Glenn Goss
Dr. Johns
ENG COMP
What determines whether someone or something is human? The word human is defined as: of, relating to, or characteristic of people or human beings, as opposed to God, animals, machines, or (in science fiction) an alien. Notice, all things in the definition that aren't considered to be human are partly involved in the controversy with genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics. Combining human life with God-like impervious characteristics and robotics essentially creates a being that is foreign, or alien to everyone else. When this engineered being becomes plentiful among a population, the collective meaning and rudimentary things that establish us as human beings are lost, as outlined by McKibben. With few humans presently in the Oankali population, far superior Oankali traits will undergo natural selection. These traits will be passed on leaving the inferior human traits as things of the past.
One of the fundamental characteristics of a human being is their susceptibility to weakness and error. After all, nobody is perfect. The Oankali, described in the book Lilith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler, are powerful unearthly beings, or aliens, that seem to be impeccable, without any worry of having weakness. I say they are impeccable because their sensory perception enables them to detect anyone or anything around them at all times. It's as if they have millions of eyes looking in all directions, never ceasing. They also have a supreme healing ability and are able to analyze things genetically. Oankali traits far exceed those of human beings. These characteristics combined with human characteristics could never create a being that is entirely human. At best, this being could only be half human and half Oankali, just as Lilith's son is. It could never be wholly human or entirely Oankali. A perfect example of this scenario, occurring among animals, was contained in a television show I viewed on the Discovery Channel. This episode involved a hunter that killed what he thought was a polar bear in the arctic north of Canada. Based on markings on the bear and genetic analyses being compared to various types of bears, geneticists concluded that the bear was half polar and half black bear, resulting from black bears migrating north. Similarly, is the Oankali population interbreeding with the remaining humans on postwar Earth, resulting in hybrids like Akin.
Based on the definition of a human, we can deduce that Lilith's son, Akin, is not human; he is half alien and half human. Akin is an example of a genetic merger between a human and an Oankali. After his birth the statement was made that he looks completely human. Someone else said, "Some of his features are only cosmetic, Lilith. His senses are more dispersed over his body that yours are." (Butler 254) Akin has the characteristic senses attributed to the Oankoli; the extreme awareness and powerful perception. His superior senses are shown as he sits atop Lilith to feed. Akin's tongue is described to be as long and sensitive and malleable as the sensory tentacles of Ahajas and Dichaan. When Akin feeds he studies Lilith, tasting her flesh as well as her milk. He probes Lilith, inflicting pain upon her and feeling the same pain himself. Even though Akin looks to be human, he will always have the Oankali genes within his being. If a genetic analysis of Akin was performed, just as it was for the hybrid polar-black bear described previously, the results would yield both human and Oankali genes.
Though Akin is the result of Oankali breeding two humans without any physical connection, he will still contain attributes of both humans and Oankali, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. His human curiosity enables him to learn many things and retain the information quickly. In the book, when he hurts Lilith while feeding, Nikanj promised, "He won't do it again." Sure enough Akin did not do it again, learning an important lesson, which is that he shares any pain he inflicts. Akin's traits characteristic of the Oankali prove to be handy as well. When Lilith and Akin are walking through the woods with Tino trailing behind them, Lilith asks Akin if he can watch the man without using his eyes. Here Akin's keen senses and powerful perception come in handy by keeping track of Tino walking behind them. Akin is fundamentally both human and Oankali, with his fate as to what type of being he will become after metamorphosis resting in the hands of those who raise him. Since he is around both humans and Oankali, certainly he will remain characteristic to both species in some ways. Both Akin's human and Oankali characteristics prove to be helpful; not only to him, but to others around him. Hybrids, such as Akin, when taken under the wings of the correct parental figures, have the utmost ability to help any population in which they encounter.
3 comments:
Glen,
There is a good argument you start to go after, but you seem to get away from it. Towards the beginning of your paper, you say "These traits will be passed on leaving the inferior human traits as things of the past." This seems to me that you would argue that the interbreeding will wipe out the human traits. The rest of the paper seems to describe both characteristics of Akin, but not really taking a side. I think you do have a good basis, but a definite side needs to come out. My favorite part I have to say is the polar bear thing.
What determines whether someone or something is human? The word human is defined as: of, relating to, or characteristic of people or human beings, as opposed to God, animals, machines, or (in science fiction) an alien. Notice, all things in the definition that aren't considered to be human are partly involved in the controversy with genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics. Combining human life with God-like impervious characteristics and robotics essentially creates a being that is foreign, or alien to everyone else. When this engineered being becomes plentiful among a population, the collective meaning and rudimentary things that establish us as human beings are lost, as outlined by McKibben. In Butler's novel, the Oankali population is interbreeding with humans in order to prevent over-specialization and stagnation. These hybrid beings are both Oankali and human.
