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More reviews by Peter Gordon
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Tomorrow's People by Susan Greenfield
SUSAN GREENFIELD has seen the future ... and doesn't like it. I can't say that I much care for it either.
In TOMORROW'S PEOPLE, SUSAN GREENFIELD extends current technological trends to yield a number of distressing results. People are likely to be disconnected from reality and society as virtual reality becomes more pleasurable and convenient than the real thing, as work evolves so as not to require our physical presence, as information can be pumped directly into our brains, as we learn enough to manipulate genetics and brain function directly. Genetic engineering may eliminate death for all practical purposes -- Greenfield postulates an extra chromosome to which we can be able to download genetic updates as though we were the latest version of Microsoft Windows -- and will allow us to design our progeny.
These trends are, for anyone who reads the papers, rather obvious. This is no longer science fiction: in most cases, the science seems largely within our grasp.
Of course, there have been apocalyptic visions in the past. Mistakes in certain technological details notwithstanding, these did not come to pass because they relied upon oppression, i.e. a denial of human choice. The frightening thing about Greenfield's vision: people will almost certainly freely choose these developments. `Virtual reality' is just the next step from high-definition televisions and role-playing video games. And would anyone choose not to give one's children a genetic leg up if one could?
Greenfield tries to be cheerful on occasion, and acknowledges technology's many benefits, but overall it's a rather depressing -- and worrying -- prospect.
Although very readable, the book is, however, not entirely satisfying. I guess I prefer my dystopias straight up: some of the popularization was uncomfortable. Greenfield says she started off writing a novel, and some novelistic traces remain, such as those parts of the book that were written as if one were in the latter part of this century looking back.
Greenfield does not propose much in the way of solutions, although that was perhaps not her intention. However, the scenario could play out in other ways that she suggests (i.e. humanity sinking into a virtual-reality sated stupor): genetic engineering might be driven by our genetic past and result in increased aggressiveness and libido; vastly increased longevity will wreak havoc with tax and pension systems; a genetically-engineered population might be far more susceptible to next virus.
We'll have about as much luck stopping technology as Canute had with the tides. But before we can prevent the consequences, we need to know what they are.
Peter Gordon
08/02/2004
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Peter Gordon is editor of The Asian Review of Books. |
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