The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change
Page 64
Ibid.
196 in order to protect a tiny portion of the industry’s profits
Emad Mekay, “Beef Lobby Blocks Action on Mad Cow, Activists Say,” Inter Press Service, January 8, 2004, http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0401a/copyright/madcow4.html; Charles Abbott, “Analysis: U.S. Mad Cow Find: Lucky Break or Triumph of Science?,” Reuters, April 25, 2012.
197 a regulation that embodies the intent of the law rejected
“Obama Bans ‘Downer’ Cows from Food Supply,” Associated Press, March 14, 2009.
198 could be reversed by Obama’s successor
Ibid.
199 In 1922, a “model eugenical sterilization law”
Paul A. Lombardo, Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 91.
200 were sterilized under laws similar to Laughlin’s design
Alex Wellerstein, “Harry Laughlin’s ‘Model Eugenical Sterilization Law,’ ” http://alexwellerstein.com/laughlin/.
201 were burdensome to the state because of the expense
Paul Lombardo, “Eugenic Sterilization Laws,” Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement, http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay8text.html.
202 people who were reproducing at rates not possible in the past
Jonathan D. Moreno, The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America (New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2011), p. 67.
203 he obviously believed they were heritable
Ibid., p. 67.
204 Laughlin was himself an epileptic
Wellerstein, “Harry Laughlin’s ‘Model Eugenical Sterilization Law.’ ”
205 Europe was influential in forming the highly restrictive quota system
Ibid.
206 influenced by deep confusion over what evolution really means
Moreno, The Body Politic, pp. 64–67.
207 Sir Francis Galton, and was then popularized by Herbert Spencer
Ibid., p. 65.
208 based on the crackpot ideas of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Ibid.
209 after their birth were genetically passed on to their offspring
Ibid.
210 was also promoted in the Soviet Union by Trofim Lysenko
“Trofim Denisovich Lysenko,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/353099/Trofim-Denisovich-Lysenko.
211 mainstream genetics during the three decades
Ibid.
212 Geneticists who disagreed with Lysenko were secretly arrested
Ibid.; Moreno, The Body Politic, p. 69.
213 some were found dead in unexplained circumstances
“Trofim Denisovich Lysenko,” Encyclopaedia Britannica; Moreno, The Body Politic, p. 69.
214 that biological theory conform with Soviet agricultural needs
“Trofim Denisovich Lysenko,” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
215 rather those that were best adapted to their environments
Michael Shermer, “Darwin Misunderstood,” February 2009, http://www.michaelshermer.com/2009/02/darwin-misunderstood/.
216 “undesirables,” and had enabled them to proliferate
Moreno, The Body Politic, pp. 67–68.
217 led to the proliferation of “undesirables” in the first place
Ibid., pp. 69–70.
218 quite a few reactionary advocates of eugenics
Ibid.
219 described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center
Ibid., p. 70; Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Files, “Pioneer Fund,” http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/pioneer-fund.
220 founding president was none other than Harry Laughlin
Wellerstein, “Harry Laughlin’s ‘Model Eugenical Sterilization Law.’ ”
221 Eugenics also found support, historians say
Moreno, The Body Politic, pp. 67–70.
222 what was appropriate by way of state intervention in heredity
Ibid.
223 theories that were even vaguely similar to that of Nazism
Ibid., pp. 67–69.
224 debate over current proposals that some have labeled “neo-eugenics”
Leroi, “The Future of Neo-Eugenics.”
225 half of all Americans still say they do not believe in evolution
Gallup, “In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins,” June 1, 2012, http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/Hold-Creationist-View-Human-Origins.aspx.
226 one of the more than two dozen state eugenics laws
Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200, May 2, 1927.
227 the young woman, Carrie Buck, had already had a child
University of Virginia—Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, “Carrie Buck, Virginia’s Test Case,” 2004, http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/eugenics/3-buckvbell.cfm.
228 “Three generations of imbeciles are enough”
Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200, May 2, 1927.
229 which has never been overturned
Dan Vergano, “Re-Examining Supreme Court Support for Sterilization,” USA Today, November 19, 2008.
