Human Sister

acceptable, but anything else was proclaimed to be a crime against humanity. I thought, and still think, that the law is a crime against nature—a nature of which man, his aspirations, and the products of his toil are as much a part as are bees and their drive for nectar and the building of hives. But I was wrong when I failed then to appreciate that intelligent and good people disagree on this law and on many other significant issues.”
    “Is he your friend again?”
    “I see him a couple of times each year at seminars where we make a point of having lunch or tea together, but that’s all. It has never been the same between us.”
    “I don’t want that to happen to Elio and me.”
    “Exactly. I told you about my old friend for two reasons: first, so you won’t make the all-too-common mistake of thinking that people who disagree with you on issues you take to be important are necessarily less intelligent or less good than you are. Take the Human Genome Protection Act, for example. I have no doubt that without it, significant changes and stresses would have already been introduced into our civilization. Wealthier people would have, generation after generation, produced more intelligent, better-looking, stronger children. They could have and would have produced super-basketball players, super-musicians, super-mathematicians. But until our techniques became inexpensive and generally available, the vast majority of people could only have had children who were normal humans.”
    “Did you ever break the law?”
    “No. I disagreed with it. I think the law is a travesty that will be unable to hold back the forces of human curiosity and greed and the desire for better children, but I never broke it. The penalties for violating the Genome Act are severe. All babies are tested at birth, and any proved to have been genetically enhanced without prior authorization are sterilized if the modification extends to the germ line. The parents and all co-conspirators are given minimum ten-year prison sentences, and all of their personal property is confiscated. You were tested when you were born, as were your father and mother when they were born.
    “I have always abided by the Genome Act, but I can’t believe that everyone everywhere has. Genetic enhancement technology will take root somewhere, and when it does we will have a choice: mass extermination of an incipient super-race or a mass stampede to jump aboard the evolution bullet train.
    “But that’s a discussion for another day. Today, we’re concerned about whether we should keep everything about Michael secret from Elio—which brings me to my second reason for telling you about my friend. There is no doubt in my mind that he was and is an intelligent and fine man. There is no doubt in my mind, or in yours, I’m sure, that Elio is an intelligent and good boy. I’m happy that the two of you are close friends, and I don’t want to do anything to harm your relationship. But here’s the problem: Let’s suppose I’d violated the Genome Act, and suppose further that my friend had found out. Would he have turned me in?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Grandpa sighed. “Nor do I. But my guess is that he would have, for he believed that much death, misery, and destruction would result from violations of the law.”
    “But what about Elio?”
    “As I’ve said, I fully expect that he’ll grow up to be a wise and good person, but we can’t deduce from that that he’ll agree with our views on androids or on religion or on a thousand other issues. You see, honey, regardless of how close you and Elio become, there will always be some mysterious core of a wonderful other about him. Like all of us, he is too complex to ever fully understand. And one of the things we cannot know is whether he’ll become one who feels that androids are thinking, feeling, conscious beings who should be treated with love and respect, or whether he’ll feel otherwise. In either case, I hope he’ll love you and you’ll love him, but because we can’t know now what he’ll feel about the android issue, I’m afraid this secret about Michael is an unfortunate pain you will have to accept until Elio becomes more mature.”
    “When will that be? When may I tell him?”
    “Probably not until he goes to university and experiences nonhuman conscious intelligences, if there still are any around then. In the meanwhile, you can be as close to him as you want. But remember, you’ll always be a