MAdGE (Mothers Against Genetic Engineering in Food and the Environment) today launched a highly controversial billboard campaign in Auckland and Wellington to provoke public debate about the social and cultural ethics of genetic engineering in New Zealand.
Anthony Gottlieb, author of The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance points out that humans change their view of humanity with every major technological development. Gottlieb traced the history of human nature from the divine craftsman in Plato's Timaeus, which was influenced by the potter's craft, to Descartes' notion that animal and human bodies are machines, an idea that Gottlieb connected to Descartes' fascination with clockworks. "Now we think of our minds, and even our genes, as if they were computers. But is this the end of the road? Maybe other technologies, quantum computers or string theory, perhaps, will have us thinking of ourselves in another way."
Unfortunately, we will have to make some choices based on what we know about human nature today. Lee Silver, a Princeton University professor of molecular biology and author of Remaking Eden understands the challenge facing us. "We've entered a new age with the ability to control both genes and our environment. And the fittest species will be the one that presides over its own selection."
