Amygdala Hijack - A Genetic Engineering Sci-Fi Story of Impending Dystopia

EP. 3 - GEEDEE

MOLLI BEGAN TEXTING LATE in the evening after she finished her usual prep for the next day's activities at the bakery.

Molli: "Peter did you see the text from Ears?"

Peter: "Yeah, scanned it. Didn't read thru."

Molli: "Read again. Geedee underground is buzzing. He wants to meet at studio tomorrow."

Peter: "Fine. Urgent?"

Molli: "He thinks so."

The next morning, Peter prepared to ride his bike to his favorite coffee hangout at Harvard Square. Despite the increasing numbers of augmented transhumans on the streets, or "varints" as they were commonly known, the Square was heavily policed and experienced few problems. This was no longer the case in the downtowns of many cities across the globe where varint factions were increasingly enmeshed in social disruption.

Despite the rising dangers on the streets, Peter carried no weapons. If he was ever was confronted by an angry varint, he planned to use his podcast as his defense of their kind. In his mind, the podcast proved he was a proponent of the expanding, amorphous definition of humanity that varints represented.

The emerging panorama of varints were generally characterized in three major groups. 'Clippers' used gene editing and gene drive technologies to augment their bodies. Most augmentations were simple and relatively cosmetic, including changes to skin and hair color.

Other augmentations were far more complex and impactful. Clipper tech quickly advanced to enable major nervous system and musculoskeletal changes, such as added brain capacity or improved strength or height. And at the extremes were the rarer but more controversial modifications like the integration of mammalian, animal, and even plant DNA into a person's genetic code.

'Chippers' were often lightly augmented, at best, but extensively integrated with Internet-centric and AI-controlled systems. Transdermal microchips, first used extensively in pets, gradually advanced into complex systems of components embedded directly within the human body. Touted initially as an upgrade from handheld cellphones, these systems quickly came into widespread use despite fears that such use provided unfair, unequal, rapid access to data and information.

Opponents of such chipper tech feared it might enslave the user to cloud-based systems or the human masters who controlled the systems. Proponents argued that people with any type of interface to unfettered, coercive social media and search AI algorithms were equally as susceptible, irrespective of the access technology used.

The third broad group of augmenters were the grippers. Grippers used metallic and mechanical component augmentations, typically fused into their bones, sinews, and flesh.

Grippers were aptly named, given the first implementations of this tech to enhance hand strength for labor-intensive jobs. Once grippers saw how easy it was to augment their musculoskeletal systems with metallics and machines, many began hybridizing even further. These hybridized 'mechs' as they were commonly called, also might implement other augmentations such as clipper muscular embellishments to complement their metallic infrastructures.

With few exceptions, varint modifications were almost always visible ones. This made them easy targets and social pariahs among non-varint, unaugmented humans. And with a burgeoning array of augmentations available at declining prices, non-varints understood they were on a fast path to becoming the minority in cities across the globe. For many, augmentation for any reason was an insult to their religious or moral belief systems.

By the mid-2030's, anger between non-varints and varints had reached a fever pitch. Fueled by the profit rhetoric of numerous, divisive media organizations, their animosities continued to be amplified.