Radical Evolution: The Promise and
Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our
Bodies -- and What It Means to Be
Human by Joel Garreau
The Ascension Of The Gods
Taking us behind the scenes with today’s foremost researchers and
pioneers, bestselling author Joel Garreau shows that we are at a turning
point in history. At this moment we are engineering the next stage of
human evolution. Through advances in genetic, robotic, information, and
nanotechnologies, we are altering our minds, our memories, our
metabolisms, our personalities, our progeny–and perhaps our very souls.
Radical Evolution reveals that the powers of our comic-book superheroes
already exist, or are in development in hospitals, labs, and research
facilities around the country–from the revved-up reflexes and speed of
Spider-Man and Superman, to the enhanced mental acuity and memory
capabilities of an advanced species. Over the next fifteen years, Garreau

makes clear in this New York Times Book Club premiere selection, these
enhancements will become part of our everyday lives. Where will they lead
us? To heaven–where technology’s promise to make us smarter, vanquish
illness, and extend our lives is the answer to our prayers? Or, as some
argue, to hell–where unrestrained technology brings about the ultimate
destruction of our species?
Personal Review: Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of
Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be
Human by Joel Garreau
This is about the so-called GRIN technologies: Genetic, Robotic,
Information, and Nano. Properly speaking the title should be "Extreme
Cultural Evolution," or perhaps "Accelerated Technological Evolution."
"Radical" is used here in the sense of "extreme." Regardless of what we
call it, for better or for worse, we will be enhancing our minds and bodies
and changing the life forms around us, especially those we use for food. In
fact we have already done so through computers, surgery, artificial limbs,
genetically engineer agricultural products, etc. The difference to come is
all about the acceleration of change coming from these technologies.
What happens when your daughter's brave new genetic endowment gives
her a prodigious memory and makes her smarter, prettier, and stronger
than you? No problem. We love our children. Ah, but what happens
when she realizes that at age eighteen she is like an Australopithecus
creature compared to the new genetic and nanotechnological
enhancements bestowed upon her classmates just a few years younger?
What happens is the end of the world as we know it, and most critically the
end of human beings as we know ourselves. The question is, is this is a
good thing or a bad thing?
Joel Garreau has several answers in terms of scenarios of the future.
There is the "Heaven Scenario," the "Hell Scenario," the "Prevail
Scenario," and the "Transcend" possibility. Garreau interviewed a number
of experts in many fields in an effort to find out not only what the prospects
are, but to count noses, so to speak, and see who's optimistic and who
isn't.
Put Ray Kurzweil, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999)--see my
review on Amazon--in the camp of those who see marvelous things
happening, in fact a glorious singularity of advancement. Put Bill Joy, co-
founder of Sun Microsystems, in the camp of those who believe we are
headed for a right awful hell on earth. And put polymath Jaron Lanier in
the camp of those who think we can prevail over our creations. And put
Michael Goldblatt of the US military's Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) in the platoon of happy warriors just having fun
with the prospect of new and more amazingly advanced weaponry (or
defenses from weaponry).

After reading this dense and fascinating book I have a few observations.
First, regardless of whether we like it or not, or whether Luddites and social
conservatives manage to slow down or even halt some of the research,
nothing but nothing is going to stem the tide, or alter The Curve, as
Garreau calls the shape of things to come. If we don't do stem cell
research or explore replicating nanobots, you can be sure that somebody
else--in Korea, in China, in Russia, even in Pakistan--will. Any nation or
culture that chooses to not explore these brave new worlds will be in
danger of not only being left behind economically and militarily, but in
grave danger of living a sub existence like that of pets or zoo animals.
There is some debate about this point. Garreau explores the idea that
nothing will stop the tsunami and does find some people who think we can
put up a wall or at least quiet the rampaging waters. Still others are
asking, why should we? Think-tanker Francis Fukuyama, author of Our
Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution
(2002)--see my review at Amazon--believes there is something precious in
humans as presently constituted. He is fearful that we will lose that human
nature through biological engineering. Personally, glancing at the history
of human kind, I think that human nature could use some altering, and
indeed believe that unless human nature does change, we won't be around
much longer. Fukuyama believes that, were we to become as immortal as
the gods, we would stagnate. He "doesn't think immortals will ever have a
new idea again" and only the death of people allows new ideas to take
root. (p. 163)
What if we do conquer all and end up with this so-called heaven on earth?
What will it consist of? Will we pursue endless delights from brain
chemistry? Are we creatures ruled by the gods of pleasure and pain, or is
there some transcendental aspect to us? Garreau explores this question
near the end of the book with help from Martin E.P. Seligman's three levels
of happiness: "the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life."
Here I think Garreau, along with Seligman is whistling Dixie in the dark.
The "meaningful life" is what? According to what I could gather on pages
261-262, the "meaning consists in attachment to something bigger than
you are." Seligman finds such attachment in various activities from raising
children to saving the whales to being a terrorist. I think a more lasting
attachment may be to something like exploring the cosmos.
But would humans really have sufficient desire to do that? Recalling some
famous dystopias from literature, H.G. Wells's The Time Machine or
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, for example, I suspect that creatures
such as ourselves (as currently constituted) can only exist in environments
not that far removed from the savannah. Cities are tough enough for the
couch potato obese of the Western world. If we gain everything our
biology desires, we may become (further) degenerate and fall victim to
something untoward and unpredictable. Or we may just end up examining
our navels as the perfect mixture of chemicals courses through our bodies.
If we conquer all and have no challenges left, what will we do? What does

a perfectly satisfied and perfectly serene creature do? We don't know.
Transcend human nature perhaps?
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