Will wars be fought for the control of genes in the 21st century?
Jeremy Rifkin fears the worst and explains why...
"Our futurists have too narrowly defined the twenty-first century as the information
age. In fact, a far more profound shift is taking place in the global economy.
Computers and genes are beginning to fuse into a single powerful technological
and economic force that is laying the foundation for the biotech century.
Computers are increasingly being used to decipher, manage and organize the
vast genetic information that is the raw resource of the new global economy.
Already multinational corporations are creating giant life-science complexes from
which to fashion a bio-industrial world.
There are tremendous short-term benefits—new plants and animals, new
pharmaceuticals and energy sources. But it is naive to believe that these benefits
come with no costs. The environmental, social and ethical implications of this
science are chilling. Will the creation of cloned, chimeric and transgenic species
mean the end of nature? Will the mass release of genetically engineered
organisms into our biosphere mean genetic pollution and irreversible damage to
the biosphere in the twenty-first century? What are the risks of making a “perfect”
baby?"
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