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Biotech / Medical : Will the human species cease to exist in two generations?
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To: Karen Lawrence who wrote ()3/16/2000 3:00:00 AM
From: chalu2  Read Replies (1) of 4
 
On some levels, these advances sound like an improvement to me. Did you read Business Week last week?--artificial replacements for everything from ears to eyes to brains could become reality over the next few decades. Think of how much suffering will be alleviated! The transformation from "I, Human" to "I, Robot" will be the most incredible watershed event in history.

As for the gloom and doom scenarios, I suppose anything is possible. I forget which Kurt Vonnegut book has a theme of Earth turned to ice because biotechnologists experimenting with a substance called Ice-9 (I think) ineradicably lowered the freezing point of water.

I think bad scenarios are possible, as well as good. We may we need a whole new field called Defensive and Protective Science, which would focus on the dangers of technological advances, and review all major advances (like nanotechnology) with the mission of anticipating and preventing misuses. Obviously, this has not been done up until now (witness our "robust" Internet computer systems being inactivated by freelance "hackers.").

Whether government intervention and supervision is needed is a salient question. Private industry may have neither the means, the multinational reach or the motivation to engage in self-regulation.

Many questions arise in this brave new world!
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