9:00 PM, July the 7th, The Future

A.

Out of the car, into the tiny elevator (I prefer using the stairs but my lab is on the 10th floor and it’s hard to climb so many stairs wearing heels). The building has one-person elevators so everyone can get to where they want to be quickly, without having to stop at everyone else’s floor first. Like I said, it’s a busy world where time is apparently everything. I push ‘10’, the elevator starts to move and personalized ads start to pop up (‘Based on your DNA sequence, you could be at risk of developing heart disease. Insure your future with LifeSure today’). This is what the powerful next-next-next-gen DNA sequencing (it’s got an ‘official’ name, but I’ve stopped caring, as a ‘nexter’ generation sequencing method comes out every year or so) is wasted on, analyzing DNA from dead skin cells on an elevator button. I wonder what will happen to my DNA that just got analyzed. Will appear online like everything else DNA-related these days? If I’d search online, I’d probably run into conspiracy theories about how the government is using everyone’s DNA to develop new ways of brainwashing us. People are either scared or fascinated by synthetic biology. Some see it as an opportunity to get rich by pioneering some new bio-gadget while others go on about how biohackers will kill us all. With how paranoid the government has become recently, you’d think that apocalypse was just around the corner. At least their paranoia fuels my paycheck.