I'm fascinated when non-scientists attempt to write science fiction stories about biology.
Frank Herbert published such a story, called "Heisenberg's Eyes", in the June and
August 1966 issues of
Galaxy magazine. 1966 was an interesting year for Herbert because his Dune saga was bursting upon the world. In the wider world of biology research, the "
coding problem" was rapidly being
solved. Sadly, there is no indication in the text of "Heisenberg's Eyes" that Herbert had any understanding of DNA or the concept of a nucleic acid sequence. In the absence of having anything sensible to say about genetic engineering, Herbert went ahead and wrote a story about
genetic engineering imaginary future politics and the human struggle against tyranny.
You can download the magazine issues that contain "Heisenberg's Eyes" from online archives of science fiction magazines such as the Internet Archive.
June 1966
Galaxy with Heisenberg's Eyes Part 1 -
Download
August 1966
Galaxy with Heisenberg's Eyes Part 2 -
Download
"Heisenberg's Eyes" is set in the far future, at a time when surgeons have long been doing genetic surgery on early human embryos. The imaginary setting of "Heisenberg's Eyes" reminds me of the futuristic world described by Stanley G. Weinbaum in his 1939 story "
The Black Flame". A small "ruling class" of immortals (called "Optimen") uses advanced reproductive technology to control society.
Herbert tells us that this brave new world of the future is full of sterile worker drones who lead a "troglodyte existence". A typical lifespan is 200 years, so most people never get to have children. However, there are some fertile members of society who occasionally get to be parents. "Heisenberg's Eyes" begins with genetic surgery on a newly formed embryo. Herbert skips over the in vitro fertilization process and begins the story by introducing readers to the morula stage embryo of Lizbeth and Harvey Durant.
Don't let the name "Optimen" fool you: some of the Optimen are women, such as the cult figure Calapine, who is worshiped as a fertility goddess by some members of the underclass. Other political factions of the future include the Cybermen and the Parents Underground. The god-like Optimen reside in Central, a headquarters from which they dispatch special agents such as Dr. Potter.
And don't let the illustration (to the left on this page) fool you. Dr. Svengaard uses the ultra-modern meson microscope to examine the Durant embryo's genes.
The renowned Dr. Potter has been called upon to perform genetic surgery on the Durant embryo because it is a special embryo with high-potential genes. Dr. Svengaard has detected indications that this embryo might have the mystical capacity to develop into one of the rare, immortal Optimen. Peering through his meson microscope, Svengaard sees a "triple spiral", an indication that there are Optimen genes in this embryo! I suppose if mere mortals have a
double helical DNA then (by Herbert-logic) the god-like Optimen should have a
triple helix.
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| Calapine; 50,000 years old |
Herbert tells us that the Optimen are perfect, but for some reason they are sterile (except possibly our dear
old Calapine). Well, as they say, perfection is not all its cracked up to be. Herbert drops an endless stream of little hi-tech bomb shells on the reader. For example, we are casually informed that there is danger in using the meson microscope to examine DNA: the danger of Heisenberg interference. Then, for only the 9th time in the long history of genetic engineering, Dr. Svengaard witnesses a molecular miracle. A rod of sperm protamine appears inside a cell of the embryo, causing the ADP-ATP exchange system to suddenly become more complex and “resistant” to gene surgery.
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| the Third Doctor |
What is this mumbo-jumbo supposed to mean? The miraculously appearing microscopic rod of sperm protamine represents an "outside adjustment" to the embryo. There is an unseen resistance movement ("led" by the Cyborgs) with secret underground bases and secret doors in walls and the magical means (never really explained) to divert some precious embryos away from developing into Optimen towards becoming freemen, people who can live free from Optimen-imposed system of global control and world domination. Were this story being written in our millennium then we would get some incoherent sciency backstory about a "
Spartan virus". Since "Heisenberg's Eyes" was written in the previous millennium,
Dr. Kildare Dr. Potter proceeds to perform delicate molecular surgery, bringing baby morula back from the brink of death, but only by means of the risky use of mutagens!
Legend has it that Herbert spent years researching topics like ecology while writing
Dune. There is no indication that he put similar effort into "Heisenberg's Eyes". Readers are subjected to page after page of seemingly random biochemistry terms that describe and "explain" the gene surgery process.
The super-hi-tek genetic surgery of 1966 requires spinning reels of "computer tapes". After Dr. Potter's miraculous surgery is complete, the computer tech "accidentally" erases the computer tape evidence obtained during the surgery which would reveal that this embryo can survive without the life-giving enzyme supplements provided to the people of the world by the Optimen of Central. The data erasure is initially attributed to "solenoid failure", but the Optimen have no difficulty deducing that the erasure was deliberate.
Reflecting on the events surrounding his surgery on the Durant embryo, Dr. Potter has a brilliant flash of insight: he realizes that a simple chemical treatment can render other human embryos free of any need for the artificial enzyme treatments that are the technological basis of how the Optimen maintain control over the world's population. I suspect that Herbert never understood what an enzyme is, but who cares? He just needed a hi-tech plot device with a sciency name.
