One of my mental hobbies, one I’ve been carrying on for years, is to close one eye, peer along the line of recent social trends, and to predict, on that basis, what will come in the future. I built much of Wolf Time on that exercise and, although things have certainly happened since I wrote that book that I didn’t expect, I don’t think any of the things I actually predicted have failed to appear, either as political causes or actual laws (one exception would be the re-legalization of smoking, but that was a metaphor for Something Else. And no, I won’t tell you what).

So I thought that tonight I’d just save us all a lot of time, and pre-transcribe the arguments I expect to hear, not too far down the line, for a number of further changes to law and the social order.

(One such change that comes to mind, but is just too creepy to verbalize, is the argument for the decriminalization of pedophilia. So I’ll skip that, and go on to a similar one which could be interpreted as applying to grownups.)



INCEST

“There may have been a time when it was (arguably) necessary to prevent close relatives from having sexual relations. But that was back when sex was viewed as being connected to the bearing of children. In our more enlightened society, sex has been elevated to the status of a recreational activity. Children may or may not result from it. If they should, and if genetic testing should reveal some congenital problem, the matter is easily rectified by medical means.

“In any case, who are you to tell two people who love each other that their love is illegitimate? How can the marriage of a brother and sister, or of a mother and son, pose a threat to your marriage?”

CANNIBALISM

“European culture has traditionally, in its racist, xenophobic manner, looked down on the consumption of human flesh as “barbaric” and “savage.” Surely we have moved beyond that kind of bigoted judgment on a custom enjoyed by a large number of vibrant, holistic, differently-enlightened cultures. What is unnatural and barbaric is our culture’s tradition of spoiling perfectly good meat with embalming chemicals, and then wasting large expanses of arable land for the purpose of burial. In a world where people are starving, how can we justify such a waste of protein? Nobody is saying you have to eat human meat if you don’t want to. We simply demand the law recognize our right to take a more rational course.”

SLAVERY

“During the 19th Century—the great age of western imperialism—the arrogant, paternalistic European and American powers took it upon themselves to force their moral prejudices on cultures with very different traditions. It is time to put an end to this injustice.

“Today, our cultural consciousness has evolved to the point where we understand that the mere fact that a being carries human genetic code does not automatically grant it the rights of a person. A fetus, we understand, is not a human being, but an organ within the mother’s body, an organ over which she has complete control. If she wants it to live, that is her right. If she wants to terminate it, she has the right to do that. And if she chooses (as technology has now made possible) to have the fetus removed and brought to term in a laboratory environment, and then to have its IQ lowered and its individuality suppressed to make it suitable for service as an ‘animate tool,’ it is her right to do that, and to receive the remuneration that follows.

“Such ‘Beta’ humanoids will be invaluable in industry—doing jobs real humans won’t do—and in the service industries. Not least valuable will be the Pleasure Betas, specially programmed and trained to provide sexual services. These ‘perfect’ sex workers will cater to all tastes, and will be tested daily for sexually transmitted disease, and immediately terminated if infection is found. The potential for halting the spread of STDs will be obvious. Clearly, anyone who opposes this plan has no compassion for the victims of such diseases.

“As an added benefit, the reinstitution of human slavery will serve as a gesture of reconciliation with the Muslim world, many of whose leaders are offended by our prejudice against a tradition which they cherish.”