“It’s 2059, and the Rich Kids Are Still Winning: DNA tweaks won’t fix our problems”

Submitted by LT_Sargent on Fri, 08/23/2019 - 19:37
Title“It’s 2059, and the Rich Kids Are Still Winning: DNA tweaks won’t fix our problems”
Year for Search2019
AuthorsChiang, Ted(b. 1967)
Secondary TitleThe New York Times
Date PublishedMay 27, 2019 with well over 200 comments
ISBN Number978-1-5344-4959-6
KeywordsChinese-American author, Male author
Annotation

The story reflects on a future experiment to improve the intelligence of poor children by modifying their DNA. While it is successful in that IQ is raised, it fails to make substantive difference because the entire U.S. social order favors the wealthy.
Additional Publishers

 Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction Volume 1. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (New York: Saga Press, 2020), 123-26, with an editor’s note on 123. 
URLhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/opinion/ted-chiang-future-genetic-engineering.html?searchResultPosition=1
Info Notes

One of  a series of “Op-Eds From the Future" that began with this one and has continued regularly since with most, but not all, with eutopian or dystopian elements.
Illustration

Illus. John Karborn
Holding Institutions

Online, PSt
Author Note

Chinese American author (b. 1967)
Full Text

2019 Chiang, Ted (b. 1967). “It’s 2059, and the Rich Kids Are Still Winning: DNA tweaks won’t fix our problems.” Illus. John Karborn. The New York Times (May 27, 2019). with well over 275 comments. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/opinion/ted-chiang-future-genetic-engineering.html?searchResultPosition=1. One of a series of “Op-Eds From the Future” that began with this one and has continued regularly since with most, but not all, with eutopian or dystopian elements. Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction Volume 1. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (New York: Saga Press, 2020), 123-26, with an editor’s note on 123. 

The story reflects on a future experiment to improve the intelligence of poor children by modifying their DNA. While it is successful in that IQ is raised, it fails to make substantive difference because the entire U.S. social order favors the wealthy. Chinese American author.