I for one think this could work really well.

You would need to have one or two of these afflicted people being the ones who discovered the truth.

They could then set up covert GE labs, and turn their 'afflictions' into superior capabilities, and start helping out other afflicted beings. The Downs Syndrome people could become super-intuitive, almost to the point of reading minds, while gaining above average cognitive abilities. The dwarfism people could gain the power to alter their height at will, to change from 3 feet tall to 7 feet tall over a few weeks, etc.

You need strong antagonists to make this work - you could have looter government agents trying to bust these labs and shut them down. Also, religious groups totally offended at the idea of immortality.

The end result could be the labs finally producing immortality - bodies that (like some marine species) renew at a greater rate than they break down, and thus attain physical immortality.

Ending? The 'freaks' get pissed off with all the suppression and hostility that they seek out and make contact with an alien civilisation, and make plans to leave. Government agents discover their intentions, and dispatch armed forces to stop the rendezvous. Alien technology finally keeps the army at bay, and allows the 'mutants' to hitch a ride away to a far more advanced and dignified existence. On their departure, they leave behind a massive cluster of light-reflecting particles which, for several hours, displays a huge projected middle finger in the night sky!

Sorry about that. Old dino has been known to stray off-topic.
Mean spirited? One could call 1984 mean-spirited but I wouldn't. Same could go for Logan's Run or A Clockwork Orange.
I've taken creative writing courses. I recall shocking other students back in the 60s and still getting an A.
Let your imagination go. Be a wild and crazy guy. Don't let prissy wussies hold you back.
I notice the guy with the weird hair is back on the History Channel talking about ancient aliens. Here's where I'm stream of consciousness (if that's what you call it) suddely going.
The infamous Gray Aliens could have destroyed this ancient advanced culture as an unwanted soon-to-be competitor as top species in this part of the galaxy.
What the Gray Aliens did not destroy was what the now exterminated culture was doing with homo sapiens, Neanderthals a previous experiment.
Our progress is only a scientific study. But if we ever get near conquering the speed of light, look out. They turn the atmosphere off.
Guess who plays with the climate? Take that, Al Gore!

I like my SF plausible. If there were an Atlantis, it was small and probably max tech level of Tudor England (and was probably Thera). This is not what people want to see in an 'advanced prior civilization' story.

We are doing a good job of tracking the actual genes of ancient peoples, using scavenged DNA from archeological finds. Many of our tools are closing the doors on a high-tech Atlantis.

Jan

Definitely "interesting" - always love the what if factor. How could it be mean-spirited, look what the government does for real -, indoctrination, induced cognitive dissonance, withholding medical cures for diseases, and so on. At least yours would be fun.

Why do aliens have to be the actors?!? What if there was an Atlantis in our pre-history, where "super-smart" people lived and did their thing, before being destroyed in a geological cataclysm, and we're just now approaching where they were thousands of years ago? That would be a much more interesting story than "ET did it." You might even have a backstory about some archaeologists and scientists discovering some artifacts that lead to the discovery of this Atlantis.

As crazy as it sounds, it may not be fiction.

Neat, huh?

Writing about this is a bit of candy for me! I have read a number of books with the idea that 'aliens tinker with one or more species on a planet' and then leave. Some thousands of years later, the sentient inhabitants figure out what happened.

As blarman mentioned, this is part of the backsrory for the Lensman series; it also figures in Brust's Jereg series and SM Stirling's pastiches on Burroughs Venus and Mars books.

Dwarfism. there are two kinds ateliotic and achondoplastic. I tried to do a paper on the latter during college to see if there were a geographic cluster of where achondoplastic dwarves might have originated - but there was little data as to birth records. (I spent a lot of time in the stacks.) Boxers and bulldogs are both dwarf species of a mastiff-type progenitor. African pygmies are ateliotic (ie proportional, but undersized).

