Humans are no longer the same creatures they once were.
Late in the 21st century we began through the world council to legislate the future of our species. It was now possible to update the genetic make up of the human species with each new generation. The first piece of legislation stated simply that humanity could not be allowed to lower the average empathy quotient. It was, and is still believed, that reducing the empathy quotient of our species would be the single most dangerous thing we could do. It is, after all, the keystone of our sense of universal ethics. It is what allows us to understand and weigh the motives of others and what allows us the ability to feel compassion and charity. Without empathy it would only be a matter of time before war broke out. A species of human that feels no empathy but has increased levels of strength and intelligence or extended life could be a terrible scourge upon the universe.
Several years after the initial vote was made on the empathy quotient, a vote was taken to raise the empathy quotient. Earth’s religious right protested the legislation. Many believed that God set our basic sense of empathy deliberately in order to test or challenge us and that to tamper with this particular aspect of human nature was to trample upon the sovereignty of God. In the end, no evidence surfaced showing that increased empathy could cause harm and quite a bit of evidence suggested drastic improvement would ensue throughout civilization. As to the god question, people by and large accepted the idea that if there was a God that God gave us the tools to tamper with our own nature. We had been tampering with that nature for a long time, since well before the empathy question came about. In any case, the empathy quotient was increased with the next generation and several more times over following ones.
Ironically, because of this global increase in empathy, the world at large found it increasingly difficult to justify forcing the few, small groups of people who still wished to return to traditional levels of empathy to produce more emphatic offspring. Thus a small group of people was allowed to remain unaltered.
As the majority became even more empathetic two problems began to arise. Individuals started to find it difficult to separate their own opinions, perspectives, and feelings from those of others and also found it just as difficult to hold someone accountable for wrong doing as they found it to difficult to wrong someone. Thus, the opinions of that tiny minority that still had some inclination toward selfishness started to gain influence. As long as the self-interested few framed their ideas as being harmless, the masses felt inclined to follow them. Those with a strong sense of self-interest were able to accumulate far more wealth than others and, if they wished to, could get away with causing great harm. And great harm some did indeed.
Fortunately, the initial legislation that stated that the average empathy quotient could never be reduced maintained its integrity. Those who would use others for personal gain remain few in number. However, those individuals that are capable of great abuse remain a terrific and hidden threat, not only to the human, or rather meta human, majority, but to all living things, and perhaps to all things.
And yet, there still remains the small chance that at some point they will be able to perceive and protect others from the treat of whatever creatures may exist who are more dangerous and selfish than themselves.
The Lunar Fox Press 