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Hyperion August 21, 2003
the Hyperion Chronicles
“The 16th Moon of Saturn rules!”

#145 Crystal Balls


“The only thing you can be sure will stay the same is that everything you know will be different by tomorrow.”
-Carnivus Kickassius


We’ve come to Part Three on our series on upcoming Trends in society.

What’s in a name…
I think we’re going to see black become the wave of the future. Let me explain:

If you live in Whitey-Ville you might now know this, but black mothers have been creating very different and unique names for a long time. Borne out of a desire to give their children something independent, these names stand out as much as any from a foreign land.

Relatively speaking, the world has a finite and limited number of last names. In China, there is a single last name with over 128 million people attached to it, and in Norway, 4 last names make up 81% of the population! With humanity growing as it is, last names will become decreasingly effective in identifying us.

Enter the renaissance of the first name. Millennium-old stalwarts like Joseph, Michael, Mary, and Latifah aren’t going away, but you’re going to see a sonic boom in the originality of first names, as they become a harbor for us to cling to in this increasingly mass-produced world.


De plane! De plane!
Tattoos are here for good, and they will soon lose their social stigma. I’m pretty sure their popularity will wane once the fad status wears off and it becomes more normal, but it is in part this increased social acceptance that will ensure the survival of the inky art.

Tattoos have always been a part of culture, but in Western society, usually on the fringe. Even today, a tattoo can hurt someone trying to get a job, fit in a social scene, or in many other places.

Most of this isn’t innate behavior, but rather because the people who run society see tattoos as taboo; representing exotic and dangerous ideas. These people will not hold power forever, though, and as the new ranks swell, you’re going to get an increased tolerance for body art. Even if the new captains of industry don’t possess tattoos themselves, they will have grown up in a culture where it is permitted.

I think with this new openness you’ll see tattoos become easily removable. (To a lesser extent, as body piercing becomes less physically scarring, you’ll see this become more mainstream too.) Removable tattoos may seem like an oxymoron, but tattoos were always just a symbol. In days of yore they were a brand or ownership. More recently, they were to show people belonged (biker gangs, military outfits, sewing circles, etc.), and of course the quintessential act of rebellion. Now, many people get tattoos because they like them or the feeling that comes from them. It feels like a permanent record of something, and in a world where the only thing you can be sure will stay the same is that everything you know will be different by tomorrow, I think you’re going to see people cling to that semblance of permanence.


Following the Blueprint
This next trend will upset some people, but I’m not arguing morality here; merely the next logical step, so you self-righteous fist shakers—on both sides—can wait a little while before going back on the hunt.

The 20th Century has seen similar paths for several “movements,” such as Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Gay Rights, and the breakdown of stigma about interracial relationships:

At first it’s never discussed in open society. Then, the subject is brokered (as always, in the Art World first), in one of two contexts: either as an abomination with negative consequences, or as dark comedy. Meanwhile, across the pond, in Europe the issue gains ground, as those countries tend to be more progressive and liberal on such matters. Soon you start to get traction on the fringes of society. In today’s age, that means the Tabloids, the Daytime talk shows, and so forth.

At some point the issue goes mainstream, with much controversy, and maybe things go backward for a bit, but the wall has been knocked down, and it’s only a matter of time. If I’m right about this societal blueprint, then the next issue to make it big will be Incest.

Look at the above scenario. Incest has fit this to a tee. At first, it wasn’t discussed, and then, when movies, books, and television broached the subject, it was only with either humor or horror. Then you saw people on Jerry Springer, while Europe had already more or less jumped in (although on this subject, they’ve never quite held the taboo).

That’s where we are now. But it won’t stop there. As I’ve mentioned several times (in this series alone), this is a world that gets more and more connected, but despite that (or maybe because of it), people feel more and more isolated. The freedom of choice that is the modern relationship has not as yet brought an increase in happiness that I can see. Maybe it will happen one day as people figure out a more successful way to choose mates than have their parents do it. But, in the meantime, some people are going to seek out these alternative relationships (like I mentioned Wednesday), and Incest is one of them.

I primarily see this happening with brothers and sisters, or other horizontal relationships. Parent/child incest has a ways to go before anyone this side of N.A.M.B.L.A. considers it anything but an abomination. But with siblings of similar ages who have the same experiences, and already know each other, this will become a trend, and here is why:

The argument they’ll make is that they are both consenting adults, and not hurting anyone else. They’ll say they don’t plan to have kids (the obvious roadblock), and they just want to find some happiness. Odds are they have gone through incredible trauma in the mode of abuse (people who aren’t damaged don’t usually seek these things out), and they have a connectedness, even if it’s only that they both know what it’s like to be molested by their father.

The people who advocate this will say that 50 years ago a black man and a white woman would be lynched for being together, and 30 years ago a gay couple didn’t fare much better. Now the interracial thing doesn’t raise nearly as many eyebrows, and while gay couples aren’t loved they are at least more mainstream. Both of these groups often have children as well. The Incest advocates will argue that they aren’t asking for kids, just the chance to be happy and love someone else. They’ll say they are adults, and not hurting you, and to leave them alone. Get mad if you want, but it’s coming.



Send in the Clones
The last trend for this series is Cloning, and to be honest, I haven’t figured out how this is going to go. What I do know, though, is that the pillars of humanity—government, religion, and society in general—need to figure out now what they are going to do now, before it’s too late.

Over a thousand years ago a religious hierarchy developed that held the Earth as the center of the universe. When Copernicus and Galileo did work proving the earth was not the center of all things but a tiny planet orbiting one of millions of stars, well, the Church went into freefall. For years they persecuted anyone promoting this new view and spent a great deal of time and energy fighting it. (One of the smartest men ever, Sir Isaac Newton, spent the last half of his life trying to disprove the theory.)

To a lesser extent, the same thing happened with Evolution and the age of the Earth. Now, I don’t want to debate that here if you don’t believe in these things, but the point is that the Church was caught flatfooted, and it took a long time (in some cases, ongoing), for the Church to formulate a strategy and decide how to integrate the new information into tenets that were so tightly set up.

Now with cloning the Church—as well as the rest of society—faces a similar problem. If cloning can happen it will; humans have spent millenniums proving that. And to clarify: we’re not talking about cloning a cell at the embryonic stage. That’s like twins. The moment they are separated they start to be different, and there is no real ethical question involved. But cloning a full sized human being?

One of the main reasons mentioned for cloning full sized people is for body parts. Say you need a heart: what better way then to clone another you, but with a good heart? This raises the question of whether the clone has rights? Are they human?

And what about holding these clones accountable? I’m a firm believer in personal choice, but I readily admit that environment also plays a huge role. If you had a 50-year-old clone, you’d have a whole lot of both. So many things would have happened to that guy, and he would have made millions of choices that also helped shape him into who he was. Could you hold responsible the clone for what he did? Would that clone have any free choice?

Most fundamentally, would a clone have a soul? I mean, forget holding them responsible for criminal behavior, do clones get to participate in an afterlife? Are they culpable for the thoughts they’d inherit? All of these and more are questions that need to be answered before this really becomes an issue. Unfortunately, they probably won’t be.


I said that was it, but I hate to leave on a downer, so let me give you a couple more. I see a trend of you becoming smarter by reading these columns (obviously, that’s already happening). I also see you becoming more popular the more you share this column with others. Finally, I see the women who send me naked pictures winning the lottery within a year. This I prognosticate.

Now, go and tell others.

Hyperion
August 21, 2003

Credits
Thanks to Laureate
Thanks to Aviendha
Thanks to Carnivus Kickassius

@2003 the Hyperion Chronicles

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