In/Divisible

-A nation is truly divided when neither act of great Heroism nor deepest Tragedy can unify its citizens-

What happens on the largely outside aspect of it. What sort of responses would the public and the opposition hold against the rise of new sentients. I already discussed how in the early days of the announcement of such a lab creation the world will instigate various hate groups under possibly religious pretenses or animal rights pretenses (ironic. they should read my blog) and how they can evolve.

Social Media

Obviously with the shared news being spread all over Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and the like, basic groups will rise up. Anti-GMO pages would be strengthened and opinions would grow polarized. But how far would we end up going?

Peaceful and Loud

Oftentimes within these movements, slanderous articles and news sites from internet news columns will be shared like wildfire. I can already see the headlines now: Scientists Intend to Replace Humans, Superhumans on the Horizon, Species Lines are Blurred in Latest Lab Experiment. Frankly, I had to limit myself to avoid creating clickbait titles, because let's face it. Most of us hate clickbait titles. And same to the current political climate, the rise of news which feature exaggerated falsehoods and volatile inaccuracies which can polarize the population. While there may be significant numbers of people who don't hold much of an opinion either way, the loud extremists on both ends would draw the most attention and likely be the focus of more professional news stations.

You can already tell I'm not making this up, but mostly borrowing from today's life and reality.

To continue with the peaceful internet activism, we would also see a rise of more real campaigns that aren't quite direct, but at the same time, would involve the organizations that made a sentient creature possible. GoFundMe's would sprout sponsoring efforts to spread word against the lab or facility. People with signs would crowd the fence and entrance of the secure facilities just to... I actually really don't know why people protest at the gates. I'm assuming the target is bringing a news crew to commit a time slot so that an activist may voice their reasons to a local TV station. I try to think of the protestors that stand outside the factory farms, protesting the constrained conditions for animals and the inhumane way they are treated. Are they hoping to get the workers inside the factory to 'repent'? My only implication is that there are better routes for activism, aside from blocking streets and roadways. Now back to campaigns, the additional route to take would be petitions, calls to the Senator, and even the occasional death threat to the lab staff. I call this minor, but many scientists receive death threats often. Global climate scientists often receive death threats, vaccination experts get death threats, and many online personalities get death threats. It was a Popular Science magazine where scientist, Michael Mann received a letter where, once opened, white powder poured out. And it wouldn't be much different for the researchers at the lab. (Spoiler alert: it was cornstarch.)

Violent and Louder

We have already seen the effects of massive protests that spawned raging fires, figuratively and almost literally. I can only imagine it would be much worse in this case. Large groups of passionate protestors, devout to their cause and rallying against the lab facility. While directly threatening the plant itself would be unwise, (typically research labs are quite well guarded, especially if it's a government branch) there's no reason why the efforts can't boil elsewhere.

That being said, should the animal choose to travel and spend time outside the confines, armed guards are a necessity, lest anyone should successfully end the expensive project. 

Long After

What scares me the most should this come to fruition is the hostile moods that last long after. Long after the world has grown complacent with the animals, and long after the animals have become complacent with the world as new sentients that have never existed before, likely there would still remain hostile groups that still remain in the fringe of society. And these would still work hard to clash against, and perhaps murder of the sentients. Something horrific to think about, and yet, till something to consider. And the severity of these crimes would likely correlate to how the act of which would be defined and punished as. One would think it makes sense that should a human be found guilty of killing a non-human, what would the ramiications be. Especially when it's a first, and the case set as a model for years to come.

I want to save the concept of crime and law for the next time I come, so in the end, just say...

Happy Thinking!