GenEdits: The Human Company

Day Two: The Center

Day 2

The day before delivery. This is the day GenEdits takes the neurological information from each specimen, and designs a program around it for optimization of genetic harvest yield. Each specimen is designed to be exactly what GenEdits wants them to be, and this process begins with personality. The woman in grey sat at her terminal and waited for the diagnostic to complete for 23.

“Specimen 23 personality customization- complete. Specimen is categorized as “Photographer” and has matching personality requirements.” As she submitted the file and stood to begin specimen 24, the woman in white emerged from the door in the wall holding a stack of papers. She set the papers down on her desk and walked over to 25. Leaning over the glass front she peered into the pod to inspect the child within. Without looking away, as though mesmerized by the appearance and design, she said

“They made her so unique, why do you think they chose this style? It’s not like anything I've made”. The woman in grey kept her eyes on her work, not wanting to divulge that it was she herself that gave the specimen those unique traits. She answered

“You know how they are in the design department, always trying out something new and edgy.” She tried to stay focused on the task at hand, but hurried through specimen 24 just to get to 25. She felt somehow connected to the specimen, even though after tomorrow she would never see nor think about it again.

“Specimen 24 personality customization- complete. Specimen is categorized as “Sculptor” and has matching personality requirements.” She walked to the computer to file the paperwork for 24, all the time thinking about the next part of the process. A part which she dreaded, and the only thing about this function she disliked. She tried to put it out of her head for now, focusing on the current task.

“Specimen 25 personality customization. Primary function not found.” This was normal, as malfunctioning pod specimens rarely have a primary function. She continued down the list through the desired personality traits GenEdits had selected. Kindness, work ethic, shyness, down the list until every trait was input. When she got to the last column, the filter was blank. Not wanting to take two risks in one cycle, she left the trait blank in the system and proceeded to complete the step.

“Specimen 25 personality customization- complete. Specimen is categorized as “Painter” and has matching personality requirements.” She walked to the computer and hesitated before entering the final sheet. There was no avoiding it now, the final and most difficult part of the process; Molding techniques.

Selecting molding techniques was not as easy as selecting which literature class the specimen will take. It was an excruciating process, one which neither of the women particularly enjoyed. Molding techniques were the methods used to foster growth in the specimens. Each specimen category had a corresponding technique, and none were pleasant. The “GenEdits Professional Genetic Editors Manual” states that “Greatness is born of pain. In a society where there is no pain from which to grow, we must create it.”. This was the GenEdits philosophy- create the greatness that was lost in the great extinction and profit from it. Each specimen had a personally tailored horror through which they had to live. This was determined through extensive neurological stimulation and projection mapping; the process would find out what you feared and make you experience it. Knowing this made the women grateful they had not been unlucky enough to bear a special gene. This was a secret closely kept within GenEdits ranks, and the general population had no desire to know the truth as long as they kept producing newer and better genes. Each specimen will endure unending pain, and will then have the source of that pain wiped from their memory. None retain knowledge of the program or of their life previous to being sold, nor do they retain knowledge of each other.

GenEdits automatically assigns each category with a program, and it was the job of the two women to input that selected program. As the woman in grey prepared to begin the input process, the woman in white approached the specimen pods. She looked carefully into each one, pouring over the information in her mind once again as to which specimen carried which traits. After looking into the last, she walked back to the woman in grey and gave a reassuring look before departing back through the door. The woman in grey was alone once more to finish her work, and after completing this section would be ready for delivery day.

She began to input the information GenEdits provided, each download taking less than 30 seconds per specimen. She had stopped looking at the program specifics long ago, as each one was more terrible than the last, but something today was different and she felt the need to look. At specimen 15 she looked at the program specifics- “Disabled at 12 by baseball bat. Incurable disease at 20. Loss of eyesight.” Specimen 15 was categorized as a writer, and this was his intended program. After completion, all memory and ailments would be removed, and he would go on to live life as a genetic masterpiece for sale at the benefit of GenEdits. Only 50% of specimens complete this program, and the other 50% are harvested for usable genetics. She couldn’t bear to read any more and turned away in disgust. She had to remind herself that those who couldn’t complete were not worthy of the second chance GenEdits had given them, and she once again began installation in ignorance.

GenEdits had discovered not only gene editing, but memory editing as well. While unable to delete memories in permanence, GenEdits was able to repress them in such a way that it was considered permanent. If you didn’t like how a first date went, get it edited. When the user actively tries to remember the truth, a serum is administered via a memory implant to reimplement the repression technology. As with all things GenEdits, this tech comes with a price and a consequence. Each memory suppressed is a few units lost, and GenEdits has an active view of your neurological function through the implant. Meaning they can see everything you see, hear everything you hear, know where you are at all times, and most of the population pays them to do so. GenEdits has backed up information on every living human and every harvested human in the past 500 cycles, using it for further research and development.

As the woman in grey finished the final download on 25, she heaved a deep sigh and walked back to her desk. She sat and pondered what the next cycle would bring; the previous one had not a single unordinary thing. She moved toward the sliding door in the wall, and as it opened she paused for a moment. What would delivery day bring for the specimens? How many will survive? Will 25? She pushed these thoughts away and disappeared through the door.