One of the fundamental characteristics of a human being is their susceptibility to weakness and error. After all, nobody is perfect. The Oankali, described in the book Lilith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler, are powerful unearthly beings, or aliens, that seem to be impeccable, without any worry of having weakness. I say they are impeccable because their sensory perception enables them to detect anyone or anything around them at all times. It's as if they have millions of eyes looking in all directions, never ceasing. They also have a supreme healing ability and are able to analyze things genetically. Oankali traits far exceed those of human beings. These characteristics combined with human characteristics could never create a being that is entirely human. At best, this being could only be half human and half Oankali, just as Lilith's son is. It could never be wholly human or entirely Oankali. A perfect example of this scenario, occurring among animals, was contained in a television show I viewed on the Discovery Channel. This episode involved a hunter that killed what he thought was a polar bear in the arctic north of Canada. Based on markings on the bear and genetic analyses being compared to various types of bears, geneticists concluded that the bear was half polar and half black bear, resulting from black bears migrating north. Similarly, is the Oankali population interbreeding with the remaining humans on postwar Earth, resulting in hybrids like Akin.
Based on the definition of a human, we can deduce that Lilith's son, Akin, is not human; he is half alien and half human. Akin is an example of a genetic merger between a human and an Oankali. After his birth the statement was made that he looks completely human. Someone else said, "Some of his features are only cosmetic, Lilith. His senses are more dispersed over his body that yours are." (Butler 254) Akin has the characteristic senses attributed to the Oankali; the extreme awareness and powerful perception. His superior senses are shown as he sits atop Lilith to feed. Akin's tongue is described to be as long and sensitive and malleable as the sensory tentacles of Ahajas and Dichaan. When Akin feeds he studies Lilith, tasting her flesh as well as her milk. He probes Lilith, inflicting pain upon her and feeling the same pain himself. Even though Akin looks to be human, he will always have the Oankali genes within his being. If a genetic analysis of Akin was performed, just as it was for the hybrid polar-black bear described previously, the results would yield both human and Oankali genes.
Though Akin is the result of Oankali breeding two humans without any physical connection, he will still contain attributes of both humans and Oankali, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. His human curiosity enables him to learn many things and retain the information quickly. In the book, when he hurts Lilith while feeding, Nikanj promised, "He won't do it again." Sure enough Akin did not do it again, learning an important lesson, which is that he shares any pain he inflicts. Akin's traits characteristic of the Oankali prove to be handy as well. When Lilith and Akin are walking through the woods with Tino trailing behind them, Lilith asks Akin if he can watch the man without using his eyes. Here Akin's keen senses and powerful perception come in handy by keeping track of Tino walking behind them. Akin is fundamentally both human and Oankali, with his fate as to what type of being he will become after metamorphosis resting in the hands of those who raise him. Since he is around both humans and Oankali, certainly he will remain characteristic to both species in some ways. Both Akin's human and Oankali characteristics prove to be helpful; not only to him, but to others around him. After metamorphosis Akin may be slightly more on the human or Oankali side. Nonetheless, he will still contain genes of both beings. Genetically speaking, Akin can be thought of as no more than a hybrid.
Phill - this response is still overly brief, but your focus is good and productive.
Glenn - When you use a definition from some source, cite it! The problem with this rather rudimentary definition is that you immediately recognize that it's inadequate (because you start refering to the essence of humanity, McKibben, etc.), but don't provide a definition which actually explains what you regard as being essential!
The polar bear/black bear hybrid is interesting, but I'm not sure exactly what you conclude from it - especially since it seems to have functioned perfectly well. Your claim that the Oankali don't make mistakes is demonstrably wrong - they make numerous mistakes throughout (starting with the attempt to pair Lilith w/ Paul Titus). You need to think through big, general claims before making them...
In the third paragraph, you're defining human vs. inhuman strictly in terms of genes, which might be fine, but you don't explain that decision or its nuances (after all, not all humans are genetically identical...). You are wavering, in other words, between at least three definitions of what it means to be human, without ever recognizing it or dealing with the differences among these implicit and explicit definitions.
Your emphasis on hybridity, especially at the end, raises an interesting question: what, then, is a hybrid? A completely different species? That doesn't seem to have been the case, functionaly, for your bear hybrid - I would have liked to see you deal at greater length (especially given the brevity of this paper) with what hybridity means, either in general or to you.
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