Strange Sequences puts audiences face-to-face with fictional scenarios torn from tomorrow’s headlines and asks them to make a difficult choice.
Sample scenarios touch on how climate change might create a two-tier GMO food hierarchy, or the ethical implications of altering the immune systems of wildlife populations to prevent the spread of disease, or inducing changes in children to increase creativity and memory with the potential of elevated risks of Alzheimer’s in old age.
INTERACTION: Visitors were invited
to press the button to print a near-future scenario, then consider and discuss the options, and share their responses by placing them into one of the four designated bins.
Visitors are challenged to see past simple solutions and question their assumptions about what is ethical and where society is headed. Whether attendees ponder them alone or debate them with a group, these provocative but near-future scenarios surprised, concerned, and challenged visitors to think critically about what they believe is moral, what is justifiable, what is appropriate, and what is unacceptable.
Over the course of the exhibition, the voting bins serve as a living infographic of where the community stands with regards to bioethics and new technology—in this case opinions are skewed conservative, so far.
// AN EXAMPLE SCENARIO //
What if we make our kids smarter but put them at risk for dementia?
Scientists have identified a series of genetic regions that can be edited to produce major increases in creative thinking and information recall via a CRISPR modified vaccination given to human subjects at age 5. These individuals have shown marked increase in academic performance and earning potential with almost zero observed downsides. However, some experts argue that these changes might lead to increased risk of Alzheimer’s Disease as an older adult. Current test subjects have only reached 25 years in age and these claims would require another 50-75 years to verify.
A) Roll it out. This procedure would be a great boon for society. Push for funding to inoculate all babies with this intervention. We’ll figure out a way to prevent dementia symptoms once people get to that age
B) Let people choose. Allow parents to opt-into this intervention as long as their doctor explains the risks.
C) Keep doing research. Monitor the current test subjects for another 10 years and allow trials of new interventions under strict FDA testing methods
D) Wait and see. Stop current research and wait out the current cohort of human subjects to ensure the increased risk of Alzheimer’s or any other issues are not observed before moving forward.
Each of the 6 machines were programmed to print one of 10 bioethical scenarios at random, giving visitors a glimpse of our collective futures.
Over the course of a year, the piece started with sketches, a cardboard prototype, several wood prototypes, finally culminating in the finished boxes, certainly an exercise in experimenting with materials, techniques, technology and process. Much like the scientific process of experimenting with genetic editing with the use of CRISPR, there was much trial and error, to find the right combination of elements that worked, just right.
An exploration of biotechnology and bioethics, this piece is a participatory fortune telling booth. For visitors, who perhaps had not ever considered these aspects of our future, it’s an opportunity to understand and weigh in on issues that will undoubtedly impact us all.
The guts of the piece—the raspberry pi, wires, transistors and connections—are laid bare through the plexiglass, as a reflection of the work’s intent, to make the complex issues of tomorrow a little more transparent today.
