[extropy-chat] Science & Theology News on Liberation Biology

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

>From Science & Theology
News<http://www.stnews.org/articles.php?article_id=646&category=books>,
a surprisingly positive article on Bailey's Liberation
Biology<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1591022274/qid=1121678758/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-8311910-8300920?v=glance&s=books&n=507846>
.
In Liberation Biology, Ronald Bailey, a science writer for Reason magazine, 
questions assumptions and conclusions made by biotechnology detractors, or 
bioconservatives. He argues that bioconservative criticisms of the biotech 
revolution are more political gimmick than scholarly endeavor.
Countering Fukuyama's somber statement that life extension could exert 
negative influence upon society, Bailey argues, after Thomas Hobbes' 
Leviathan, that society exists for the sake of the individual and not vice 
versa.
Even a cursory look at the evolution of the technique over the last five 
decades should convince us that much of the criticism against biotech fails 
in the face of contingency of technology. Some are afraid that biotech is 
assuming the role of a moral arbitrator and should be shelved. But a faith 
in creative potential and freedom to actualize it would turn biotech into a 
truly revolutionary instrument of human evolution. Just like the transition 
from Gutenberg to Web publishing, biotech is causing a fundamental shift in 
human cognition. 
Liberation Biology is rightfully about the biological path to freedom. It 
gives a resounding rebuttal to biological determinism by arguing a case for 
biology as a technique and not tyranny. Bailey's daring work that inspires 
readers to take a critical look at our religious and cultural beliefs while 
they undergo inevitable transformation as biological beings.
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