The shattered self : the end of natural evolution / Pierre Baldi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baldi, Pierre, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human Genome Project--Moral and ethical aspects.

Human Genome Project.

Genetic engineering--Moral and ethical aspects.

Genetic engineering.

Local Subjects:

Human Genome Project--Moral and ethical aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 245 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

MIT Press CogNet.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2001]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Throughout history, we have selected and manipulated the genomes of plants, animals, and even ourselves. Until now, however, such control could be exerted only at the level of the entire organism. Scientific and technological advances now allow us to manipulate genomes directly at the level of single genes and their constituents, with a speed and precision that far exceed what natural evolution has been able to achieve over the past 3.5 billion years. These advances open new possibilities for medicine, biotechnology, and society as a whole.

We already have in vitro fertilization and animal cloning; in the future human cloning and the exploitation of embryonic stem cells, among other capabilities, may be routine. At the same time, we are developing machines that will surpass the human brain in raw computing power and building an interconnected world of information-processing devices that makes science fiction pale in comparison. In this book Baldi explores what it is about these phenomena that makes us so uncasy -- the shattering of the human self as we know it.

Through evolution our brains have been wired to provide us with an inner sense of self, a feeling that each of us is a unique individual delimited by precise boundaries. We have also been wired to reproduce ourselves in a certain way. Baldi argues that this self-centered view of the world is scientifically wrong. Its past success lies in its being an adequate model during our evolutionary bootstrapping: a world without molecular biotechnology, human cloning, and the Internet. Eventually we must come to terms with the fact that genomes, computations, and mind are fluid, continuous entities, in both space and time. The boundary between the self and the world has begun to dissolve and ultimately may evaporate entirely. Baldi offers not predictions but an informed exploration of our current state of knowledge and the possibilities that lie ahead.

Contents:

2 Science Today 7

The Decentering Process 9

The Psychology of Large Numbers 12

3 Molecular Biology 15

DNA 16

Proteins 16

Genomes 17

The Stadium-Size Cell 22

Evolution 24

Genome Sequencing 25

Beyond Genome Sequencing 28

Biotechnology 31

Genomes as Computer Programs 34

4 In Vitro Babies 37

In Vitro Babies 37

What Happens to Sex? 41

5 Human Cloning 49

Cloning 49

Human Cloning Taboo 53

Cloning and Sexual Reproduction 55

Cloning and "Intelligence" 56

Cloning and Life and Death 61

Cloning and Identity 66

6 Siamese Twins 71

7 Manipulating DNA 79

The Extended Jurassic Park 79

DNA Morphing 85

Warping and Reversing Time 88

8 Computers 91

Computations: Moore's Law 91

Communications: The Internet 94

Artificial Life 100

9 The Last Frontier: The Brain 103

Why Is Pain Painful? 104

The Limits and Expansion of Intelligence 107

Sizing the Self Up 115

Immortality Revisited 119

The Distance between Selves

The "Organic" Approach 123

Machine Learning and Reverse-Engineering the Brain

The "Artificial" Approach 126

The New Music 130

10 Ethics and What Can Go Wrong 135

Ethical Foundations 135

Contemporary Issues: Cloning, Embryonic Cells, and Gene Therapy 143

What Can Go Wrong 154

11 The Information Space 161

Biology.com 161

The Information Space 166

Appendix A. The Total Number of Humans 169

Appendix B. Historical and Technological Aspects of Cloning 171

Appendix C. Stem Cells 175

Appendix D. Historical and Technological Aspects of the Internet 179

Appendix E. Sizing the Internal Self Up and Other Brain Issues 185.

Notes:

"A Bradford book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-236) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Baldi, Pierre. Shattered self.

ISBN:

9780262267632

0262267632

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.