Science, Seeds, and Cyborgs: Biotechnology and the Appropriation of Life - Hardcover

Bowring, Finn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1859846874 ISBN 13: 9781859846872

Publisher: Verso, 2003

Synopsis

Drawing on an impressive wealth of evidence, Science, Seeds and Cyborgs challenges the legitimacy of genetic engineering. This prescient book highlights countless scientific flaws in many of the recent developments in agriculture, medicine, and new reproductive technologies, and shows that the degree of uncertainty involved in genetic manipulation is far greater than is generally assumed.

Science, Seeds and Cyborgs then explores the social and ethical implications of genetic engineering. Bowring argues that the current cultural obsession with the idea of cyborgs encapsulates society’s biotech vision and ultimately the victory of a technocratic consciousness. We are entering a mechanical civilization in which feelings of sympathy and affection, moral ambiguities, cosmic doubts and inexpressible convictions are nothing but obstacles to the rapid circulation of data and the harmonious reproduction of technological systems. If this cybernetic vision succeeds, biotechnology achieves its final triumph: the abolition of subjectivity and the adaptation of humans to an inhuman world.

About this title

About the Author

Finn Bowring is a Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He is the author of André Gorz and the Sartrean Legacy.

Reviews

In an eloquent and impassioned indictment of the biotech industry, sociologist Bowring presents a wealth of scientific and philosophical evidence to argue that genetic engineering's environmental, economic and cultural risks outweigh its much-hyped benefits. Past technological endeavors may have unleashed preventable horrors on the world, but in the case of genetic engineering, Bowring warns, there is no stopping the experiment once it has begun. In dense chapters and copious notes, Bowring skewers scientists for ignoring what they know about the stability and function of genes, the ecological risks of genetic engineering and the larger questions about what it means to be human. Of the hazards of biotechnological experimentation, he asks, "Should science be allowed to assess such risks by taking them?" Once cloning and genetic modification become commonplace, life may be reduced to a commodity, he says, and the ever-growing influence of business on science will override any claims of objectivity. In tackling issues such as in vitro fertilization and the "medicalization of childhood," this book casts a wide net, calling into question not only the biotechnology of today, but the coming flood of new procedures and policies. Though Bowring's position may seem extreme at first, he builds a compelling case using deliberate language and numerous examples. This is a difficult book to get through, even for a reader well versed in biotechnology, but it is a cogent challenge to gee-whiz news stories of genetic wonders.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Verso
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1859846874
• ISBN 13: 9781859846872
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344