The Re:Creators Fault Line and the Epigenetic of Worldwide Middle Class
This is episode 6 of The French Tech Comedy, Season 2
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
For Season 1 of The French Tech Comedy (all episodes), see here.
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 presenting her Science Fair Project at school, in her class. She is doing it alone, as the rest of the team has decided the project was too weird and risky, and they would work on something else. On one rainy December morning in her Singaporean private school, she is talking alone, in front of the rest of the class. Solo presentations are not exactly her strong suit, and she remembers all too well her catastrophic encounter with TenBa tycoon in Ipoh, just a few weeks ago.
“ — I’ve been busy writing snippets of code in Swift programming language, and algorithms, for a new app I’m working on. It’s called TenGene: your DNA & medical data on your smartphone. Browse it on iTunes, own it & monetise it. I am trying to develop a patient-centric tool for patients to collect, share & monetise their medical, genomics, lifestyle, IoT data with academics & TenBa.”
“ — So you would like to work both with Apple and TenBa? Quite ambitious.”
As Simone was struggling to present her project on her own, the whole thing was becoming a dialogue between the teacher and the unfortunate student.
“ — Yes, or no. Or maybe. I don’t know. That’s not the point.”
Laughters could be heard.
“ — So what’s the point?”
“ — Genomic Precision Medicine is a data greedy kind of thing. In the US, nobody wants to share their data. Cause they are afraid of the consequences, I guess. In continental China, the government is forcing minorities to give their data, and they can then be executed for their organs if the data says they are suitable organ donors for rich strangers in need of an organ transplant. Also, on the whole, people are more willing to share their medical data in China, where payment has gone 100% digital. So I guess it is possible to work on an app to help people monetise their data and gain from it, from the medical point of view, I mean.”
“ — Wow. It sounds more like some cryptic geopolitics to me than like some science fair project. I mean, not my usual cup of tea.”
Again, laughters.
Simone decided she would share the live demo she was prepping for TenBa and Ba’s oncologist Taka. There were bits where she was coding for her app, and extracts from the Japanese anime Re:Creators. The series is about a high school student who becomes involved in a battle between several characters from manga, anime, and video games who somehow appear in the real world.
“ — We only know 2% of the human genome, from a medical point of view. What it does, its nature. 98% of the rest, and probably the whole of epigenetic, the biological commands activating and shutting down whole parts of the human genome, remain to be learned. Epic, and unheard of, data sharing will be needed, worldwide. Sounds pretty much like a job for the BATX and GAFAM to me. So, yeah, both Apple and TenBa, if that answers your question.”
“ — Interesting. But what does the buzzwordiest science fair project I’ve probably ever heard of in my two-decade-carrier as a science teacher in high school have to do with the japanese anime?”
“ — Good question, thank you for asking.”
Laughters in the classroom.
“ — Anybody heard of the anime?,” asked Simone, turning to the class.
“ — …”
“ — How many of you?,” she insisted.
“ — Come on, answer her question,” said the teacher.
Almost everybody in the class knew this anime. Most of those who knew about it enjoyed it. In her science fair presentation project, Simone was referring to episode 4 of the anime:
“ — What resonates with me is the way Meteora explains to her friends that the laws of elasticity of this world have a main characteristic: finite strain elasticity. If you put too much strain on the elasticity, our world will break apart. Here, I define the strain as the degree or level of disparities. By this, I mean that there is only a certain level of disparities that can be tolerated by our world and the laws of elasticity that govern it. In the anime, Meteora is noticing that the supernatural abilities that come from her own and her friends’ respective worlds conflict with the laws of physics in the real world. She predicts that if more creations appear and cause disorder to the real world’s common sense, the fabric of reality may be destroyed as a result. Now, I will explain how this resonates with what I want to tell you today in my presentation.”
“ — I am all ears, and so is the rest of the class, I would guess.”
The tone was ironic but this time no laughters could be heard. Meteora had probably more than just one fan in Simone’s classroom, and some of the students were starting to see the parallels between Meteora and Simone, or more likely themselves. They were all ears.
