Gattaca

What make us what we are? What determines our fate, our fortunes in life? What factor or more elevate a Man to the echelon of society while many others have to grovel and suffer at the bottom? Philosophers have pondered the question of self, of what makes us, us, for centuries and the prevailing answer for as long was the divine.
They believed the gods provide humans with abilities and characteristics that set them apart and above other Men. Following that thought to its perhaps inevitable conclusion, some Men are directly descended from the gods. Alexander the great claimed such a relation to justify his sovereignty over his people. He was neither the first nor the last in making such a calim. Roman emperors have made such claims so did their inheritors the Roman Catholics popes who claimed to derive their authority directly from god. So here is one answer to what makes us, us, God. God is the provider of abilities and talents that distinguish one Man from another. That can make a king or queen of one and a beggar of another.
There are inherited fallacies with such a conclusion. History is full of kings and queens who have been cruel and sadistic by the admission of their own people and of others. So when they are at there worst what does that say about the nature of god to have chosen such a representative? Another problem of such a claim is, it eliminate free will. Free will is simply no longer an option, if what I am to become in life has already been predetermined. Another view of the same answer is that god only provides us with the opportunity to become and it is up to the individual to exert the effort to advance in their position. This answer is of course a compromise between free will and fate though it relay heavily on fate. Meaning that there are people who through god, are better equipped to succeed in life then others. By being born to a rich family that can provide an education; or with an above-then-average intelligence; or with physical attributes that are superiors to others.
Then came Darwin and replaced god with nature. Dispelling the notion of divine choice. Man was no longer ‘ a flock of sheep,’ in need of a shepherd telling him what to do. Man is now in possession of free will. He is the maker of his own destiny. Determinism is no longer the explanation of who we are.
Then came along advances in mathematics, chemistry and physics, which led to breakthrough in biology and anthropology, by providing practitioners with the tools to investigate. Slowly the brain is giving up its secrets and so is gene the building block of humans. Not a day goes by when we hear of a new discovered gene that control some aspect of our behavior or strongly influences it. So once again Man is no longer the master of his own destiny and is slowly, once again, approaching the conclusion of determinism.
Before when god was the deciding factor prayer was a way for a favorable attributes in the off spring. Although we are not there yet, soon skill and money would be the guarantee of favorable outcome.
Art has always been under the influence of philosophy following its trends for how long those trends prevail. The Greek thought Man as the ideal creation. So Greek artists for centuries celebrated the idea by carving the most exquisite statues to show off the human form. What the Greek artist did in their time modern artist still do today with more choices of a medium.
Movies can be seen as the culminations of all the arts into one. Providing us with visual presentation as well as a written one. So it comes to no surprise that since its foundation the cinema had been used to discuss philosophical issues, however, often doing so covertly, so as not to offend contemporary laws or tastes. Metropolis and Charlie Chaplin’s movies to name a few are clear examples of movies reflecting the fears and philosophy of their time.
Gattaca is such a movie. Under the guise of science fiction the movie tries to discuss the possibilities of once we arrive at a point when humans are engineered and programmed to what they may become in life. It tries to answer the question of which is stronger Nature or Nurture. Do we choose what to become or are we born with attributes the forces us to what we become.
The movie centers on the life or a young man whose parents have chosen to conceive him naturally without the help of science. The result is a young man with the intellect and ambition unparalleled by his un-tampered with physical attributes. Refusing to let his spirit hampered by his fate the young man takes extreme measures to realize his dream of becoming an astronaut. Armed with his unbound ambition and assuming some one else’s life the young man finally realizes his dream.
The movie touches on a very fundamental question, fate or free will? What are the consequences of either on our morals? While the young man whom the hero of the movie assume his identity was born with all the chances science can provide for success he chooses not to. Choosing instead a life of pleasure, which leads him to an accident that renders him crippled for the rest of his life. Another character is the leader of the project who commits murder and lie when asked if he did it, citing in his defense that he does not have the gene to commit murder.
The movie doesn’t make an argument against determinism but it makes one for free will. Saying in essence that a good gene only provides us with the opportunity to become and it is up to the individual to exert the effort to advance in their position. This answer is again a compromise between free will and fate. Claiming, as with the influence of god, that there are people who through a good gene, are better equipped to succeed in life then others.
On the other hand the movie makes the strong argument that even with good genes behavior cannot be predicted and there is no account to how far humans would push themselves to succeed in life or in whatever enterprise they choose to peruse. Illustrating this final concept with another bout between the naturally born hero and his engineered brother. A rematch of when for the first time the less ordinary, our hero, realizes that with determination he can over comes the ordinary, his engineered brother. A rematch that makes the point of the movie, that without the will to match engineered attributes are not guarantee of success in life.