230 had been forcibly sterilized
Stephen Jay Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter,” Natural History, July 1985.
231 Buck was lucid and of normal intelligence
Ibid.
232 who had been raped by a nephew of one of her foster parents
“Carrie Buck, Virginia’s Test Case.”
233 to avoid what they feared would otherwise be a scandal
Vergano, “Re-Examining Supreme Court Support for Sterilization.”
234 had syphilis and was unmarried when she gave birth to Carrie
“Carrie Buck, Virginia’s Test Case.”
235 declared Buck “congenitally and incurably defective”
Vergano, “Re-Examining Supreme Court Support for Sterilization.”
236 “The fix was in”
Ibid.
237 “shiftless, ignorant, and worthless”
“Carrie Buck, Virginia’s Test Case.”
238 “There is a look about it that is not quite normal”
Ibid.
239 was taken from her family and given to the family of Carrie’s rapist
Vergano, “Re-Examining Supreme Court Support for Sterilization.”
240 Carrie’s sister, Doris, was also sterilized at the same institution
Gould, “Carrie Buck’s Daughter.”
241 which was the basis for the Virginia statute upheld
Alex Wellerstein, “Harry Laughlin’s ‘Model Eugenical Sterilization Law.’ ”
242 President Woodrow Wilson
Vergano, “Re-Examining Supreme Court Support for Sterilization.”
243 Alexander Graham Bell
Glenn Kessler, “Herman Cain’s Rewriting of Birth-Control History,” Washington Post, Fact Checker blog, November 1, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/herman-cains-rewriting-of-birth-control-history/2011/10/31/gIQAr53uaM_blog.html.
244 Margaret Sanger
Ibid.
245 remain celibates or have no children or only one or two
Harry Bruinius, Better for All the World: The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America’s Quest for Racial Purity (New York: Knopf, 2006), pp. 190–91.
246 “To assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit”
Lori Robertson, “Cain’s False Attack on Planned Parenthood,” FactCheck.org, November 1, 2011, http://factcheck.org/2011/11/cains-false-attack-on-planned-parenthood/.
247 “More children from the fit, less from the unfit”
Daniel J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (New York: Knopf, 1985), p. 90.
248 “mixed-race individuals, single mothers with many children”
Nicole Pasulka, “Forced Sterilization for Transgender People in Sweden,” Mother Jones, January 25, 2012.
24
9 From 1972
Ibid.
250 could officially change his or her gender identification
Nicole Pasulka, “Sweden Moves to End Forced Sterilization of Transgender People,” Mother Jones, February 24, 2012.
251 “However, the Stockholm Administrative Court”
Rebecca Nelson, “Transgender People in Sweden No Longer Face Forced Sterilization,” Time, January 14, 2013.
252 “Sixteen other European countries”
Ibid.; Zack Ford, “Sweden Ends Forced Sterilization of Transgender People,” Think Progress, January 11, 2013, http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/01/11/1434121/sweden-ends-forced-sterilization-of-transgender-people/; Pasulka, “Forced Sterilization for Transgender People in Sweden.”
253, 254 apparently began in 2004 and became official state policy
Natalia Antelava, “Uzbekistan Carrying Out Forced Sterilisations, Say Women,” Guardian, April 20, 2012.
255 allegations by escaped activist Chen Guangcheng
Ashley Hayes, “Activists Allege Forced Abortions, Sterilizations in China,” CNN, April 30, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/30/world/asia/china-forced-abortions/index.html.
256 paid a bonus for each person who is sterilized
Gethin Chamberlain, “UK Aid Helps to Fund Forced Sterilisation of India’s Poor,” Guardian, April 14, 2012.
257 already completed the full genomes of fifty animal and plant species
“The Dragon’s DNA,” Economist.
258 But China’s principal focus seems to be
Tam, “Scientists Seek to Unravel the Mystery of IQ.”
259 China’s National Gene Bank in Shenzhen
“China Establishes National Gene Bank in Shenzhen,” Xinhua News Agency.
