Time-Travel Television by Ginn Sherry;Leitch Gillian I.;

Author:Ginn, Sherry;Leitch, Gillian I.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Altering Human Evolution

Moving along at geological scales does not allow one to act on the destiny of individuals or nations anymore but instead allows one to directly alter the fate of whole species. Whereas Primeval does not explore the biological taboo of resurrecting extinct species,[13] as in Jurassic Park, it nonetheless explores the ramifications of another of the most fundamental ethical challenges: the possibility of altering human evolution.

Attempts to voluntarily control human evolution, to push it in a certain direction, can be seen in various science-fiction settings, from centuries-long breeding plans (e.g., the Bene Gesserit in Frank Herbert’s Dune) to genetic engineering (as in Dougal Dixon’s Man After Man). The ethical challenges offered by time travel in Primeval are more drastic: the protagonists do not try to simply modify the human species but instead attempt either to eradicate it or to ensure its survival.

Based on the firm conviction that humanity is destroying the Earth’s environment, Helen Cutter sets for herself the goal of eradicating the human species. More than a genocide, Helen attempts to do a speciocide. Using her knowledge of paleontology, Helen locates the site of the first-known representatives of the hominids, and finding them via a series of anomalies, murders them in order to eliminate humans from the future.[14] Neither the act nor the decision leading to it are mundane: when pouring the poison in the water, we can see Helen’s only moment of humanity, as she almost cries for a few seconds. In a rather ironic twist for a person claiming to eradicate humans in order to keep the purity of the Earth and allow a peaceful and undisturbed evolution, Helen inaugurates the “Reign of Man” with a mass murder and by an act of deliberate pollution. This type of dichotomist moral view of doing “an evil for a good” is rather common. However, the reasoning underlying it is obviously fallacious. Believing that without humans other species would be able to evolve in peace is a purely speciocentrist view, as any valid ecosystem must have predators in order to regulate the population of herbivores and allow the system to regenerate itself.

Not being able to eradicate humans by acting in the past, Helen Cutter resorts in a last attempt to acting in the future. She thus fools the scientist Philip Burton into creating artificial anomalies,[15] knowing that it will result in conditions such that the extinction of the human species would be likely. Here Helen reaches a level of absolute contradiction, when the means she intends to use bypass the goal she first had: eradicating the human species was justified to save the Earth and allow other species to evolve “in peace.” However, rendering the Earth sterile in the process of human eradication could hardly be considered a proper way to reach this goal.

This pinpoints the notion that whatever the reasons one claims to hold while altering the time line, the true motives are, in fact, purely selfish. While appearing at a first glance to be utterly good, the actions of Matt Anderson are not that much more altruistic.

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