From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Wed Apr 09 2003 - 01:21:47 MDT
Hal Finney wrote:
> There's an annoying review in this month's Wired magazine by David
> Gelernter of a book called Enough by Bill McKibben, opposing the ideas
> of genetic engineering, designer babies, and posthumans.
>
> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/play.html?pg=3
>
> Gelernter is probably best known for being a victim of the Unabomber.
Actually I know him from his book that probably brought him to
the Unabomber's attention, "Mirror Worlds". Many of his ideas
are quite brilliant. Unfortunately he locked away some of the
most useful ones (life-streams for instance) in patents
belonging to a single company that has done basically nothing.
> In what is perhaps a strange, virtual version of Stockholm Syndrome,
> here he is advocating views which are very much in keeping with Ted
> Kaczynski's view of the world. In this glowing review (he even refers
> to the book's writing as "luminous"), Gelernter can't say enough about
> the horrors of genetic technology used to improve health and intellectual
> and physical vigor, nor call supporters of the technology too many names.
>
> "Arrogance", "crime against humanity", "control lust", "naked nihilism".
> Even James Watson, mockingly called "His Eminence", is given disparaging
> treatment, his quote taken out of context. Gelernter concludes by
> giving a vote of confidence to the Bible as a guide to the difficult
> technological choices ahead.
>
Does he then now believe that the Unabomber was simply his
punishment for his "arrogance" and "crime against humanity"? In
any case this is a sad deterioration of a great mind.
Admittedly though, the Unabomber, while utterly repulsively
despicable in his methods, had some very legitimate worries
about what advancing technology can lead to given the nature and
proclivities of human beings. Some days I think only Eliezer's
FAI can possibly work.
- samantha
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Apr 09 2003 - 01:24:10 MDT