“This time, it will be different,” quips the mad scientist. “I’m not one of those idiots who don’t know what they’re messing with. I’m an enlightened individual who’s going to accomplish what’s never been done before!” Or so the thinking goes. We see these characters all the time in stories. But increasingly, we’re seeing this mad scientist attitude in the real world. Why is life imitating the very art that tried to warn us?

“Rotten?” said Uncle Andrew with a puzzled look. “Oh, I see. You mean that little boys ought to keep their promises. Very true: most right and proper, I’m sure, and I’m very glad you have been taught to do it. But of course you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys—and servants—and women—and even people in general, can’t possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. No, Digory. Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny.”

As he said this he sighed and looked so grave and noble and mysterious that for a second Digory really thought he was saying something rather fine. But then he remembered the ugly look he had seen on his Uncle’s face the moment before Polly had vanished: and all at once he saw through Uncle Andrew’s grand words. “All it means,” he said to himself, “is that he thinks he can do anything he likes to get anything he wants.”

—The Magician’s Nephew, C. S. Lewis

“I was the queen. They were all my people. What else were they there for but to do my will? … You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny.”

—Queen Jadis, from The Magician’s Nephew, C. S. Lewis

First up, humanity’s quest to hack the DNA code of humans, animals, and sometimes both at once.

… Chimeric embryos were created by injecting human stem cells into monkey embryos which were then grown under laboratory conditions … a controversial practice that scientists say could help develop treatments for diseases and pave the way to growing much needed organs for human transplantation.

The moral status of these part-human animals is a particularly thorny issue, as they must have enough humanity to be useful for experiments or, one day, to grow human organs, but not enough humanity so as to warrant protection from experimentation.

Next, we’ll talk about the successor to the Industrial Revolution, the machine intelligence revolution.

Finally, let’s look at a different way that researchers are trying to improve the human condition: by changing us into something beyond the biological.

And then in an absurd but hilarious twist, a refreshing perspective on science was recently delivered by the Steak-Umm Twitter account in a snarky reply to Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Great episode, guys! I’m catching up, looking forward to parts 2 and 3 of the series. Excellent points about fiction within the context of community, especially the church. Book clubs can be tough to pitch and maintain, especially if people can’t keep up the reading pace. An alternative to a traditional “book club” was described in a recent Mere Orthodoxy article, where enthusiasts of an author or book gathered to read aloud together. Another, very different means of exploring fiction together in a small group is in the context of a tabletop role-playing game (I.e. Dungeons & Dragons, etc.), where the players are take the roles of protagonists in a genre, setting, and adventure that develops through play in a kind of immersive, collaborative, storytelling process.

Secular sci-fi often explores darker themes such as gene-editing and consciousness-uploading. Christian-made sci-fi, however, tends to lean on the softer side. How might this leave an opening for more complex futuristic tales that dare to engage with controversial themes? Novelist Kerry Nietz, no stranger to bold sci-fi themes, joins us to discuss how edgier science fiction can challenge Christian readers.