[extropy-chat] BOOK: John Glad - Future Human Evolution

[Robert Bradbury]

On 10/25/06, Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc> wrote:
>
>  Has anyone read John Glad's book, *Future Human Evolution: Eugenics in
> the Twenty-First Century*?  If so, can you please give your comments?
>

Haven't read it and it doesn't seem to be in Amazon, though it seems to be
available online [1].

But from the brief comment at whatwemaybe.org
<http://www.whatwemaybe.org/>it sounds as if it is mired in historic
concepts which are about to become
invalid.  For example, would people undertake the  lengthy and risky process
of having children if better alternatives were available?  Why not take
virtual entities (uploads or copies) and mix and match those instead?  If
Second Life is any example of where humanity is headed then that is where
the selection process will take place -- not in the "real" world.  Concepts
such as a "planet's carrying capacity" and the entire ecological movement
(which is closely tied to eugenics) are in need of a significant rewrite
given the bio-nano-compu-cogno convergence [2].  I would not consider
someone who is a former Russian studies professor to have much expertise in
commenting on these areas.

Robert

1.
http://www.whatwemaybe.org/txt/glad.john.2006.future_human_evolution.web.003e.en.pdf
2. We are on the verge of a huge expansion of resources at our disposal far
in excess of anything humanity has previously experienced -- that resource
expansion vastly exceeds the growth rate that humanity can produce unless
there is large scale copying of post biological human minds.
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