Snappy, insightful, with a great bibliography

books:


	• Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human Joel Garreau Broadway, 2006 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good introduction to the field

I read this book as part of an honors seminar at my university called "Cyborgs, Transhumansim, and the Future of Mankind." This is a very good collection of the different possibilities of how the singularity could play itself out. The author assumes that radical evolution will take place, so it is not completely objective, but he does reference scientists of different viewpoints, in order to gain a balanced picture of how believers in transhumanism envision the future. Very good overview to spur further research and thought.

A good overview of biotechnology

I'm a college student majoring in science, but I had to buy this book for a humanities class. It's a good overview of the various future scenarios proposed by scientists working in several major biotech fields. At the same time, while interesting, quite a few of the theories are pretty far-fetched. The author's own scenario Prevail to Transcend shows the most promise, but be warned--this book will take you on a wild ride, and make you imagine some weird and wacky situations. Overall a good, easy, quick read with enjoyable prose, and the author's dry humorous wit interjecting sanity into some of the crazier moments.

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Will Humans Prevail

Well-researched, and beautifully written, Joe Garreau brings his well-honed journalism skills to bear on the most vexing question humankind has ever faced: what to do now that our genetic, robotics, information and nano technologies have begun to give us the ability to enhance our own evolution?

Garreau offers a glimpse at the mind-boggling technologies DARPA is already developing in support of our national defense, then convincingly extrapolates how the ever-quicking pace of technological innovation will likely lead to a Singularity event when humans invent something more intelligent than themselves. The remainder of the book considers whether the Singularity will lead to a Heaven state (technological nirvana), a Hell state (destruction or degradation of humankind) or a Prevail state, in which humans develop control mechanisms to avoid becoming slaves to technology.

The Heaven and Hell scenarios are set up as obvious strawmen for Garreau to knock down en route to the more likely middle outcome. Yet his analysis of the Prevail scenario loses focus, as the discussion veers off on a number of philosophical tangents and seems to conclude that adopting an iHippy group-love mentality will prove the key to our survival.

While I found this to be a stimulating read and especially liked how Garreau organized his material around key thinkers in the relevant technical fields, I wish he had more fully explored some practical ways of containing threatening technology, such as the adoption of more powerful international governing bodies with the regulatory teeth to outlaw certain technologies and the use of new media tools to blacklist undesirable practices. (The current push to be green, in reaction to the Global Warming crisis, shows the possibility of forming international positions on key issues.) I don't mean to suggest that it's possible to define the Prevail endstate with any real specifics, but I came away with the impression that Garreau turned away from his considerable analytical ability in the later parts of the book.

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Snappy, insightful, with a great bibliography

The future of mankind is directly controllable by man. This book explores the manifestations and ramifications of this concept from the point of view of those who are engaged in it; such as doctors, geneticists, computer programmers, politicians, and military researchers. The different chapters focus on the different views of man's designer future, and how different technologies such as genetics, robotics, and nanotechnology plays a part. The text contains a lot of quotes from experts in these areas; and so the reader gets numerous points of views on each subject. The author himself stays very objective, and instead of coming to conclusions, concludes many sections with posed questions that forces the reader to think. There are no figures, charts or graphs; everything is text. Interestingly, the author focuses mainly on technologies that have not hit the mainstream. The author should have spent more verbage examining how current medical practices such as plastic surgery, braces, laser hair removal, even vaccinations have affected norms of human society. This would have placed all the future scenarios in better context.

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Joel Garreau doesn't play favorites

Just finished reading this book, and I must say that it is the perfect book for anyone who wants to read about cutting edge technology from the perspective of someone relatively unbiased. Unlike popular figures who promote or scorn the future of human science, Garreau explains the situation intelligently, using several examples from people with all different points of view. I recommend this book for anyone who wants a brush up on where technology is going, as well as anyone who might be interested in reconciling their current views with the other side. Everyone might not get the same things as me out of this, but thanks to Garreau's book, I'm beginning to come to terms with my place in where it looks like this world- and humanities role in it- might be going.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Taking us behind the scenes with today?s foremost researchers and pioneers, bestselling author Joel Garreau shows that we are at a turning point in history. At this moment we are engineering the next stage of human evolution. Through advances in genetic, robotic, information, and nanotechnologies, we are altering our minds, our memories, our metabolisms, our personalities, our progeny?and perhaps our very souls. Radical Evolution reveals that the powers of our comic-book superheroes already exist, or are in development in hospitals, labs, and research facilities around the country?from the revved-up reflexes and speed of Spider-Man and Superman, to the enhanced mental acuity and memory capabilities of an advanced species. Over the next fifteen years, Garreau makes clear in this New York Times Book Club premiere selection, these enhancements will become part of our everyday lives. Where will they lead us? To heaven?where technology?s promise to make us smarter, vanquish illness, and extend our lives is the answer to our prayers? Or, as some argue, to hell?where unrestrained technology brings about the ultimate destruction of our species?

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