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The Terminator

© Thomas James Martin

Science fiction writer, Kurt Vonnegut, wrote a comic novel back in the '70's called "Galapagos." As I remember the theme of the book is that a kind of scientifically manipulated isotope of water called "Ice 9" is gradually taking over the world, rendering ordinary water completely useless. In the novel the human race perishes for want of water except for a small remnant of souls surviving on the Galapagos Islands. Vonnegut drips irony here, as Darwin drew broadly upon his observations of flora and fauna on these south Pacific islands to formulate much of his theory of evolution.

As I recall the narrator of the novel muses that perhaps the intellect ultimately does not insure the survival of the species, and, may, in fact have put humankind at a disadvantage. The point Vonnegut makes is that reason by itself is too linear and limited; unable to deal with the real world which is most assuredly quite curvilinear and unpredictable.

Every time I read another article about genetic engineering, I remember Vonnegut's novel and shudder. Never have I shivered more than when I read yet another article about the so called "Terminator" seed. For those of you who have not heard about the "Terminator," you have a real "treat" in store. The development and patenting of the Terminator definitely and horribly shows that science fiction cannot keep up with reality in the new millennium.

A few years ago an American cotton seed company announced that, jointly with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), it had received a patent on a technique that genetically disables the capacity of plants to produce seeds that will germinate. The patent, US Patent No. 5,723,765, is entitled "Control of Plant Gene Expression." One news report described this patent in the following way:

"The patent broadly covers plants and seed, both transgenic and conventional, of all species for a system designed to allow control of progeny seed viability without harming the crop. The principal application of the technology will be to control unauthorized planting of seed of proprietary varieties. . ."

In other words, it is a patent for a method of biogenetic engineering that turns off the reproductive processes of plants so that the seed produced by the plant is sterile. Farmers who use this seed would not be able to collect seed from their own crops for the following year's planting. Thus, they would have to buy new seed every season.

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