From: Greg Burch (gregburch@gregburch.net)
Date: Fri Feb 21 2003 - 19:00:29 MST
> From: Robert J. Bradbury
> Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 10:33 AM
>
> See NY Times article:
> Development of Biotech Crops Is Booming in Asia
> by David Barboza, Feb. 21, 2003:
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/international/asia/21BIOT.html?pagewan
ted=print
> As I predicted the whole European GMO debate is largely irrelevant
> (this may position me somewhat against positions raised by Greg
> (with an emphasis on the risks of the anti-GMO/luddite
> lobby) and/or Natasha (with the Pro-Act perspective)).
> The bottom line is that there are hungry people out there
> that need to feed themselves. There are also more of them
> (people of asian descent) than there are of people like
> myself (europeans or their offspring).
> One can argue the risks of the luddite perspective only so far
> and that "farness" I strongly suspect stops at the stomachs of the
> large numbers of asian individuals.
Notice where I've been spending a lot of time lately???? In my mind
there's a very significant chance that China will spring forward as a
biotech superpower within the next 20 years. Be there or be square.
> Now, the interesting question would be, given the acceptance
> of GM foods, whether that will translate into a general
> acceptance of GM people.
A very interesting question, indeed. While Confucianism (still alive
and kicking) provides a very "humanist" world-view, it is also *not*
"progressive" in any way. See my comments on this at Extro 5:
http://www.gregburch.net/progress.html
Visible augmentation will encounter a very steep initial opposition in
the strong trend to conformism that is common in China. On the other
hand, China is becoming a very competitive society and the desire to
provide one's offspring with advantages is *intense* there. On balance,
I expect Chinese people to be no less welcoming to human augmentation
than Europeans and Americans, and potentially much more open to it, so
long as "appearances can be maintained." Regarding biotech generally,
though, the main currents of Chinese culture have always seen nature as
something to be encompassed within the human realm and there is not the
kind of "nature fundamentalism" that progress is encountering in the
West.
Greg Burch
Vice-President, Extropy Institute
http://www.gregburch.net
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