Michael Bramer
HONRS 390U
Aeon Flux Extra Credit Essay
In Aeon Flux, one of the largest social conflicts presented is the need to clone the human
race in order to preserve life for the species. Since a deadly virus killed the entire human race
except for five million seven generations ago, the remaining humans, who were saved by Trevor
Goodchild, have been left completely sterile and unable to reproduce naturally. In order to
continue life, the Goodchild regime began cloning the five million survivors. The main
character, Aeon Flux, is somewhat of a special case. She originally died from the deadly virus
but was cloned only in the seventh generation and trained as an assassin to take out Trevor, the
leader of the Goodchild regime, to allow life to continue along its natural course. Aeon at one
point even states, “We were meant to die,” insinuating that she does not agree with the cloning
process because the next generation of each person remembers things from its past lives, which
impacts their thoughts and actions in a way none of them completely understand. I would agree
with Aeon and not want to be cloned because living one life and living it to the fullest is the
absolute best way to live a life without the mental setbacks the cloning process apparently cause.
The human life is one of the most precious things we own while alive. As children we
are instructed to make the best of every day and live life to the fullest and no matter how cliché
those sound, they are true. Not only is life only lived once but also we are given only one chance
to have an impact on the world and make it a better place. My parents have brought me up
always telling me to give back to the community in any way possible because when I need the
support of my community, I would have done my part and can expect the same from others. It is
part of living to make the world a better place than before and living multiple lives defeats that
purpose.
Furthermore, the mental repercussions of being cloned create a life of questionable
thoughts and confusion because the memories from the previous lives begin intertwining with
those of the new. After being cloned, I would never be able to make conscious, logical decisions
because my thoughts would continuously get mixed up with those of previous lives. Not only
would this inhibit me from making good decisions but from having sound logic as well. The
population would be have an extremely low morale and confidence in themselves and would
conduct themselves in an orderly and rhythmic fashion because they would be too scared to try
new things based off previous memories. Nothing would ever progress or change in the world
and the human race would come to a stop.
In order to keep the human race alive, the Goodchild regime in Aeon Flux created a
cloning process of the five million survivors of the deadly virus. If I was one of the five million
survivors with the decision of whether to be cloned or not, I would absolutely choose not to be
cloned because that would ruin the purpose of life. Living by the guidelines my parents brought
me up on and what I have lived my life by for years, I have been given one life to make the most
of and to have the greatest impact on the world that I can. Prolonging that would not only have a
terrible effect on myself but the world would stagnate because of the lack of change within the
minds of the people.