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Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, by Bill McKibben
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From the bestselling author of The End of Nature comes a passionate plea to limit the technologies that could change the very definition of who we are
We are on the verge of crossing the line from born to made, from created to built. Sometime in the next few years, a scientist will reprogram a human egg or sperm cell, spawning a genetic change that could be passed down into eternity. We are sleepwalking toward the future, argues Bill McKibben, and it’s time to open our eyes.
In The End of Nature, nearly fifteen years ago, McKibben demonstrated that humanity had begun to irrevocably alter—and endanger—our environment on a global scale. Now he turns his eye to an array of technologies that could change our relationship not with the rest of nature but with ourselves. He explores the frontiers of genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechnology—all of which we are approaching with astonishing speed—and shows that each threatens to take us past a point of no return. We now stand at a critical threshold, poised between the human past and a post-human future.
Ultimately, McKibben offers a celebration of what it means to be human, and a warning that we risk the loss of all meaning if we step across the threshold. His wise and eloquent book argues that we cannot forever grow in reach and power—that we must at last learn how to say, “Enough.”
- Sales Rank: #285226 in Books
- Published on: 2003-04-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.62" h x 1.02" w x 6.44" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 288 pages
From Publishers Weekly
In 1989, McKibben published The End of Nature, a gorgeously written and galvanizing book about the true cost of global warming, the destruction of the ozone layer and other man-made ills-the loss of wild nature and with it the priceless aspect of our humanity that evolved to listen to and heed it. Now McKibben applies the same passion, scholarship and free-ranging thought to a subject that even committed environmentalists have avoided. Here he tackles what it means to be human. Reporting from the frontiers of genetic research, nanotechnology and robotics, he explores that subtle moral and spiritual boundary that he calls the "enough point." Presenting an overview of what is or may soon be possible, McKibben contends that there is no boundary to human ambition or desire or to what our very inventions may make possible. In an absorbing and horrifying montage of images, he depicts microscopic nanobots consuming the world and children born so genetically enhanced that they will never be able to believe that they reach for the stars as pianists or painters or long-distance runners because there is something unique in them that has a passion to try. Indeed, in the view of the most unbridled "technoutopians," the day of the robotically striving human is already here. What does set a human being apart from other beings, McKibben argues, is our capacity for restraint-and even for finding great meaning in restraint. "We need to do an unlikely thing: We need to survey the world we now inhabit and proclaim it good. Good enough." McKibben presents an uncompromising view, and an essential view. Readers will come away from his latest brilliantly provocative work shaking their heads at the possible future he portrays, yet understanding that becoming a pain-free, all-but-immortal, genetically enhanced semi-robot may be deeply unsatisfactory compared to being an ordinary man or woman who has faced his or her fear of death to relish what is. This is a brilliant book that deserves a wide readership.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
McKibben (The End of Nature, 1989) turns a passionate and revealing spotlight on our headlong rush into technology. He explains an array of procedures--including germline engineering and therapeutic cloning--that represent a slippery slope. For although they hold the promise to cure disease, they also offer the option of "improving" or "perfecting" human beings, providing the ability to choose a child's sex, boost intelligence, or implant a predisposition to music. If we're not careful, we could end up engineering our children to the point that they're no longer human, he cautions. Technological advancements are proceeding so rapidly that we will soon need to make decisions about how much technology is enough. McKibben makes genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechology understandable even to those readers who are not techno-savvy, and he makes a strong and compelling case for examining the medical, social, ethical, and philosophical arguments against certain technological advancements that come eerily close to leaving behind humanness and, thus, all the intangible irrationalities that make us who we are. This is a disturbing though ultimately optimistic book that explores the possibility of technology replacing humanity and rouses within us the impulse to declare: enough. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Bill McKibben has produced a book that is both a sequel and an equal to his brilliant The End of Nature. Enough is an ambitious and important book.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Without question, this is one of the most important books of the year. McKibben deserves to be read, to be discussed, to be heard.” —San Diego Union-Tribune
“[A] brave and luminous book . . . Bill McKibben understands genetics—but he knows poetry, too.” —David Gelernter, Wired
“Bill McKibben has done a top-notch job of researching and writing about one of the most important topics of the current age. Enough is an important book and needs to be read by everyone with an interest in keeping the human future human.” —The Weekly Standard
“Fiercely important . . . the most thought-provoking piece of non-fiction I’ve read in a long time.” —The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“In this wise, well-researched, and important book, Bill McKibben addresses the burning philosophical question of the new century, and the one that counts for the long haul: how to control the technoscientific juggernaut before it dehumanizes our species.” —E. O. Wilson, author of The Future of Life
“In Enough, McKibben shines his powerful light on another momentous change that is upon us: the ability to re-engineer ourselves and therefore the very meaning of human identity. If he is right, then humankind stands on a moral and existential threshold—or cliff. We would do well as a society to weigh his bracing argument before taking another step.” —Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire
Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age by Bill McKibben
By Hana DeHaya
Although this book should get 5 stars for imagination and style,
I disagree with its premise.
We humans already have built into our systems, the trait of curiosity as well as the strong desire to survive as a species.
We're going to move forward with genetic research, stem cell
research and cloning organs in the 21st Century. We're also
excited with the prospect of space travel and intelligent life
elsewhere in the universe.
The author thinks that we must stop developing our human-ness, at
this time because we need to stick with what's "natural."
Is it natural to have the ability to cure all diseases by manipulating genes and stem cells, but NOT do it?...for fear of
not being "natural?" Is it natural NOT to live 200 years, if we
have it within our power to do so? As long as we solve the
problems of overpopulation, what's wrong with living 200 years?
