The Power of Blood Music

In the science-fiction novel Blood Music, by Greg Bear, the chanced pathway of the protagonist brings to question the future of biotechnology.  It is the unethical decision of a human being that ignites this conjuring evolution.  Greg Bear confronts the reader with the power a single-cell organism can have over civilization when combined with trillions of other intelligent organisms alike.  The storyline of the novel seems unlikely in the present day.  Bear is more directly noting the impact human decision has on the future biotechnology; the role civilization plays in halting or enhancing the genetic process. 

Feeling inadequate with the work as a biotechnologist, Vergil begins a personal project in Gentron’s laboratory.  Vergil extracts lymphotes  from his body– a subtype of the white blood cell – to create nucleoprotein computers.   He describes them to be similar to DNA, however with the ability to communicate.  There capabilities are endless but against regulation because of their implication of human white blood cells.  When confronted by his supervisor about the regulations against his project, Vergil tries to justify its importance within the future of genetics.  He describes the importance of the organisms, considering them to be “rough DNA-RNA protein logic”.  His ploy at persuading his supervisor to let him continue the projects fails, instead ending with his instruction to terminate the cells.  In an attempt to save the “noocytes” (his term for the organisms) , Vergil injects them into his bloodstream.  His body begins transforming, improving his eyesight and form, but evidently infecting his immune system causing infection. 

Vergil’s selfish decision to save his project causes the spread of the disease he has created in his own body.  In this outcome, Bear is commenting of the fault in human beings…  How erratic human action can construct catastrophic change in mankind. Vergil conjoins the cells and gives them a living, breathing organism to inhabit.  His enabling of their growth in intelligence is what gives the noocytes the power to deter evolution.  It questions the array of possibilities the future holds for the population, when presented the irreversible impact one individual can have on civilization. 

As the infection spreads amongst the population, it has differing impacts amongst individuals.  The noocytes are described conversing with the infected.  The story portrays some of them as singing to humans in which they inhabit – insinuating one meaning of the title Blood Music.  The translation between blood cells and the body questions the source of reality.  The blood cells are recognized more as an unconscious mind, giving the body direction in how to function.  The parallel between the blood cells making up the body, and the title of the novel, enhances the power the Blood Music has obtained. 

The novel addresses the impact human beings have on the future of biotechnology in conjunction with the obtained power of biotechnology.  It is not what the organisms are capable of doing that will impact evolution; it is what humanity grants the cells access to that will lead their evolving.  By placing the noocytes in his body, Vergil gave the organism the ability to attach to a living, breathing body – a being they can evolve in within the present society.  Vergil did not know opposing ethics of biotechnology would suffice in such an outcome.  In making unethical decisions, the being is subsequently left with the unknown of the future.  But it is this risk that enables change and positive effect on a civilization.  Bear recognizes both the positive and negative impacts that cohere with evolution.