People were always interested in learning about their genes and ancestry. According to Time, as far back as the 1920s, the public has wondered about genetics (albeit from a eugenics standpoint). At the time, people were fascinated by the ability to determine paternity using blood tests. Fast-forward to the 1990s and daytime reality TV, Maury Povich and Jerry Springer were making a mockery of the practice.
Recently, services like 23andMe and AncestryDNA have made genetic testing more accessible, much like in “Gattaca.” The market for consumer genetic testing is estimated to be worth $340 million as of 2022 (via Statista). These services take a saliva sample and, depending on what you signed up for, you can receive data on everything from preexisting conditions, regional genetic ancestry data, and other information.
Now, unlike in the film, these modern tests are not as in-depth due to how they acquire your sample. There is one scene in “Gattaca” where Irene, Vincent-slash-Jerome’s love interest, takes one of his planted hairs to a testing kiosk. She was able to learn every detail about Jerome’s abilities and traits all without his consent. In real life, when you send off your saliva sample, it does not provide a complete look at your genome, as the Conversation reports. The service only compares data from SNPs (the genes responsible for traits that make people unique). But their accuracy has been criticized, with incidents where identical twins have recieved different ancestry DNA results.
