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The shattered self : the end of natural evolution /
Scientific and technological advances now allow us to manipulate genomes directly at the level of single genes and their constituents, with a speed and precision that far exceed what natural evolution has been able to achieve over the past 3.5 billion years. We already have in vitro fertilization an...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Printed Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge, Mass. :
MIT Press,
c2001.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy031/00048183.html |
Table of Contents:
- Machine generated contents note: 1
- Introduction 1
- 2
- Science Today 7
- The Decentering Process 9
- The Psychology of Large Numbers 12
- 3
- Molecular Biology 15
- DNA 16
- Proteins 16
- Genomes 17
- The Stadium-Size Cell 22
- Evolution 24
- Genome Sequencing 25
- Beyond Genome Sequencing 28
- Biotechnology 31
- Genomes as Computer Programs 34
- 4
- In Vitro Babies 37
- In Vitro Babies 37
- What Happens to Sex? 41
- 5
- Human Cloning 49
- Cloning 49
- Human Cloning Taboo 53
- Cloning and Sexual Reproduction 55
- Cloning and "Intelligence" 56
- Cloning and Life and Death 61
- Cloning and Identity 66
- 6
- Siamese Twins 71
- 7
- Manipulating DNA 79
- The Extended Jurassic Park 79
- DNA Morphing 85
- Warping and Reversing Time 88
- 8
- Computers 91
- Computations: Moore's Law 91
- Communications: The Internet 94
- Artificial Life 100
- 9
- The Last Frontier: The Brain 103
- Why Is Pain Painful? 104
- The Limits and Expansion of Intelligence 107
- Sizing the Self Up 115
- Immortality Revisited 119
- The Distance between Selves-The "Organic" Approach 123
- Machine Learning and Reverse-Engineering the Brain-The
- "Artificial" Approach 126
- The New Music 130
- 10
- Ethics and What Can Go Wrong 135
- Ethical Foundations 135
- Contemporary Issues: Cloning, Embryonic Cells, and Gene Therapy 143
- What Can Go Wrong 154
- 11
- The Information Space 161
- Biology.com 161
- The Information Space 166.