260 which genes are involved in determining intelligence
Tam, “Scientists Seek to Unravel the Mystery of IQ.”
261 link genetic information about a child to intelligence
“Bob Abernathy’s Interview with Francis Collins,” PBS Religion and Ethics Weekly, November 7, 2008.
262 eventually genes associated with intelligence may well be identified
Moheb Costandia, “Genetic Variants Build a Smarter Brain,” Science, June 19, 2012.
263 measured by Moore’s Law
Ian H. Stevenson and Konrad P. Kording, “How Advances in Neural Recording Affect Data Analysis,” Nature Neuroscience 14, no. 2 (February 2011): 139–42.
264 which has only 302 neurons, has been completed
Jonah Lehrer, “Neuroscience: Making Connections,” Nature, January 28, 2009.
265 Nevertheless, with an estimated 100 billion neurons
Ibid.
266 and at least 100 trillion synaptic connections
“Scientists Have New Help Finding Their Way Around Brain’s Nooks and Crannies,” ScienceDaily, August 9, 2011, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110809184153.htm.
267 mapping all of the proteins that are expressed by the genes
Human Genome Project, “The Science Behind the Human Genome Project: From Genome to Proteome,” March 26, 2008, http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/info.shtml.
268 which themselves adopt multiple geometric forms
Jie Lang et al., “Geometric Structures of Proteins for Understanding Folding, Discriminating Natives and Predicting Biochemical Functions,” 2009, http://gila-fw.bioengr.uic.edu/lab/papers/2009/protein-liang.pdf.
269 biochemical modifications after they are translated by the genes
Christopher Walsh et al., “Protein Posttranslational Modifications: The Chemistry of Proteome Diversifications,” Angewandte Chemie, International Edition 44 (2005): 7342–72.
270 “in extraordinarily complex biochemical cascades”
Evan R. Goldstein, “The Strange Neuroscience of Immortality,” Chronicle of Higher Education, July 16, 2012.
271 Exploiting advances in the new field of optogenetics
Karl Deisseroth, “Optogenetics: Controlling the Brain with Light,” Scientific American, October 20, 2010.
272 corresponding genes, which then become optical switches
Matthew Hougan and Bruce Altevogt, From Molecules to Minds: Challenges for the 21st Century (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2008).
273 observe its effects on other neurons with a green light
Ibid.; Carl E. Schoonover and Abby Rabinowitz, “Control Desk for the Neural Switchboard,” New York Times, May 16, 2011.
274 control of symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease
Amy Barth, “Controlling Brains with a Flick of a Light Switch,” Discover Magazine, September 2012.
275 by having each category light up in a different color
Hougan and Altevogt, From Molecules to Minds; Schoonover and Rabinowitz, “Control Desk for the Neural Switchboard.”
276 much more detailed visual map of neuronal connections
Hougan and Altevogt, From Molecules to Minds.
277 decoding other parts of the connectome is thereby accelerated
Joshua T. Vogelstein, “Q&A: What Is the Open Connectome Project?,” Neural Systems & Circuits, November 18, 2011.
278 scans of body parts, tracks blood flow in the brain to neurons
“Shiny New Neuroscience Technique (Optogenetics) Verifies a Familiar Method (fMRI),” Discover Magazine, May 17, 2010.
279 take in blood containing the oxygen and glucose needed for energy
Ibid.; Leonie Welberg, “Brain Metabolism: Astrocytes Bridge the Gap,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10, no. 86 (February 2009): 86.
280 difference between oxygenated blood and oxygen-depleted blood
“Major Advance in MRI Allows Much Faster Brain Scans,” ScienceDaily, January 5, 2011.
281 identify which areas of the brain are active at any given moment
“Shiny New Neuroscience Technique (Optogenetics) Verifies a Familiar Method (fMRI),” Discover Magazine.
282 discoveries about where specific functions are located in the brain
Pagan Kennedy, “The Cyborg in Us All,” New York Times Magazine, September 18, 2011.
