Scientist Gregory Stock's Redesigning Humans was published simultaneously with Francis Fukuyama's Our Posthuman Future and while they both discuss aspects of the biotechnology revolution--including the ethics of stem cell research, human cloning and germ-line engineering--they take diametrically opposed views. Fukuyama argues that if we are to avoid some of the worst political consequences of the biotech revolution then sweeping national and international regulation is required. For Stock the very idea of sweeping regulation is misconceived. Our collective challenge, Stock argues, is not to figure out how to block these developments, but how best to realise their benefits while minimising our risks and safeguarding our rights and freedoms. The best way to do that is to inform ourselves about the technologies while realising that we are not in need of special ethical or political training to face up to the choices those technologies will eventually offer us.

What's really interesting about this book is that Stock has managed to write something of a quest romance while discussing the nitty-gritty details of the technologies themselves. The tone of the book from the opening Marcus Garvey quotation--"God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be"--encourages us to think of the biotech revolution as a kind of New Frontier. But by keeping his discussion largely focused upon the technologies themselves, he steers the reader away from, on the one hand, the false hope that we are on the threshold of creating super-humans, or the unjustified fear that liberal democratic culture will be undone by the new developments.--Larry Brown

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A visionary lays out a future in which humankind is enhanced beyond our wildest dreams . . . (Kirkus Reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars If we could make better humans ... why shouldn't we?, 17 Dec 2003

By	D. Ronco "Author of PeaceMaker" (Eastern Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

James Watson, codiscoverer of the structure of DNA, asked, "If we could make better humans ... why shouldn't we?" That question is at the core of this book, and Gregory Stock responds in the affirmative. Not that we have a choice, he asserts; genetic engineering is coming whether we like it or not. And he makes a damn good case.

Rather than getting right to it, however, he begins with an anti-Kurzweil chapter. Ray Kurzweil is the author of the Age of Spiritual Machines, which projects the rapid development of artificial intelligence during the next few decades and the integration of human and machine intelligence (see my review). Stock argues that the interface between the human nervous system and silicon would be incredibly complex, making it highly unlikely we will be physically integrated with our computers within this timeframe. He believes that we will communicate much more effectively with the machines through our senses, becoming fyborgs (functional cyborgs).

Then he moves on to the main course, beginning with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Physicians have been performing genetic testing of embryos since 1989, with screening now available for a handful of genetic diseases. This technology will continue to expand, allowing parents to select specific embryos for implantation in the uterus, effectively enabling us to have children with certain genetic tendencies. The next advance, germinal choice technologies (GCT), will arrive within the next decade or two, allowing us to enhance our children's naturally occurring genetic inheritance. Artificial chromosomes, loaded with selected genes, might be the foundation.

Stock understands how divisive this issue will be, but argues that it can't be halted (not that he wants to stop it). He argues effectively for a reasonable degree of regulation, although he believes that the ultimate decision must remain in the hands of parents.

This is a book focused more on ethics and issues rather than technology. If you're interested more in the nuts and bolts of genetic engineering, look elsewhere. Whether you agree with him or not, Stock lays out the issues and his answers in a clear and compelling manner.

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