Category Archives: Science & Technology

Building a Better Human With Science Revisited

My last post discussed public opposition to “Building a Better Human With Science.” People are generally skeptical of both futuristic technologies as well the scientists developing them. It also turns out that future technologies are disproportionately opposed by religious persons, and most accepted by the least religious. Continue reading Building a Better Human With Science Revisited

Critique of Bill Joy’s “Why the future doesn’t need us”

ABSTRACT

In his well-known piece, “Why the future doesn’t need us,” Bill Joy argues that 21st century technologies—genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechnology (GNR)—will extinguish human beings as we now know them, a prospect he finds deeply disturbing. I find his arguments deeply flawed and critique each of them in turn.

(Published in ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, Volume 32: Issue 6, June 2003.) Continue reading Critique of Bill Joy’s “Why the future doesn’t need us”