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Synopsis
Arguing that the greatest advances still to come will be in the life sciences, Fukuyama asks how the ability to modify human behavior will affect liberal democracy. He underlines man s changing understanding of human nature through history: from Plato & Aristotle s belief that man had natural ends to the ideals of utopians & dictators of the modern age who sought to remake mankind for ideological ends. The ultimate prize of the biotechnology revolution -- intervention in the germ line, the ability to manipulate the DNA of all of one person s descendants -- will have profound, & potentially terrible, consequences for our political order, even if undertaken by ordinary parents seeking to improve their children.
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Review
Maybe we have a future after all: Our Posthuman Future is political historian Francis Fukuyama's reconsideration of his 1989 announcement that history had reached an end. He claims that science, particularly genome studies, offers radical changes, possibly more profound than anything since the development of language, in the way we think about human nature. He makes his case thoroughly and eloquently, rarely dipping into philosophical or critical jargon and consistently maintaining an informal tone.
Fukuyama is deeply concerned about the erosion of the foundations of liberal democracy under pressure from new concepts of humans and human rights, and most readers will find some room for agreement. Ultimately, he argues for strong international regulation of human biotechnology and thoughtfully disposes of the most compelling counterarguments. While readers might not agree that we're at risk of creating Huxley's Brave New World, it's hard to deny that things are changing quickly and that perhaps we ought to consider the changes before they're irrevocable. --Rob Lightner
About the Author
Francis Fukuyama is the author of The End of History, Trust, The Great Disruption, Our Posthuman Future and State Building. All have been international bestsellers, translated and published in many languages. They have also been hugely influential. Fukuyama is in constant demand around the world in the media and as a speaker. He is Professor of International Political Economy at John Hopkins University.
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- PublisherFarrar, Straus & Giroux
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 0756795893
- ISBN 13 9780756795894
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Edition number1
- Number of pages256
- Rating
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