James Watson is a Transhumanist

From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Tue Mar 25 2003 - 09:12:24 MST

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    There's a short but pithy interview with Watson in this month's
    Scientific American. He makes it clear that he's in favor of giving
    individuals the freedom to use genetic engineering and other
    transhuman technologies.

    A couple of my favorite quotes:

    "People say, "Well, these would be designer babies," and I say, "Well,
    what's wrong with designer clothes?" If you could just say, "My baby's
    not going to have asthma," wouldn't that be nice? What's wrong with
    therapeutic cloning? Who's being hurt? "

    ....

    "We've never tried to respect the past, we've tried to improve on it.
    And I think any desire to stop people from improving things would be
    against the human spirit."

    Full interview at:

    http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?colID=1&articleID=00062AB0-2F4F-1E64ab.
    A98A809EC5880105



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