NPR

'Hacking Darwin' Explores Genetic Engineering — And What It Means To Be Human

The waters of genetic meddling are murky; in a new book, technology futurist Jamie Metzl reviews where we've been in the past as a guideline for where we might be headed.
<em>Hacking Darwin</em>, by Jamie Metzl

We all know that the world is changing. Fast. But do we know where it is going? Not exactly.

That being the case, how can we control where it is going? And who is the "we" in control? In Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity, the technology futurist, geopolitical expert, past White House fellow, and, like this author, dedicated endurance athlete Jamie Metzl paints a picture that is at once wondrous and terrifying.

His focus, as the book title indicates, is the impact of genetic engineering in the very definition of what it means to be human. The prospects border on what would, a few years back, be considered a mix of impossible and, to many,

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