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Stephen Downes

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Scroll down just a bit to read this longish article looking at the impact of genetic manipulation on human nature and human freedom. The thesis addressed is the idea that if genetic manipulation is used to overcome human limitations, then the meaning we draw from those limitations will be lost. To quote McKibben, "We are snipping the very last weight holding us to the ground, and when it's gone we will float silently away into the vacuum of meaninglessness." The author, Steve Talbott, admits that there is something to McKibben's complaint. "That the worshippers of machinery, efficiency, and power are engaged todayCRLFin a fateful assault upon the human being is beyond all doubt." But we are, he asserts, more than our machinery. "The bedrock principle of the organism... is thatCRLFeverything is connected to everything else -- and in ways we have scarcely begun to understand."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 28, 2024 6:20 p.m.

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