Recently NPR News featured a story that demonstrates the continuing relevance of Huxley's insights in his novel Brave New World: "Scientists Reach Milestone On Way To Artificial Life". When Craig Venter says that "we could create new species to do what we want them to do, not what they evolved to do" his hybrid entity of synthesized DNA and biological cell suggests a step towards Huxley's fictional world of manufactured commoditized human beings:"...a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress."
MORE FASTER EASIER MORE FASTER EASIER MORE FASTER
And perhaps Venter's invention will prove to be progress, to move us forward in solving some of the grave threats to our species, but creating a corporation to manufacture artificial servants for-profit may not be the most promising first step.
Is this how we define progress?
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