Washington Post reporter and editor Joel Garreau takes a grand view of technological advances and brings them down to size in order to show how they may come to change our everyday lives. As he writes in Radical Evolution, “This book aims at letting a general audience in on the vast changes that right now are reshaping our selves, our children, and our relationships.”
Some of the radical developments discussed in the book revolve around what are generally referred to as “GRIN technologies”—genetic, robotic, information, and nano processes. It may sound intimidating, but Garreau keeps it mainstream with stories and futuristic scenarios. One example of such technologies at work is a “telekinetic monkey” being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA’s monkey should be able to control motion from any distance by a series of thinking commands. As Garreau explains, knowledge of this process may one day assist wheelchair-bound individuals in learning to move—perhaps by means of a robochip implant in their body.
Garreau also shines a light on the future of genetic engineering and biotechnology, explaining how functional genetics could eventually eradicate diseases by “shutting off genes” and viruses that are critical in producing illnesses such as AIDS.
If these ideas seem slightly Orwellian, Garreau looks at the bright side. The interesting underlying theme here—more than the “gee-whiz technology”— is the possibility that we may actually enhance our lives in the future. For Garreau, these technological advances demonstrate “… a science fiction coming close to reality.”
- Sara Grant