Implied Consent: Act I, Scene VI

A Play on the Sanctity of Human Life, in Four Acts

This is a part of Mr. Stolyarov's play, Implied Consent. To navigate through the various parts of the play, go here.

(Enter EVERETT WALTONFORD and EDWARD MARK into one of the main hallways of the laboratory complex. The walls could contain pictures and blueprints of inventions, rather than the inventions themselves, and it is presumed that all the actual development proceeds behind closed doors.)

WALTONFORD: Progress, Mr. Mark, cannot be held as a contingency. It cannot be forced to rely on somebody else's approval, to jump over barriers and duck under obstacles. Progress is like a concentrated laser beam; either it is thwarted altogether by the impediment, or it burns a hole through it and continues on as it was meant to continue.

MARK: Yet what is progress, precisely, as you define it? There is much confusion in our society about using such general terms as this one.

WALTONFORD: Progress is the sum of the actions undertaken by individuals to rearrange the elements of their environment in an unprecedented and purposeful manner. It would be folly to presume that natural evolution, in all its randomness and sluggish slowness, could ever engineer the most optimal use of resources, the most functional organisms, the most efficient structures. No, there is much waste in nature, but also much untapped potential. Both of these qualities extend not only to the natural world we see outside, but to our own minds and organisms as well. We men, as we evolved, are not perfect. Yet progress has shown us that we are perfectible. Our genes, as we inherited them, may destine us for torture and oblivion through perilous diseases, but we men can destine ourselves for health, happiness, and vitality by altering our genes. Tell me, how long do you think most men are designed to live?

MARK: Hmmm... Judging by just my general observations, about a hundred and ten years.