208 - The Man2Man Flop

When MAT began to spread in the first decades of the 22nd century, Gov Q had, in fact, prepared the terrain for such propagation. Genetic manipulations on nonhumans making them more biologically compatible with humans had begun long before MAT, starting with the breeding of cattle, sheep and other similar species. In some cases, the goal was to produce milk with the same characteristics as human breast milk, with serious consequences for the physical well-being of the animals. Then there were the more substantial transformations of many nonhuman classes, modifications that aimed to produce cells, tissues, organs and whatever was biologically necessary to cure or simply improve and prolong the lives of humans. These technologies were, of course, reserved for those who could afford it. Everything accelerated with the Crispr-Cas9 technology. A tool vulgarly called "genetic scissors," later refined and further simplified. This process generated a large variety and quantity of transgenic animals known as "minushumans" or -H, due to the presence of human DNA within their genetic makeup. In the chaos caused by Gaia's sickness, control and traceability of many transgenic hybrids were lost. Some of them fell sterile due to the manipulations, others returned to the wild and reproduced uncontrollably, spreading their genetic variations. In many cases, distinguishing between transgenic and nontransgenic nonhumans became difficult as individuals of the same species, genetically modified for different reasons, interbred, giving rise to new hybrids. As time passed, the first transgenic nonhumans remote in our collective memory, no one really cared about a large number of these untraced hybrids any longer. But it was the transgenic -H who were first drawn to MAT, although this was only discovered later without understanding the scientific reasons for it.

Genetic modifications also affected humans, but at first they were authorized and practiced mainly for therapeutic reasons, like the treatment of hereditary illnesses and the prevention of genetic transmission. The second phase was a gray area, where the market supplied cognitive and aesthetic variations, up to and including veritable enhancements. Further biological integrations soon joined these genetic manipulations - especially of tissues and organs from suitably modified minushumans - and bionic prosthetics in general.

Obviously, with the privatization and reduction of all forms of social security and welfare, which eventually occurred in Europe as well, few could access these transformations and it was increasingly difficult to distinguish between care and "augmentation." Of course this also affected procreation and newborns. In any case, facing the complexity of the situation and the problems of managing the limited forthcoming spatial migration, ethical issues took a back seat.

Much more difficult proved augmenting the battered senses of humans by tapping into nonhumans genes. For example, since the legendary canine sense of smell is primarily neurological, human olfactory "augmentation" through dog genes is virtually impossible. In any case, no one could predict the consequences of these experiments, the only ones still formally banned in many PoSt/ates. Rumors abound that genetic editing experiments were secretly underway for the humans destined for space colonization. On the other hand, no one was sure whether there were plans for just one or two colonies: there were whispers of a colony "B", separate from the elites, which might have the privilege of terraforming Mars. There were those in Gov Q who discreetly argued that the Great Escape would be the ideal opportunity to materially separate from the subaltern classes. An attempt to justify long-distance exploitation, seeing how difficult cohabitation on the same planet with the "poor" had been. But this theoretical view was hardly feasible. Others retorted that extinction would not be total and a portion of humans would survive on Earth. In this case, it'd be possible to reorganize them, put them back to work and restart extraction as soon as possible.

In the largely developed field of genetic engineering, transhumanist philosophy predominated in Gov Q. Updating, massifying and monetizing the ancient myth that ran from the Golem through to the cyborg, the transhumanists' old dream of a superman, Malthusians and supremacists had now become the prosaic reality of H+. Of course, the developments made in the Man2Man project had already taken into account such extensive hybridizations, and Gov-related researchers believed that it would provide very fertile ground for MAT's success and help achieve their main goal. The first attempts of using MAT were staged through the platforms of techno-tycoons and the usual Gov-controlled media. In addition to the development of the more technical components, a large part of Man2Man's investment consisted in "recruiting" battalions of nonhumans who were to finally enter the loop and eventually become the new emotional and affective agents of Gov Q. This "draft" took place through selected categories of certain nonhumans who would be "educated." Special affective bots were devised, whose task was to train these nonhumans to use MAT. But things didn't go as planned. In particular, -Hs did not lend themselves to these exercises, showing signs favoring actual affective exchanges with living entities. It remained unclear whether this was due to the bots' lack of sophistication or other reasons. During testing and pre-production, the effects of haphazard propagation of MAT outside the controls of the project managers and Gov Q in general was noticed. The free network dissemination of code and access to a still developing set of MAT devices, of which many essential components came from free/open software and hardware, was a major event. Something akin to the Internet phenomenon that had occurred long before. An incredible convergence of interests and concentration of activities developed in the Autonomous Sphere, and beyond. Commons-based cooperative work succeeded in organizing itself and moving forward, creating an amazing capacity for knowledge propagation. Perhaps it was a kind of collective insight into the potential of these unprecedented cognitive extensions.

Although the Man2Man project employed a great deal of covert work, sophisticated algorithms and big data, it failed miserably as Gov's attempt to regain control of the overall situation. However, MAT and its application to nonhumans opened a new chapter in interspecies knowledge and intra-actions. Indeed, thanks to MAT, it would be possible to interact more deeply and effectively with nonhumans, not only by gathering information but also by understanding their emotions and needs.

Among other things, no one could have predicted that multispecies interchanges would allow humans to rediscover perceptions lost in the mists of time, such as the proximity of danger, and the intentions of the Other. And this threatened to disrupt everything, and perhaps even the nekomemetic pandemic.