Part 2
After thousands of years of world domination by the Optimen, the simmering revolutionary movement of the Cybermen and the Parents Underground turns into open warfare against the Optimen.
The revolutionaries wish to be free of the Optimen: free to live without the restrictions imposed by the Optimen.
Herbert declined to show us the source of the egg cell that gave rise to the Durant embryo, but when circumstances (require?) that the embryo be implanted into Lizbeth, she suddenly has painful stitches in her abdomen. Okay, Herbert was writing a decade before
Louise Brown, but successful uterine implantation of a rabbit embryo (created through in vitro fertilization) had been achieved in 1959. Women now routinely have their early embryos put into their uterus using a thin tube that goes through the cervix. Maybe the abdominal stitches are what we should expect from having a gene surgeon, old Doc Potter, perform an embryo implantation. After all, in Herbert's brave new world, it has been thousands of years since women actually went through pregnancy; now the embryos develop inside hi-tek artificial vats.
Fearing the Durant embryo and what might be learned from it, the the ruling Optimen triumvirate decides to ruthlessly kill everyone in the area, millions of residents. The rebel Cyborgs and the Durant family (embryo makes three) are hunted down, captured and brought to Central for interrogation. You'll have to read the "stunning conclusion" of "Heisenberg's Eyes" for yourself; I can't explain it. I have the feeling that when Herbert reached the page limit for
Galaxy, he stopped writing.
I like to imagine that a young Frank Herbert read "The Black Flame" and then later wrote "Heisenberg's Eyes" as a kind of re-imagining of that Stanley G. Weinbaum story. I can't decide which is less biologically plausible: 1)
spore-drive space travel powered by spice-generating
sandworms or 2) the magical degenerating-Optimen ending of "Heisenberg's Eyes". While shaking my head sadly in dismay, I'll slap the label "biofantasy" on "Heisenberg's Eyes". The story almost qualifies for the additional label of "
anti-science fiction".
In his comments on
The Eyes of Heisenberg,
Rob Weber emphasizes the point that "Heisenberg's Eyes" deals with the collapse of an imaginary society in which an attempt had been made to control the evolution of the human species and lock human society into an artificially-constrained social system.
I believe that this imaginary society of the future was able to last about 70,000 years because at some time in the far past the Optimen granted the Cyborgs permission to form a secretive underground movement where it was possible to experiment with human embryos, dream of alternatives to the Optimen-controlled world and thus provide an outlet for the restless human spirit.
The Optimen kept a close watch over the world using a sophisticated surveillance system, and they retained the ability to "put their foot down" if the revolutionaries ever got too uppity. However, it was only a matter of time (about 70,000 years) before the immortal Optimen became too lazy and incompetent to keep a firm grip on affairs. Finally there was an opening for development of a new kind of society and that opening is described in "Heisenberg's Eyes".
For me, "Heisenberg's Eyes" seems like a mostly sterile exercise of the imagination. Herbert never managed to make me believe that his imaginary world of the future is possible and "Heisenberg's Eyes" certainly is not fun or entertaining. I suspect that even Herbert grew tired of writing this story and could not be bothered to write a sensible ending.
What interests me most about "Heisenberg's Eyes" is that it deals with an imagined future society where a "technological singularity" is never allowed to occur. This kind of technological stasis is also found in
Isaac Asimov's
Foundation saga and the stories of
Jack Vance that are set in a future galaxy where humans have spread to many worlds, but people still live essentially as we do right now here on Earth. In
The End of Eternity, Asimov imagined how time travel technology could be used to create a static future for Humanity. In "Heisenberg's Eyes", Herbert gives us an imaginary dystopian static society of the future that is built upon genetic engineering. As a biologist, I don't find such a future to be either plausible or entertaining. I can't stop myself from believing that Herbert borrowed the plot and never really cared about the story he was telling. I suspect that "Heisenberg's Eyes" was written during the time when Herbert was trying to walk away from having a 9-5 job and transition to being able to survive as a full-time fiction writer.
"Heisenberg's Eyes" strikes me as being just another story that Herbert could crank out for a paycheck. Given the power to alter human genes, I doubt if people would simply use that power to make a dead-end dystopian society full of sterile worker drones who lead a "troglodyte existence". That is an anti-science plot that seems stuck in the far past along with the
Frankenstein monster and I'm not sure why a reader of science fiction would enjoy such a story. It is sad that such dystopia-themed stories represent one of the established roads to publication and financial success in our world.
Related Reading: "
Methuselah's Children" and Herbert's
1965 artificial intelligence story
Next: another
resistance movement
I like to imagine that a young Frank Herbert read "The Black Flame" and then later wrote "Heisenberg's Eyes" as a kind of re-imagining of that Stanley G. Weinbaum story. I can't decide which is less biologically plausible: 1) 
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