writing a new episode for the Japanese Manga Saint Oniisan (Saint Young Men), in French: Les Vacances de Jésus et Bouddha (Jesus and Buddha On Vacation). He is almost done, when he gets a call from the Big Boss…
— — — — — — — — — — —
This time as usual Facebook wanted to try something new. The video revamp project could wait. Zuck had just launched a new project, worldwide. An incentive for scientists to work together. To make short a long story: Facebook’s big boss wanted to force scientists to work together, worldwide. His biz plan? Plain and simple: incentivise scientists to do so. Tencent was doing the same, so the whole thing was a joint project between both companies.
“ — Too many bright brains are working in plain isolation, or in the secrecy of their lab, or afraid of peer review, and so on and so forth. Science is a shredded territory. Probably always was, but never mind that. We at Facebook mustn’t be afraid to try something new. Let’s bring scientists worldwide together. And let’s make them interact with pop culture. And of course, it has to happen via our platform. Let’s make ourselves indispensable to medicine, essential to the science and the system of health care.” Zuck carried on:
“ — Look at the two scientists who co-discovered CRISPR. One is in Berkeley, California, the other one is at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Can you think of any other country in Europe more conservative than Germany, because of its nazi past? Austria? Well, Charpentier’s worked there too. Some even say that’s the place where she did the bulk of the researching work that lead to the CRISPR discovery. And that gene editing tool is potentially the most transgressive scientific discovery in the whole history of humankind. CRISPR, the avenger of the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938)? Obviously, Charpentier wants to protect herself, if things get out of hand, like she would typically say:
‘ — See, that’s not me. I’m doing fundamental research in a ultra conservative environment’.” He went on:
“ — But somehow, the reasons why she chose Germany over UK, Singapore, the US etc. are anything but obvious. And of course, the lady herself won’t tell us.”
Another Moonshot project. Nono was on it. Zuck at this point had talked about the project to a handful of journalists, in NY and in Beijing, and of course, in the gaming headquarters of Facebook, Seattle. In no time, Nono had gotten in touch with Pierre. After a few working sessions with Pierre, living in France, he had contacted Koba, the manga artist who was working with Yuki. He wanted both guys to work together. He told Koba:
“ — Just write Pierre’s story in the form of a manga book, give it to Rockstar US physician Tamir Subramanian, editor in chief of the Transversal J Med. We’ll crowdfund the project, in the US and in China. Sub can use the manga as a piece of pop culture in his upcoming keynote speeches in California and Israel. Then, I’ll customise digital tools to create derived products of the manga via our platform. I want Doudna and Charpentier and Sub among many others to debate about the manga.”
Koba didn’t mention that he had already started a storyboard on this topic: the blurring frontier between curing and enhancing. But the feedback from his publisher was taking forever, as expected. And now, he was getting to know Pierre and his story. The timing for this meeting was just great. And yes, he needed that crowdfunding campaign. Koba would write and draw a piece of fiction, based on a true story. The story of Pierre. It had been told already, or rather, suggested, in a French newspaper that was not specifically mentioning the identity or the existence of Pierre, or patients like him. Koba read the article in French thanks to google translate:
The fragile border between "repaired humanity" and "augmented humanity"
The researchers tested epilepsy patients already equipped with brain implants to treat drug-resistant seizures. The intracerebral device has been reoriented to the areas involved in the storage. By delivering targeted electrical impulses, scientists have managed to increase patient memory by 30%.
Dr. Song speaks of a true "prosthesis of memory" and the essay opens perspectives in the treatment of disorders such as Alzheimer's. The experiment could allow many neuronal manipulations. These scientific transgressions will lead to violent - and legitimate - oppositions between bioconservatives and candidates for the benefits of advances in science.
From the "repaired" man to the "augmented" man, there is only one step, which will inevitably be crossed. Neuroethics, which is just beginning to become structured, will become a major topic for politicians in the 21st century. And one sees in passing that the distinction "repaired humanity" and "increased humanity" is very fragile.
The medical elite ready to follow the transhumanists
Will we legislate to prohibit epileptics with implants benefiting from cognitive abilities superior to the rest of the population? The answer is obvious: we will cross the Rubicon separating the repair of the increase without any qualms. Should we oblige the holders of cerebral implants to declare them before a competition? Should we decrease their notes to make the competition equal? Should we block the implants during the month preceding the exams, with the risk of seeing the epileptic students having a seizure during their exams?Wile Koba is working as fast as he can on the manga project, Nono is trying to deal with scientists who according to him need to get their messages across to larger, global audiences. Among them, two rather strict and stern personalities, who don’t seem to interact a lot.
“ — Let’s make it happen,” he thought.
