Hacking Darwin

Description

The “Hacking Darwin” SDG is a ground­break­ing explo­ration of the many ways genet­ic-engi­neer­ing is shak­ing the very core foun­da­tions of our lives — sex, war, love, and death.

At the dawn of the genet­ics rev­o­lu­tion, our DNA is becom­ing as read­able, writable, and hack­able as part of our infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy. But as human­i­ty starts retool­ing our own genet­ic code, the choic­es we make today will be the dif­fer­ence between real­iz­ing breath­tak­ing advances in human well-being and descend­ing into a dan­ger­ous and poten­tial­ly dead­ly genet­ic arms race that could destroy humanity. Some think that the genetic arms race is possibly as dangerous for our existence as the nuclear and climate change threats.

Enter the lab­o­ra­to­ries where sci­en­tists are turn­ing sci­ence fic­tion into real­i­ty. Look towards a future where our deep­est beliefs, morals, reli­gions, and pol­i­tics are chal­lenged like nev­er before and the very essence of what it means to be human is at play. When we can engi­neer our future chil­dren, mas­sive­ly extend our lifes­pans, build life from scratch, and recre­ate the plant and ani­mal world, should we?

If you are concerned about the future of our species then Hack­ing Dar­win is a “must take” SDG for you.

Weekly Topics

1.Where Darwin meets Mendel

2.Climbing the Complexity Latter

3.Decoding Identity

4.The End of Sex

5.Divine Sparks and Pixie Dust

6.Rebuilding the Living World

7.Steeling Immortality from the Gods

8.The Ethics of Engineering Ourselves

9.We contain Multitudes

10.The Arms Race of the Human Race/The Future of Humanity

Bibliography

Hacking Darwin, Jamie Metzl, 2019, Sourcebooks