Re: Rifkin speaks in SCI AM

mlbowli1@Nash.iupui.edu
Wed, 3 Sep 1997 14:02:53 -0500 (EST)


On Tue, 2 Sep 1997, E. Shaun Russell wrote:

> Michael Bowling quoted Jeremy Rifkin:
>
> > "We're creating multiple personas. We're creating a thespian
> >sense of personality where we see ouselves as works of art, and we see
> >everything in our environment as a prop, as a set, as a stage, as a
> >backdrop for filling ourselves in. We don't see ourselves as ever
> >completed. We are in-formation."
>
> Wow. Those are beautiful words; you mean to tell me that Rifkin
> sees the above sentences as *bad* things?

That was a direct quote attributed to Rifkin. In the preceeding text the
author, who apparently spoke with Rifkin, said the man considers
individual human identies are, at least pertly, "endowments of the natural
world," and that any technologies (genetic engineering in particular),
that can alter that endowment can "undermine the sense of self."

So yes, it appears he considers these *bad* things. Talk about
polarity...

Michael B.