Our posthuman future : consequences of the biotechnology revolution / by Francis Fukuyama
Publisher: London : Profile, 2003Description: 256p. p.; 20 cm001: 12106ISBN: 1861974957Subject(s): Biotechnology | Genetics | DNA | Ethics | Technological change | CloningDDC classification: 303.483 FUKItem type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
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Book | MAIN LIBRARY Book | 303.483 FUK (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 088569 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Is a baby whose personality has been chosen from a gene supermarket still a human? If we choose what we create what happens to morality? Is this the end of human nature?
Originally published: 2002.
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Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
In his dense, well-researched new book, political scientist Fukuyama (The End of History) correctly predicts monumental forthcoming changes through biotechnology, raising challenging social, political, and economic issues. Drawing on behavioral genetics, "cosmetic" psychopharmacology, life prolongation, and the prospects for germline enhancement, he also tackles such hot-button issues as eugenics, embryonic stem-cell research, the overuse/misuse of psychotropic drugs, ageism, human cloning, and "designer babies." Discussing these and other topics, he calls for less polarized, more nuanced debates, acknowledging the global nature of technology and coherently arguing that the incomplete regulation of technology shouldn't discourage ongoing attempts at regulation. However, in claiming that "biotechnology will alter human nature, and thereby move us into a `posthuman' stage of history," Fukuyama overemphasizes genetics while underestimating genomics and the extent to which people will soon be faced with more, not less, uncertainty. Biological homeostasis is incredibly powerful, and new disease diagnoses, treatments, and concepts of disease are far closer to becoming reality than are genetic enhancements. Not the final word on this subject but a worthy addition to almost any library. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/01.] Mary Chitty, Cambridge Healthtech Inst., MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
Fukuyama (The End of History and the Last Man; Trust) is no stranger to controversial theses, and here he advances two: that there are sound nonreligious reasons to put limits on biotechnology, and that such limits can be enforced. Fukuyama argues that "the most significant threat" from biotechnology is "the possibility that it will alter human nature and thereby move us into a `posthuman' stage of history." The most obvious way that might happen is through the achievement of genetically engineered "designer babies," but he presents other, imminent routes as well: research on the genetic basis of behavior; neuropharmacology, which has already begun to reshape human behavior through drugs like Prozac and Ritalin; and the prolongation of life, to the extent that society might come "to resemble a giant nursing home." Fukuyama then draws on Aristotle and the concept of "natural right" to argue against unfettered development of biotechnology. His claim is that a substantive human nature exists, that basic ethical principles and political rights such as equality are based on judgments about that nature, and therefore that human dignity itself could be lost if human nature is altered. Finally, he argues that state power, possibly in the form of new regulatory institutions, should be used to regulate biotechnology, and that pessimism about the ability of the global community to do this is unwarranted. Throughout, Fukuyama avoids ideological straitjackets and articulates a position that is neither Luddite nor laissez-faire. The result is a well-written, carefully reasoned assessment of the perils and promise of biotechnology, and of the possible safeguards against its misuse. (Apr.) Forecast: As the FSG publicity material notes, Fukuyama famously declared in the wake of communism's collapse that "the major alternatives to liberal democracy" had "exhausted themselves." This less dramatic assessment should still win a hearing, if not among scientists then among a public concerned about science's growing power. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reservedCHOICE Review
This important book by a prominent social philosopher and political economist who serves on the President's Council on Bioethics takes a broad view of the implications of new biotechnologies. Although Fukuyama (Johns Hopkins Univ.) acknowledges that the consequences of neuropharmacology, prolongation of life, and genetic engineering may turn out to be benign and manageable, he claims that it is also possible that they will move society into a "posthuman future." Like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), Fukuyama warns that future biotechnologies may make us happy and content, but in the process of using them we may rob ourselves of important elements of our human nature. This is a bold and provocative thesis, but Fukuyama argues it forcefully without falling prey to the sensationalism that has characterized some critiques of biotechnology. He makes a compelling case for a belief in human nature that does not necessarily rest on religious assumptions, thus avoiding the facile "science versus religion" dichotomy when discussing contentious topics like cloning and stem cell research. Combining evidence from behavioral biology, philosophy, and various social sciences Fukuyama presents a spirited defense of human nature against critics who would deny that it exists. Highly recommended for public, academic, and professional library collections. J. B. Hagen Radford UniversityBooklist Review
The man who vaulted into the headlines in 1989 with his announcement of "the end of history" has discovered that history is not only still going on but is now tracing a distinctly ominous trajectory. In particular, Fukuyama warns that the new biotechnology threatens to weaken and perhaps even destroy the basis for liberal democracy, the very type of governance he previously hailed as history's terminus. Some of the dangers that lie ahead derive from new drugs for controlling mood and new therapies for prolonging life. (What kind of leaders get elected by an electorate heavily dependent upon Prozac? What happens to intergenerational equity in a society dominated by septuagenarians?) But the real peril for Fukuyama lies in eugenics and genetic engineering, for the spread of these technologies threatens to undermine the principle of human equality by creating a powerful new genetic overclass. Seeing no other way to avert this threat, Fukuyama calls for aggressive new government regulation both in the U.S. and the international community. Such regulation appears unlikely to come out of current deliberations as long as participants are deadlocked over the applicability of the religious principles invoked by many of the new technologies' critics. So Fukuyama's most valuable contribution may be his recasting of the key issues in terms of a strictly secular yet still moral and ethical understanding of human nature. Incisive and disturbing, an urgent summons to a critically important public debate. --Bryce ChristensenKirkus Book Review
To clone or not to clone? asks social philosopher Fukuyama (The Great Disruption, 1999, etc.) in his latest disquisition on science and society. Reproductive cloning (people) and therapeutic cloning (embryonic stem cells) are not the author's only concerns. What are we to do in a society that uses and abuses Prozac and Ritalin, one that is eager to exploit potential genes for intelligence or height or prolonged aging? Grim scenarios follow: the rich with designer babies; the poor ever more deprived; societies, even democracies, doomed to stagnation from the weight of aging natives dependent on youthful immigrants. And on and on to a "posthuman" existence in which membership in the human race may be problematic, given a genome spliced with so many non-Homo sapien genes. What to do? Fukuyama argues the need to restore notions of human rights, human nature, human dignity. Here he is in his element, critiquing the philosophies of Hobbes, Hume, Mill, Locke, Kant, Marx, et al., down to contemporary theorists. Fukuyama concludes that human values are intimately bound up with human emotions and that these are intrinsically linked to "species-typical behavior " (human nature redux). The final leap is to human dignity, the notion that all humanity exists on a higher moral plane than the rest of the natural world. It follows that acts that deny human dignity, such as reproductive cloning, should be banned outright. As for therapeutic cloning, genetically modified foods, human genetic engineering, etc., Fukuyama urges regulation (providing a useful summary of rules currently in place here and abroad) and wariness. Though he has famously said that there can be no end to history as long as science marches on, he worries lest science take us over the edge of the slippery slope. Many won't buy the human dignity thesis or dystopian nightmares, but credit the author for laying out how we got to this pass and why we need to act.There are no comments on this title.
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