In Koba’s manga, Pierre, the French “augmented” epileptic character, is the link through which all characters similar to him are seen. All except … Simone, who will only learn at the end of the story that she is also an “augmented” patient.
Yet, Pierre does not “see” her … she does not have telepathic contacts with him.
Through Pierre, we follow the destinies of the look-alike, or double, of African dictator Khari Bounda, Clément, and a young woman who left her native country to live in Thailand. They are both French. They are both “augmented” patients. The young woman, Patricia, is passionate about 3D printing. She went to live in a country where the cost of living is low. She spends some time in Bangkok at first, which she hates because of the ever-growing traffic jams, she then joins Chiang Mai and the city’s network of French startups.
She makes prototypes of Nyonya-style women’s clothes for the collection “La Petite Nyonya” which has shops in Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur. From there, she will make 3D printing for drugs and organs (tissues) in her startup incubator. She works remotely, selling her products online, to innovative labs. Patricia is using her talents to help build the sharing economy, and tomorrow’s medicine. The African dictator’s identity usurpation is a transgressive action: Clément wants to abduct researchers who have the potential knowledge and expertise to help in the poorest African countries but don’t want to go there because life is uncomfortable (and dangerous, and scary). Clément chose humanitarian terrorism over other possible actions. If nobody wants to go there, maybe we should start writing A.I. programs to help? At least Nono thought so…
Simone was treated secretly against epilepsy. Strangely enough, Michelle Yeoh’s niece wants to go to study in France as a revenge of her time in prison in Beijing. She wants to blow up the ban imposed by the French government for “augmented” students. She was medically treated while in prison in Beijing, where she had her first epileptic seizures, probably triggered by a state of intense anxiety. Ba is the only one who knows Simone’s secret. Her family, including her aunt, Michelle Yeoh, believes she is hyperactive. Or some kind of borderline personality, Asperger-like.
Chinese tech giant founder Ken Ba and Simone share a heavy secret, which they never talk about: Simone took the place of a cousin of Ba in prison. Simone has a hacker temperament, revolted against societal injustices. Ba’s cousin was able to get out of jail, became a science-fiction writer, famous in China at first, then around the world. The reason why she was in prison remains quite mysterious, we will learn later that the cousin was involved in some kind of Wikileaks projects, to fight against human rights violation — organ trafficking, poor people selling a kidney, minorities imprisoned and slaughtered for their organs, etc. Thanks to this made-in-China Wikileaks, the responsibility of Chinese surgeons and hospitals, with the support of the army and black markets in Hong Kong, has been established and discussed and debated worldwide. Ba’s cousin participated in a field investigation, conducted in Beijing, in prisons before Chinese New Year festivities, when prisoners are shot dead and organ trafficking is in full swing. Simone only relayed the information. For friends from her social network, and lawyers in Australia, Canada, the Nordic countries, as well as UK physicians who were DAFT-activists (Doctors Against Forced Transplants association), she hacked the intelligence that was hidden in China and distributed it as generously as possible to those who were likely to act, not forgetting human right activists around the world. The legend ran in Simone’s family that some ancestors had trouble with the Chinese government (mainland China) in a distant past, they have emigrated to Malaysia and Singapore. But it was a long time ago. Simone had decided that she did not like the Chinese government. She could not rewrite the story, but she was trying to avenge her ancestors.
After many clashes between Simone and Ba, the latter will succeed in convincing her that the government is now made up of 80% engineers who were no Machiavellian dictators thirsty for power and corrupt. It is time to seek new solutions (xenotransplantation with CRISPR, for example, among many other scientific achievements that were happening now in China) and not to embark on a destructive crusade that will take the girl to the bottom of the chasm.
Simone accuses Ba of not not having done anything to help her out of jail, she is convinced that some obscure Japanese politician has paid dearly to buy her freedom. She is in love with this mysterious Japanese benefactor, who is actually Ba. But faced with the violence of the girl’s feelings, Ba becomes afraid and does not tell her the whole story. In addition, he is himself in turmoil (third relapse of his cancer). Ba is one of the few who has access to Simone, who can help her. However, he does not reveal her that he is the one who made her leave prison; Simone’s family is totally unaware of this. He has a lively confrontation with the girl, his own private life is in a crisis — his upcoming wedding has just been cancelled, as his ex-girlfriend had said that she didn’t want to live with someone who already had a girlfriend: cancer.
“ — Look at yourself, with your Japanese junk food, dressed with La Petite Nyonya brand clothes, you are the archetype of a Chinese Bobo-Hipster, just what your ancestors would hate. You and your ancestors do not even speak the same language. You did all your schooling in Singapore, in Mandarin Chinese, the language of the intellectuals. Precisely what your ancestors loathed. The language of the oppressors, of people who are disconnected from reality. They were peasants, they spoke Cantonese.”