Immortality. If you postulate a sophisticated technological culture, you need to choose your abnormalities carefully. We know why Downs occurs - and there is no relation to aging that I know of. Immortality might be related to a mutation that resulted in an increase in cancer (telomerase activity), or to the premature aging syndromes that occur but probably not to albinism (which would increase Vit D uptake; Vit D is an antagonist to telomerase).

If you are hesitant to trigger PC backlash, you might want to put the action on another planet, possibly with another humanoid (hence sympathetic) species or with and offshoot of the human species transplanted there for experimentation.

There is a lot more tolerance for this sort of story in the SF world...the problems lie in mainstreaming the book, if that is your intention.

Jan, apologizes for misspellings - no time to proof

"let the public determine the success of your story" thats great if you have no vested interest in your success. At this stage I have a following. I'm not entirely sure I want to risk it.

"that hardly translates to book sales these days"
It depends on how far down the Long Tail you're selling. If you're writing something the would possibly appeal to 10% of the population but be offensive to 50%, that may be fine. That may be better than doing something that doesn't offend or excite anyone.

Orson Scott Card goes off on stupid Republican rants in some of his later books, but he's still doing fine.

I question the value of a publisher. They want you to come with your own marketing plan. If you're going to do that, you might as well self-publish.

fascinating, though dangerous. . if care were taken
to respect those who were considered "different,"
and diversity in mental and anatomical variety were
celebrated, it could be a very fine trail to follow,
both for the author and the reader. why are there
different "races" ? . well, different "tastes" way
back then. . I would take my genetic tinkering
in a different direction than you, with my "ideal"
being unique. . fascinating! -- j

Hmm. I didn't realize that not only do other species echokinetically yawn in response to their own species, but also in response to human yawns.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08...

I have one for you: Prostate Cancer! This disease will kill all males as they age. To me, this shouldn't be and when you have a family history it's scarier yet! If your born a male you already have a death sentence given enough time.

I'm intrigued!

I say...let the public determine the success of your story. "Mean-hearted" has been used so many times by the Liberals that I generally ignore the term. Even if your fictional story was based upon fact, someone would find a way to twist the truth to show it never actually happened (like making the Holocaust disappear).

It's a very very very very very fictional sounding story. Not sure I'd run with it myself, kinda close to home for a lot of people.

first tell us about this past culture existed. if they did not exist then the things noted couldn't have been a result of tinkering.

Ha! Excellent point.

Jan

Ah, but echokinetic yawning does cross species.

Jan (did not know about children under 5!)

E.E. "Doc" Smith?

Jan

I loved Doc Savage as a kid!

If it's a fictional story then go for it!

The impediment to suspension of disbelief is likely going to be how so many defects managed to escape eradication early on simply by preventing the hosts from ever successfully reaching gastrulation or some other step of embryonic development... Although the 'success' of some mutations is likely due to their inherent subtlety.

You write it, I'll buy it, but I'll want a signed copy!

Definitely interesting. Nature has done her fair share of genetic tinkering across the entire spectrum of living things, including some screw-ups that eventually vanish.

Today's human abnormalities result from less than successful mutations while we relatively normal humans are the result of successful mutations from times past. It would be nice if you could have your tinkerers fix those defects prenatally. Some such work is being done already.

It would be fun to introduce a subplot of deliberate engineering by ancient scientists or even visiting aliens. In fact, I'm toying with a story myself where the entire human race and its predecessors evolved from an organism with genetically modified DNA that would eventually lead to human evolution.

Your fictional engineers were partially successful with jellyfish, who do seem to have immortal cell replacement features. Now if that could only be applied to human brains, both hardware and software. One can dream...

Write on! In science fiction anything goes. Forget about the political objections du jour.

I find it quite interesting and along the lines of E.E. "Doc" Savage's Lensman series.

I'd say go for it.

I find the concept intriguing but have to temper my enthusiasm with the practicality of landing a publisher and, if not that, books sales.