“ — If you look on various social networks, like Twitter for the US, Line in Japan, Weibo in continental China, or WeChat, etc., each country will always try to establish the top chart of science and development worldwide and tell the rest of the world how they figure themselves in the pole position. Alternatively, it can be Boston, or California leading the world according to Twitter, or Oxford on Facebook, or China on Weibo, or Tokyo on Line, and so on and so forth. But, as they say…
… Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.”
“ — So what are the facts?,” asks the teacher.
“ — In my humble opinion, Re:Creators nails it. The fault line is running across the whole world, dividing people in two main categories. It’s like when they say: The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
“ — But that’s science fiction; not science,” objected the teacher.
“ — Let me be more specific about this fault line. It separates two worlds, or two different agendas. Again, each of these two agendas cannot characterise a whole country. It’s more like the two of them are competing in each and every country, with various outcomes, and this is putting a serious strain on the elasticity of our world. To the point that it might break apart, one day. The first agenda seems to characterise Europe, but it can be found in the rest of the world. Here are the characteristics of the first agenda:
Innovation — all that is being invented in the capitalist countries in the 60s and 70s is found in the form of ersatz in the Soviet Union. As a reminder, the Concordski plane crashed like some piece of shit. The Europeans are the dumbfounded GAFAM (Google Apple Facebook Amazon Microsoft) customers which they try without success to copy but they understand nothing.
Finance — the Cold War was lost with the Bretton Woods agreements in 1944. The dollar became the world’s reference currency and Bretton Woods gave birth to institutions that governed global trade for the benefit of US banks: IMF, WTO, GATT. The Americans created value and the Soviets scarcity. In France it is believed that work is an available stock that can be distributed and Europe does not adopt any means of sovereignty. Nobody understands algorithmic crypto-currencies (blockchain). The euro will look like the ruble fast enough. GAFAM and BATX hold global value creation and bitcoin will become the usage and reference currency of the digital applications economy. The signal will come from China when it stops buying US debt to impose its cryptocurrency, which is already ready.
Mentalities — the French are captive clients of the GAFAM as the Soviets were clients of the capitalist countries. Their society is frozen in deadly doctrines and neglect. GAFAM and BATX invent a world that they use but that they do not understand.” (see episode Tenjin and TenGene)
Simone continued:
“ — Then, we have the second agenda. It is common to the world of BATX and GAFAM. Again, it can be found everywhere. And again, think of the strain. Here is how the second agenda can be characterised:
After phase one, the CRISPR-gene-editing tool Nobel Prize, will come phase two: we will successfully treat the first genetic disease in less than 5 years, and in 10 years, we will treat them all. Phase three: we will start in parallel to ‘enhance’ our abilities by improving our genes, and 20 years later comes phase four: some kind of genetic human trafficking, linked to enhancement, will occur — dark labs will emerge — , and in less than 30 years we will get to see the very first hybrid mixing man and animal, like in this anime that is airing now on NHK (Japanese National TV): The Ancient Magus Bride. In parallel, see how information technologies bind to the biological, implant themselves in our bodies etc.” (See episode: Your DNA Will See — and Mutate — Your Credit Card Now)
Then Simone concluded:
“ — The two agendas represent two utterly different worlds, both worlds are not compatible and thus cannot co-exist. Human beings are only very reluctant to leave their zone of comfort, because this is the world they know, they live in. At this point it is highly uncertain that both worlds can and will co-exist without putting our reality under excessive strain, to the breaking point. This uncertainty I call the fault line, right? It can be observed in each and every country. My only hope is that everywhere, in each country, middle class will rewrite the laws, or the epigenetic, of this world. If not, the fault line will extend and worsen and this world will break apart. I want my app, TenGene, to be a bridge between the people in both worlds. The world of agenda one and the world of agenda two. A safely built bridge that can help middle class transition and that will reduce the strain.”
Everybody was listening intently. No laughters about some far-fetched story of a worldwide fault line that somehow seemed to interact with the “epigenetic of worldwide middle class”, could be heard in the classroom.
Overanxious auntie Michelle had 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 Ba. She’d compiled a 10 minutes extract for him to see, and a question:
“ — What do you think?”
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
