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In this provocative and far-reaching book,
Jeremy Rifkin argues that the computer revolution is merely
a prelude to a far more significant change taking place
in the global economy. We are in the midst of a great historic
transition into the Age of Biotechnology.
Rifkin notes that after more than forty
years of running on parallel tracks, the information and
life sciences are fusing into a single powerful technological
and economic force that is laying the foundation for the
Biotech Century. The computer is increasingly being used
to decipher, manage, and organize the vast genetic information
that is the raw resource of the new global economy. Already,
transnational corporations are creating giant life-science
complexes from which to fashion a bio-industrial world.
Our way of life, says Rifkin, is likely
to be transformed more fundamentally in the next few decades
may be grown indoors in giant bacteria baths, partially
eliminating the farmer and the soil for the first time in
history. Animal and human cloning could be commonplace,
with "replication" increasingly replacing "reproduction."
Millions of people could obtain a detailed genetic readout
of themselves, allowing them to gaze into their own biological
futures and predict and plan their lives in ways never before
possible. Parents may choose to have their children gestated
in artificial wombs outside the human body. Genetic changes
could be made in human fetuses to correct deadly diseases
and disorders and enhance mood, behavior, intelligence,
and physical traits.
The Biotech Century promises a cornucopia
of genetically engineered plants and animals to feed a hungry
world; genetically derived sources of energy and fiber to
propel commerce and build a "renewable" society;
wonder drugs and genetic therapies to produce healthier
babies, eliminate human suffering, and extend the human
life span. But with every step we take into this brave new
world, the nagging question will haunt us: "At what
cost?"
The new genetic commerce raises more troubling
questions than any other economic revolution in history.
Will the artificial creation of cloned, chimeric, and transgenic
animals mean the end of nature and the substitution of a
"bio-industrial" world? Will the mass release
of thousands of genetically engineered life forms into the
environment cause catastrophic genetic pollution and irreversible
damage to the biosphere? What are the consequences -- for
both the global economy and society -- of reducing the world's
gene pool to patented intellectual property controlled exclusively
by a handful of life-science corporations? What will it
mean to live in a world where babies are genetically engineered
and customized in the womb, and where people are increasingly
identified, stereotyped, and discriminated against on the
basis of their genotype? What are the risks we take in attempting
to design more "perfect" human beings? Rifkin
explores these and many other critical issues in this groundbreaking
book about the coming era.
The biotech revolution will force each of
us to put a mirror to our most deeply held values, making
us ponder the ultimate question of the purpose and meaning
of existence. This, Rifkin maintains, may turn out to be
its most important contribution.
Jeremy Rifkin is the author of fourteen
books on economic trends and matters relating to science,
technology, and culture. He is president of the Foundation
on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C.
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