Underground Science
This is episode 16 of The French Tech Comedy, by DNA cowgirl.
Episode 1: The Science of Sakura
Episode 2: Lost in Telomere Translation
Episode 3: Feel Flee to Donate
Episode 4: Pasteurising Tech With the French Touch
Episode 5: The Newborn Symphony Project
Episode 6: The Unknown 9% of the Human Genome
Episode 7: The Apple Tech Specs Conference
Episode 8: religA.I.on
Episode 9: Hiroshima is Japan’s World Trade Center
Episode 10: Mao’s Robots
Episode 11: Zazen in the Shinkansen
Episode 12: The Last (French) Samurai
Episode 13: To Humanity and Beyond
Episode 14: The Music of Genomic Origami
Episode 15: Direct-to-consumer Ikigami Genetics
Yuki, the Japanese geisha, couldn’t sleep, she was suffering from jet lag. Nono, the French engineer working with Yuki’s brother, a bioinformatician and oncologist in Tokyo, was sleeping like a baby. So this was it. She was now in Singapore for a couple of months, with Nono. They were sharing the same apartment. And the same bedroom. She was trying to make sense of the last 6 days, but her brain was a mess of tangled wires. It had all started at the Center of Medical Innovation and Translational Research, when she was accompanying the French Tech delegation in Osaka. Yuki’s brother Taka and the group wanted the CoMIT to get involved in a communication project, in the form of a manga book. Things were a little bit awkward. The guys there were talking about Japan and its super-ageing population, and hybrid medicine — Thomas, the French Tech blogger working with the Macron government and the Tallin digital project for Europe, had never heard of it. Neither had anyone. Things did not seem to be getting anywhere. Somebody sitting next to Thomas started talking about the importance of data privacy. The manga artist who was also in the meeting, but looking as he was bored to death, started asking:
“ — Why is it so important? I mean, of course, I wouldn’t like anyone to access my medical data. Any other reason I should care about data privacy?”
Yuki started talking about direct to consumer genetics and the manga artist got bored again. Super ageing population, breast cancer, no storyline… Why was he even here in the first place?
“ — Let’s ask Mougin, the founder of that Gene-i-us startup. He is in San Francisco, right?”, said a girl in the French Tech delegation. Soon, everybody was talking in French, listening to Mougin. The rest of the people involved in the meeting was politely waiting for the conversations in French to stop, or at least for some translation. The software that was supposed to translate the conversation into Japanese, live from Skype, had started to malfunction after five minutes for some reason.
“ — I have a scenario for us, the story of a guy, a genomics buff, who one day learns that he has a clone, a mafia boss, or as an alternative, an international zillionaire. Or a samurai, involved in illegal fighting activities. He realises that after giving his genomic data for free to researchers in New York, an underground cloning market exists, based in North Korea and in the ex-soviet republics, with high-tech tanks and vats specialised in accelerated ageing, a mix of Limitless and Blade Runner. Chinese secret services, overseeing things in North Korea, have illegal killer robots.”
Yuki translated what had just been said and the manga artist looked interested. He asked her:
“ — Can you write the story?”
Yuki was going to answer:
“ — Me?!? Of course not.”
But Thomas answered on her behalf:
“ — Of course she can. And she will.”
Then, turning to Yuki:
“ — With Nono’s help, everything is possible. Remember the Last (French) Samurai?”
The team working at CoMIT looked appalled. They didn’t want to get involved in this kind of stupid-scary project. This was not how they should present science to the general public. Killer robots in North Korea and CRISPR-cas 9, illegal human cloning. Mougin thought otherwise:
“ — I beg to differ. People have to know what can happen in the near or distant future if we don’t start protecting the privacy of our medical and genetic data right now. A manga, or a video game can do the job better than anyone, better than us.” Initially, Yuki suggested they worked on a dictionary, with some kind of Hello Kitty illustrations. Luckily, the manga artist — the only one late for the meeting — hadn’t yet arrived. The rest of the visit at CoMIT unfolded as planned. The local team of scientists explained that their goal was “to promote open innovation in order to research and develop next-generation drugs and innovative medical technologies, to promote translational research involving new, innovative technologies, to disseminate those technologies to companies, and to promptly make those technologies commercially viable in order to provide society with advanced medical care.” As the French delegation departed, they all decided they would keep in touch and see where this manga project was going. After all, the Japanese team was welcoming projects that would reach out to the public and media. Communication meant more money for local innovative scientific projects like theirs.
Once they were done at CoMIT, the group strolled a little bit in the streets of Osaka, then they gathered in one of Osaka’s myriads of small restaurants, around Semba station — Osaka’s AppStore nearby and its interesting prices had become the French Tech headquarters or hub — Thomas, Yuki, Taka (and soon Nono on the phone) discussed with the manga artist what could be done. Thomas’s wheelchair was welcome almost everywhere, especially in numerous restrooms and on the train, in restaurants, museums. Nono and Mougin were as thick as thieves, and the manga drawing activity soon began. There were ideas designed on the back of an envelope.
“ — Special bonus: the market of physical enhancement and modifications, thanks to a combination of injections — vitamins boosted by CRISPR-Cas 9 — and DNA-RNA sequences that were hacked from the web (thank you open-access databases). The same goes for veterinarians and animal producers who will engineer trans-species modifications.”
Yuki was trying to follow the conversation and arguments, but obviously science-fiction wasn’t her strong suit. She had heard of Blade Runner but never seen the movie. Limitless was unknown to her, as was Game of Thrones.
“ — Game of Thrones is not as well known in Japan as it is in the US,” explained Nono to Mougin. The following week-end, Yuki had seen Blade Runner and Limitless with Nono. She found the first frightening but interesting, and the second one mostly frightening.
“ — Would you say it is frightening in a useless way, or in a useful one?”, asked Nono.
“ — I’m not sure. Probably in a useful way.” She couldn’t decide, though. And now, she was sitting on her bed in Singapore, alone (since Nono was asleep) and afraid. Nono would be busy all day at Facebook, and she had taken leave from work at the K-Ballet studio in Fukuoka Tenjin. She would have to find a new position as a yoga teacher in Singapore. Chinese people here were so different from most of her fellow Japanese. Would she fit in? Nono was always happy to take on new projects, jumping on the bandwagon, although he already had his hands full with many other projects. Yuki was not good at multitasking. She was already afraid of having to teach yoga classes and work with a Japanese manga artist on the French Tech project. On top of that, the dangerous multitasking would have to happen in such a vibrant megalopole, where she had never been before. When Nono was around, she was having fun. He knew how to appease her. But the problem was that he was hardly ever around. Like Taka... She would have to busy herself on her own. Taka had said that one day, we would be able to clone people, or at least human biological parts. This wasn’t good news. She found it super scary. But what could be done now? For starters, focusing on emerging issues and early warning, in addition to describing the current situation. She decided Mougin, the French founder of Gene-i-us startup, was right. This sounded like a good plan.
Catherine Coste
MITx 7.00x, 7.QBWx, 7.28x1–2 certified
Member of the Walking Gallery of Health Care, founded by US activist Regina Holliday