At this time, we're replacing damaged human parts with new high
tech man-made materials? Is it unnatural to have a prosthetic
arm, leg, hand, etc.? In some cases, we're also using animal
cells to cure human brain diseases. Some people have used
transplanted animal hearts. Is this unnatural...to want to live,
no matter what? Would it be better to die then to have an
animal or prosthetic part?
Cloning human organs simply refines the above procedures, and
nothing more.
In the 21st Century we already know that machines are putting many out of work. We know that computers can "think" faster than most humans, and yet we want them to make our lives more
convenient. Our desire to choose our own destiny could come to
an end if we were NOT to enhance our brain power vis a vie these
existing machines. What is wrong with that?
Is it unnatural to want to have higher intelligence than the machines in our lives?
Through the development of machines, computer chips, satellites,
space ships, and the e*world in general, we have changed our
environment. The "medium is the message" should be pretty clear
here. Now, we need to adapt to the very environment that we
have wrought. The reason that homo sapiens have come this far, is the ability of our brains to adapt to an assortment of environments. Of course, we need to develop our intelligence so
that we are the masters of the machines and...beyond. Wouldn't
it be grossly unnatural NOT to be smarter than the machines we
build?
There's no doubt that most humans who think about space travel,
are smart enough, in the present time, to know that we humans
will NOT be able to do this, in our present form. If we ever reach the point of being able to chart a destination...it wouldn't be possible to arrive at that goal, in our present state. No doubt, to send a space ship out into the universe to
some distant planet or moon with humans on board to inhabit that
celestial place, our Planet Earth ancestors will have to create
a nearly new species... a more sophisticated primate. Perhaps,
humanoids with highly enhanced brains and no legs will navigate
a cargo of suspended fertilized eggs, as well as humans long in
hibernation. But how is this not natural? Isn't it very natural to want to explore our universe? Isn't it extremely
natural to want to survive a collision with a meteor or comet, if
it's "humanly" possible?
It would seem that NOT to do all of the above, would hold back
our VERY NATURAL human drives of survival and exploration.
I applaud the author for pointing out some pitfalls that technology might lead us into. Taking these into consideration,
we humans, have no choice but to move forward into gradually
expanding brave new worlds, which is what we have always done, in
order to make our species stronger and able to survive.
24 of 39 people found the following review helpful.
Huh?
By Kevin Currie-Knight
This book has a goal: to scare you. That, in itself, doesn't make the book bad. While I am pro-biotech, I appreciate the fact that people are allowed to read and explore a myriad of positioins before they make up their mind. What bothers me, then, is that McKibben is so intent on scaring us into submission that he is either a.) puposely exaggerating and misunderstanding his information and doesn't care, or b.)literally doesn't know 'enough' about what he's writing so as not to notice his caricatures.
For instance - amd most troubleing -, well over 2/3rds of his citations are gotten from newspapers, trade magazines, and (a little better but not by a lot) popular science articles. So we get treated to all the exaggerated stories about the nutty little cult-like submovements that treat biotech as an unmitigated utopia while under the impression that this is the mainstream view. Well, the New York TImes is in the business of selling newspapers and reporting stories that can help them do it. If we haven't noticed, they are much less concerned with accuracy. But McKibben's index is not only littered with these types of exaggerated stories, but virtually all are gotten from the newspapers and trade rags. Not very professional.
Second (and partly due to the above) Mckibben is wont to grossly overexaggerate fears of genetic determinism. IF we can select genes for success, he says, then children will be comodities!!! But in saying this, he doesn't realisze - or doesn't let on - that a.) there is no gene combo for 'success' (such a blanket phrase), b.) success involeves quite a bit of 'luck' and evironment in addition to genetic factors; c.) a genetic tweek is by no means a gaurentee of superiority in a particular area. McKibben, though, doesn't know this; my guess becasue he is quoting from trade magazines that like to write article on the "gene for x" in order to give us a shocking and juicy cover story. "Beanbag genetics" is dead an someone forgot to tell McKibbon that he is more of a gentic determinist than even most genetic determinist are.
Third he writes aobut his fears that biotech will 'dehumanize' us. We get this alot and McKibben swears he is not a luddite. But the argument fits the bill perfectly: Limitations are what makes us human; the better humans are made to perform, the less human they'll be. McKibben says that we should just be happy with the progress we've made so far (after all, eradication of limitions in the past was a good thing; it is only the future doings that are problematic) and cash in our chips content only with the results gotten so far. But how would getting people to live longer, be less prone to obesity, have smarter brains, have better eye-sight, and have various other talnents be immoral? The problem is that McKibben doesn't really ARUGE a point here; he just repeats his emotional appeal about the joys of human limitaitons as they are (you too can die at 70! Woohoo!) like it doesn't require any further argument. But in light of all of the things we COULD be better at with biotech's help, we really deserve an explanation of why it is moral to know that you can improve humans and NOT do it.
Long and short: following McKibben's title, reading this book make me say: "Enough!"
26 of 30 people found the following review helpful.
Enough ..Misinformation about Genetic Reseaarch
By Lee W Robertson
I had difficulty taking this book seriously. It seems as though the author has misinterpreted the findings of genetic research. As a result, he doesn't present the whole story. His fears are unfounded. Scientists know full well that life is not governed by genetic specifications. The psychological processes he discusses, such as music ability and intelligence, are influenced by many factors such as upbringing, life experiences, culture, cohort and education. Even in the late seventies, when I went to college, researchers accepted the premise that human traits ..especially psychological ones ..are brought about by the interaction of our genetic nature with our life experiences. Human development is a constant exchange between nature and the socializing influences of family and culture. To think that it is unilaterally determined by genetic makeup is fallacious.
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