283 at the University of Cambridge in England
David Cyranoski, “Neuroscience: The Mind Reader,” Nature, June 13, 2012.
284 select pictures that are then displayed on the iPhone’s screen
Kennedy, “The Cyborg in Us All.”
285 empower users to control objects on a computer screen
Katia Moskovitch, “Real-Life Jedi: Pushing the Limits of Mind Control,” BBC, October 9, 2011.
286 “muscle rhythms rather than real neural activity”
Clive Cookson, “Healthcare: Into the Cortex,” Financial Times, July 31, 2012.
287 headset to allow thought control of other electronic devices
Moskovitch, “Real-Life Jedi.”
288 approach to build wheelchairs and robots controlled by thoughts
Cookson, “Healthcare: Into the Cortex.”
289 Four other companies
Moskovitch, “Real-Life Jedi.”
290 that enable soldiers to communicate telepathically
Kennedy, “The Cyborg in Us All.”
291 devoting more than $6 million to the project
Ibid.
292 target date for completion of the prototype device is 2017
“Pentagon Plans for Telepathic Troops Who Can Read Each Others’ Minds … and They Could Be in the Field within Five Years,” Daily Mail, April 8, 2012.
293 According to Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom, “A History of Transhumanist Thought,” 2005, http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/history.pdf.
294 a ferment that continued into the twentieth century
Ibid.
295 First used by Teilhard de Chardin
Ibid.
296 “Shortly after, the human era will be ended”
Vernor Vinge, “The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era,” 1993, http://www-rohan
.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/misc/singularity.html.
297 form that can be comprehended by and contained in advanced computers
Lara Farrar, “Scientists: Humans and Machines Will Merge in Future,” CNN, July 15, 2008, http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-15/tech/bio.tech_1_emergent-technologies-bostrom-human-life/2?_s=PM:TECH.
298 “post-Singularity, between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality”
Ibid.
299 has challenged Kurzweil to a $20,000 bet
“By 2029 No Computer—or ‘Machine Intelligence’—Will Have Passed the Turing Test,” A Long Bet, http://longbets.org/1/.
300 before the computer-based “Technological Singularity” is ever achieved
John Chelen, “Could the Organic Singularity Occur Prior to Kurzweil’s Technological Singularity?,” Science Progress, June 20, 2012.
301 replace not only hips
Ben Coxworth, “New Discovery Could Lead to Better Artificial Hips,” Gizmag, November 27, 2011, http://www.gizmag.com/artificial-hip-joint-lubrication-layer/20949/.
302 knees
James Dao, “High-Tech Knee Holds Promise for Veterans,” New York Times, August 18, 2010.
303 legs
Alexis Okeowo, “A Once-Unthinkable Choice for Amputees,” New York Times, May 14, 2012.
304 arms
Thomas H. Maugh II, “Two Paralyzed People Successfully Use Robot Arm,” Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2012.
305 but also eyes
Carl Zimmer, “ ‘I See,’ Said the Blind Man with an Artificial Retina,” Discovery News, September 15, 2011.
306 replaceable with artificial substitutes
Richard Yonck, “The Path to Future Intelligence,” Psychology Today, May 13, 2011; Rob Beschizza, “Mechanical Fingers Give Strength, Speed to Amputees,” Wired, July 2, 2007.
307 Cochlear implants, as noted, are used to restore hearing
“Cochlear Implants Restore Hearing in Rare Disorder,” Science Daily, April 20, 2012.
308 exoskeletons to enable paraplegics to walk
Melissa Healy, “Body Suit May Soon Enable the Paralyzed to Walk,” Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2011.
309 confer additional strength on soldiers
Susan Karlin, “Raytheon Sarcos’s Exoskeleton Nears Production,” IEEE Spectrum, August 2011.
310 bespoke in-ear hearing aids are already made with 3D printers
Quest Means Business, CNN transcript, November 8, 2012, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1211/08/qmb.01.html; Nick Glass, “Pitch Perfect: The Quest to Create the World’s Smallest Hearing Aid,” CNN, November 9, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/tech/hearing-aid-widex-3d-printing/index.html.