Simone does not like to speak in Cantonese. She decides to have her genome sequenced, via iCarbonX in China and Veritas Genetics in the US, compares the results and sends them to Ba. She also writes to him that she admires his cousin, the famous sci-fi writer. She asks if she can share her DNA testing results on Chinese social networks and launches the Open Genome Project (OGP), for those who want to put their genetic data online, in order to raise funds for medical research. She writes to Geronimo Faber to ask for his support. The latter, seeing an opportunity to have more funding by Ba for his own research, decides to jump in and officially backs the project. Ba still has to defend the girl against her naivety.
“ — You’re going into the bad fight. What if ill-intentioned hackers recover your genetic data and start some illegal trafficking with it, or make up some kind of biological stuff derived from the data? Or it backfires. For some reason, you won’t be able to get some insurance, because of something they found in the data.” What would insurance fees look like, for “augmented” patients looking for health care coverage?, he thought. Simone’s OGP project fails. Faber is furious because he doesn’t get the money.
Ba offers Simone the opportunity to work with yActiveX, a Chinese life sciences company, in basic research. CRISPR. Simone throws herself headlong into work, and during an internship with Taka, discovers that Ba’s cancer worsens. She decides to focus all her efforts on CAR T cells therapy and plans to do academic research on the subject, as a student. She still wants to study in France. But before that happens, the American government, thinking that it is dealing with one of their nationals, wants to stop her. Legally speaking, Simone is a whistle blower, and the law forbids that to US citizens. When the US government discovers that she is Malay Chinese, with family ties to actress Michelle Yeoh, they put the case in the hands of the Malay Muslim government, with the promise on their part that Simone will be in trouble. The US government did bribe the (corrupt) Malay government. A vague project of some Higher Institute of Technology in Kuala Lumpur, which will never see the day — but intense hype on the various social networks, praizing the action and commitment of the Malay government. The money will be used by one of the sons of the Malay Sultan to party in some neighbouring non-Muslim country.
The Malaysian officials sow discord between Japan and China to win contracts and let Simone take the blame. Michelle Yeoh ends up being happy that her niece leaves for France. Staying in Malaysia would only mean trouble for her. Simone is accused of having benefited from illegal contracts, which of course is not true. But the law is the law. Both Malaysian and Chinese governments are against Simone, because of “the illegal money”, which, again, means (or could mean) prison …
Simone will eventually realise that the Japanese politician who released her from prison is none other than Ba, which triggers mixed feelings at their peak, with guilt and attachment, revenge and attraction; a cruel game of confused feelings, with a stunning dramatic tension.
Simone may be 18, she is a teenager who spent 2 years of her life in prison. In her head, she is 16 years old. She thinks she hates Ba and all the tech giant mafia gangs that are in cahoots, or acting in collusion with Beijing officials, as she puts it. But speaking with her aunt, to whom she confides much more than to the rest of her family, she realises that she does not know if she likes Ba or if she hates him.
She works in Taka’s lab, where she will have the opportunity to see Ba in a different light: a vulnerable and gritty patient, struggling for his life, afraid to die.
Simone ends up hearing about Pierre, to whom a newspaper article in Le Parisien is devoted. She understands that he is in contact with “augmented” patients. Patients like him. She wants to meet with him, and is even more motivated to revolutionise the French conservative bioethics laws, with the help of Pierre.
While she dreams of making the revolution in Paris, and why not a love story with an outcast (a rebel with a cause like her) in full romantic Paris, she works within Taka’s lab on CAR-T cells and liquid biopsy against cancer. Ba follows her work without her knowing it. Simone develops a collaboration with the Pasteur Institute (Eligo Bioscience). That’s it, she can finally go and study in Paris! She wants to do research at the Pasteur Institute.
But first things first. She must start at the bottom of the ladder, and find a room in Paris, which is not an easy task. Then Pierre asks for her help. Pierre, whose friend Clément, the French Doppelgänger of African dictator Khari Bounda, is in trouble with the Chinese government, which accuses him of espionage in Africa on behalf of the Americans. How ironic! Pierre and his friend Clément in reality help Chinese engineers who are working in Africa. The goal is of course to overthrow the dictator, and this is precisely what the Beijing officials dislike, according to their principle of non-interference in the affairs of other States. Moreover, the Beijing authorities mistake Clément for Bounda, and warn him of the danger: an identity thief is trying to overthrow the regime by coup d’état. Thief’s name is Clément Durand, he is French. Simone tells the story to her aunt Michelle who can pull strings and settles amicably with the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia, as well as with the US Embassy in Malaysia and Paris. The latter offers a job position to Clément; Beijing authorities of course are not particularly happy about this initiative.
