Comments
from Mark Goldfarb, contributing editor at A & O.
Have for quite some time now been
meaning to comment on For Whom The Genes Toll, to voice
my disagreement with your stance:
It would seem you propose to relegate
human existence to the status of mechanical devices. Hmm. I'll
just jump in by saying I don't believe DNA is our worst enemy
any more than those microbial organisms which sometimes kill us
but often enough have zero effect on us. Are those nasties the
enemy? Is disease the enemy? Should our objective be to kill them
or is this thing we call 'life' in all its aspects and on all
its planes (the mental, physical and spiritual), something we
need to make balance with? As for scientists turning us into a
gentler kinder species, I think that responsibility rests with
educators, humanists,'the wise and insightful' for lack of better
words and, in fact, each of us - not gene splicers.
Your comment about politicians rising
to the gravity of the situation gave me a cynical chuckle. There's
an oxymoron if I ever heard one. Easily the densest people on
the planet bar none(and I mean that seriously), politicians are
ruled by power, money, greed and the tips of their dicks. Your
generous ascription to them of altruistic motives strikes me as
unrealistic at best, foolhardy at worst. The path you propose
resembles the option scientists had and chose in the early 1900s
to do research and experimentation on the A-bomb. Which led to
nuclear proliferation, which led to Star Wars, which will in turn
evolve into deadlier weaponry. That there will be abuses and misuses
is a gross understatement. Pandora's box has already been opened.
Genie's out of the bottle and there ain't no puttin' him back
in.
It almost seems as if you've lost
faith in humanity (and who can blame you?) and replaced it with
faith in science and technology. What strikes me as out of place
in your argument is the implicit presumption that humans can control
and master Nature, plug up the dike with our fingers so to speak,
when all evidence points to the contrary. The future you envision
offers me the same destiny and quality of life as your computer
or fuel pump. I hope things don't go your way. But if they do,
here's to me being as far the hell away from it as I possibly
can. That being said, I would still like to have e-mail. I say
this as I sit and type in front of a monitor that is killing me
slowly with radiation. If I had any sense I'd stick the stupid
thing in my microwave oven and ...well, you get my drift. That
is if I had a microwave. Which I don't. And never will.
