I don’t remember when I first saw the movie Gattaca, but it was well after the Human Genome Project had started its work. It seemed then, and still does, that somebody would discriminate based on what your genes contain. Reading this recent article on Ars Technica reminded me of this great movie. I think I have some conspiracy theorist traits. Maybe it’s genetic. In any case, I could always see the argument being made as possible though not necessarily probable. Where before, I thought NASA could do something similar, it is much easier to see how insurance companies would try to skirt any such law if passed. In a rational world, an insurance company would try to keep costs down by factoring in additional “risks”. That doesn’t necessarily mean they would deny coverage for a condition, but certainly raise premiums. I think John Timmer makes some good points on why this is a slippery slope, which usually means it is a bad idea. The problem is that even if every individual at an insurance company realized that it was a bad idea to discriminate, which wouldn’t happen, it is too easy to deny that the problem would affect them personally and thus the biases would still creep in to underwriting and policies. Without the personal connection to customers, the customers are just numbers in a database, and thus it is more difficult for a sense of ethics to enter in. Of course it is wrong to treat a person with less than the best I can offer, but is it wrong to treat a number this way? In any case, I have read the earlier version of the bill that was passed by the Senate and hope that it does become law. As usual though, I expect this to be the beginning of a conversation, not the end.

Unfortunately, I don’t have 20/20 vision. Fortunately, more options are opening up all the time from RadK therapy to Lasik. However, I think want to bypass that and go straight for the Bionic Eyes. Granted, they aren’t perfected yet, but I am eagerly awaiting the days when something like this provides not only basic vision that most people (thought not all) take for granted, but advanced abilities such as infrared vision or visual overlays. Until then, I’ll be content to look at the pretty pictures with my Mark 1.0 eyeballs the way the God intended.