This week I finally got around to reading Joel Garreau's book, Radical Evolution : The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human. Garreau explores the potentials for radical human enhancement via what he calls the GRIN technologies -- genetics, robotics, information, and nanotechnology. I found the book entertaining for its profiles of the main players, but was disappointed at the lack of depth.
Are we headed for a fantastic new stage in human evolution? Posthumanists and singularity enthusiasts say yes. Garreau presents their views as the "Heaven" scenario, a representative character being Raymond Kurzweil. Others, such as Bill Joy and Francis Fukuyama, have been more critical (the "Hell" scenario) -- they say the risks of out-of-control bio- or nano-technologies are too great. Garreau himself claims to take a more middle-of-the-road view (the "Prevail" scenario).
The strongest parts of the book come when Garreau is profiling people -- particularly Raymond Kurzweil, Bill Joy, and Jaron Lanier -- their personal histories and how they came to hold the views they hold. But when it comes to weighing their arguments, Garreau sides mostly with the post-humanists without much critical analysis. At times, such as in an early chapter about DARPA, he seems wholly under the spell of the scientists and the writing devolves into breathless techno-porn.
The book is valuable for its profiles of these important thinkers and as a launching pad for further reading. For the real goods you'll want to check out the original sources and more in-depth analyses, such as (for the "Hell" side): Bill Joy's Wired essay and Bill McKibben's Enough.
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