The Future
Page 65
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.
249 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.
311 woman who was not a candidate for traditional reconstructive surgery
“Transplant Jaw Made by 3D Printer Claimed as First,” BBC News, February 6, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16907104.
312 field of transplantation because of the current shortage of organs
Ibid.
313 regenerative medicine scientists at Wake Forest University
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, press release, “Lab-Engineered Kidney Project Reaches Early Milestone,” June 21, 2012; Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, press release, “Researchers Engineer Miniature Human Livers in the Lab,” October 30, 2010.
314 precisely copied the size and shape of the windpipe
Henry Fountain, “A First: Organs Tailor-Made with Body’s Own Cells,” New York Times, September 16, 2012.
315 sensed the matrix of the scaffolding being broken down
Henry Fountain, “Human Muscle, Regrown on Animal Scaffolding,” New York Times, September 17, 2012.
316 developing silicon nanowires a thousand times smaller
Elizabeth Landieu, “When Organs Become Cyborgs,” CNN, August 29, 2012.
317 which the U.S. shares with all other countries besides Iran
Stephen J. Dubner, “Human Organs for Sale, Legally, in … Which Country?,” Freakonomics blog, April 29, 2008, http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/04/29/human-organs-for-sale-legally-in-which-country/.
318 transplantation into people living in wealthy countries
“Organ Black Market Booming,” UPI, May 28, 2012.
319 “the longest chain of kidney transplants ever constructed”
Kevin Sack, “60 Lives, 30 Kidneys, All Linked,” New York Times, February 19, 2012.
320 “organ donor” as one of the items to be updated
Matt Richtel and Kevin Sack, “Facebook Is Urging Members to Add Organ Donor Status,” New York Times, May 1, 2012.
321 the process to print more advanced artificial limbs
Ashlee Vance, “3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution,” New York Times, September 14, 2010.
322 using it to make numerous medical implants
“The Printed World,” Economist, February 10, 2011.
323 print vaccines and pharmaceuticals from basic chemicals
Tim Adams, “The ‘Chemputer’ That Could Print Out Any Drug,” Guardian, July 21, 2012.
324 essentially the same product
Eric Topol, The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care (New York: Basic Books, 2012), ch. 10.
325 activated by shining a laser light on them from outside the body
/>
Avi Schroeder et al., “Remotely Activated Protein-Producing Nanoparticles,” Nano Letters 2, no. 6 (2012): 2685–89; George Dvorsky, “Microscopic Machines Could Produce Medicine Directly Inside Your Body,” io9, July 29, 2012, http://io9.com/5922447/microscopic-machines-could-produce-medicine-directly-inside-your-body.
326 Specialized prosthetics for the brain
Cookson, “Healthcare: Into the Cortex.”
327 digital devices on the surface of the brain and, in some cases, deeper within the brain
Wilson, “Bionic Brains and Beyond”; Allison Abbott, “Brain Implants Have Long-Lasting Effect on Depression,” Nature, February 7, 2011.
328 activate and direct the movement of robots with their thoughts
Cookson, “Healthcare: Into the Cortex.”
329 dispense with the wires connecting the chip to a computer
Ibid.
330 Scientists and engineers at the University of Illinois
Ibid.
331 “nanotechnology, micro-power generation—to provide therapeutic benefit”
Ibid.
332 rat’s brain stem to interpret information
Linda Geddes, “Rat Cyborg Gets Digital Cerebellum,” New Scientist, September 27, 2011.
333 “synthetic correlates before the end of the century”
Ibid.
334 in humans, including prosthetics for bladder control
Monica Friedlander, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, “Neural Implants Come of Age,” Science and Technology Review, June 2012.
335 relief of spinal pain
Ibid.
336 remediation of some forms of blindness
Wilson, “Bionic Brains and Beyond.”
337 and deafness
Ibid.
338 to enhance focus and concentration
Ibid.
339 people to enhance concentration at times of their choosing
Ibid.
340 Adderall, Ritalin, and Provigil to improve their test scores
Margaret Talbot, “Brain Gain: The Underground World of ‘Neuroenhancing’ Drugs,” New Yorker, April 27, 2009.
341 “ranges from 15 percent to 40 percent”
Alan Schwarz, “Risky Rise of the Good-Grade Pill,” New York Times, June 10, 2012.
342 doctors who work with low-income families have started prescribing Adderall
Alan Schwarz, “Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School,” New York Times, October 9, 2012.
343 felt they improved their memory and ability to focus