Then, a thunderclap in a clear sky, while everything was pretty much honkey dory, Simone well settled in her first year of studies in Paris. She blackmails the French government: she will denounce the exactions and identities of French surgeons who have been involved in organ trafficking in China, if the Matignon government does not amend its legislation on the “augmented” patients, enabling them to become full citizens. As a consequence of her niece’s action, Michelle Yeoh is summoned by the French Embassy in Singapore and is asked to make her niece listen to reason, before either the Americans or the Chinese throw her back in prison…
Nono is quickly going through Koba’s storyboard, and the digital drawings he’d been asking for, to prepare for the crowdfunding campaign. He reads the whole thing a couple of times. Pierre, the French outcast, an augmented patient, sees and knows it all. Simone. Her complicated relationship with Chinese tech giant founder Ba. Her famous auntie, Michelle Yeoh. Ba calls Simone Salambô. The 48 year-old zillionaire seems to be in love with the 18 year-old troublemaker student. And all the muy caliente, wikiLeaks-like stuff. He thought for a moment. Simone was obviously very intelligent. She could very well be an augmented patient, indeed. Apparently, she wasn’t even aware of that. Now, if doctors and tech giants were going to fall in love with, or be fascinated by, or try to take advantage from augmented patients, this was none of his business. Unless it would all happen on (or run through) the Facebook platform, of course. Maybe at some point such patients would be seen as a danger to society, with secret services from various countries trying to kill them? What did Ba have in mind? Maybe Nono should touch base with Taka, Ba’s oncologist? Of course, in the manga as written and drawn by Koba, all real names had been concealed, but Nono’s AI could de-anonymise the whole thing. Koba’s Germaine was, in real life, Simone. And Chiang Kh’Soon was Ba. Taka’s lab had access to this A.I. program, in theory. But the likelihood of somebody in Taka’s lab using the A.I. to de-anonymise the fictional characters in some Japanese manga was almost non-existent. Nono had sold his A.I.(an upgraded version of it) to Facebook half a year ago, by the way. And had donated most of the money to Taka’s lab. “The blurring frontier”… The terminology was inadequate, in his opinion. It was a revolution. Pierre had told him that he had been suffering from a crippling depression for a long time, as a result of his “superpowers”, which enabled him to communicate via telepathy with patients like him, but also foresee their near future with a high degree of accuracy. Pierre knew it only too well. One of the first haunting vision he had was Marion, a stunningly beautiful girl who was totally unknown to him, dead by drug overdoses, which happened exactly 18 months after he had the ill-omen vision. The first “augmented” patient he had tried to communicate with, by telepathy. An outcast like him. A young, intelligent and beautiful girl, who could never accept that due to her intelligence, she had been declared unfit for work and citizenship by French laws. Pierre had tried everything to save Marion. How much longer would he need to fly in the face of law to survive? Why? Should he write about his fellow patients, Simone, Patricia, Clément, Marion, and the others? How many of them? Were they the first of many more to come? Was his brain fit to handle many more? Doctors had a duty of secrecy about their patients. But how about him? He had no such duty. What was legally forbidden in France would be encouraged in China. What if a majority of Alzheimer’s patients in the US became “augmented”? What was being done for epilepsy could probably also be done for Alzheimer’s. Today, there were only a few of them. But how about tomorrow? How about disparities among various countries in the legislation? Nono had listened to Pierre as he was telling him about his feelings. And to his questions, too. Of course, he had no answers… Not yet.
"Neuroethics, which is just beginning to become structured, will become a major topic for politicians in the 21st century."Koba’s manga was called:
“The Augmented Patient Will See You Now.”
Catherine Coste
MITx 7.00x, 7.QBWx, 7.28x1–2 certified
Teacher and Member of the Walking Gallery of Health Care, founded by US activist Regina Holliday
Table of Contents:
Episode 1 of Season 2: Your DNA Will See (and Mutate) Your Credit Card Now
Episode 2 of Season 2: The Bitcoin That Pulled the Double Helix Apart
Episode 3 of Season 2: Kabuki Theatre and Desktop Epigenetics
Episode 4 of Season 2: Tenjin and TenGene
Episode 5 of Season 2: TenGene, Gene-i-us and a thousand planets in between
Episode 6 of Season 2: The Re:Creators Fault Line and the Epigenetic of Worldwide Middle Class
Episode 7: The Methylation of Money
Episode 8: “Biology has gone digital. Time to learn about it.”
Episode 9: Year of The Earth Dog
Episode 10: (Zebra-) Crossing The Rubicon
Episode 11: The Chinese Student Will See You Now
Episode 12: The 11th Commandment(s)
For Season 1 of The French Tech Comedy (all episodes), see here.
