Designing People

There are many different ways of understanding term mass-customization. The first and the obvious one would be an issue of adjusting the material goods to our needs and preferences. Nowadays it tends to be one of the most developed and examined problems concerning mass production.
However we could look at this problem from different perspective, changing the approach and searching for new possibilities. According to the recent biotechnological progress, the adjustable part, in terms of mass customization, can be a man, not his surrounding or background. This phenomenon was studied by Francis Fukuyama in his famous publication called ‘Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnological Revolution’. He argues that as a result of biomedical advances, we are facing the possibility of a future in which our humanity itself will be altered beyond recognition. He states that in the near future it will be possible to manipulate human DNA in order to achieve all the most desirable characteristics in one person. Fukuyama examines influence of genomes on human behaviors, based on innovative technological researches. He claims that our existence is determined by genes, which have the biggest potential for shaping our everyday life.
Medicine already uses differentiated technologies to prevent from diseases and eliminate psychological deviations. Curing children with ADHD is an example of adjusting people to the existing social norms. ADHD is psycho-physical system, inextricably related to human behavior, rather than simple being a disease. Thus, this kind of intervention changes their character is being in order that they fulfill social expectation being politically correct.
We slowly achieve the point in which biotechnology allows us to ‘design’ people. Fukuyama considers problems of creating children’s genomes by their parents, already before their birth. On one hand controlling what was previously impossible and unpredictable (in that case human DNA) could be the greatest achievement of our decade of mass-customization; however it also brings up lots of anxieties and fear. Considering in a large scale, could lead to enormous problems, like dehumanization and gradual lost and disappearance what is generally being perceived as human, meaning diversity, individuality and personality.
Paradoxically mass-customization, understood in such a way, doesn’t aim to non-standardization. Contrary what could appear as a result is homogenous world full of ‘ideal’ desirable people. This stage Fukuyama considers as ‘Posthuman Era’.

References:
-‘Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnological Revolution’ Francis Fukuyama
-http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200602/000020060206A0002705.php
-http://genomeathome.stanford.edu/
-http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/21/3/325