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Are we still homo sapiens, or has the human race already started to evolve into a new species? In Future Man Dr Brian Stableford argues that man has already entered into a new phase of evolution and in time will obtain power over the natural world which will be literally godlike.
The world we are entering into was already glimpsed in the 1930s by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, but the possibilities foreseen by Huxley could not become reality until the cracking of the genetic code in the early 1950s. Most scientists now believe that the remaining problems holding up our ability to control and manipulate the human gene will be resolved within the next few generations.
As Isaac Asimov writes in his introduction. "Now we can adjust the genes. We can decide on what we want and try to carve living things to suit ... Indeed, we can even ask ourselves, 'What kind of human beings might we like to be? What kind of abilities that we lack would it be good to have, and how do we go about getting them?' And what kind of dangers would he involved? And what about morality?"
This is where Future Man begins. It shows with vivid illustrations how future genetic engineers might manipulate all living things, including man himself. So far we have had to be content with the image in which evolution has shaped us, soon we will have the capability to remake that image in any way we choose.
Should this be allowed to happen? Or is this knowledge simply too dangerous to be delivered into human minds and hands? Is it, anyway, too late to stop the process? Future Man updates Brave New World. Like Huxley's prophecy, Future Man deserves to become a classic of its time.
Cover Illustration by Peter
Gudynas
Published by Crown Publishers,
Inc in October 1984
ISBN:0-517-55249-3
