Tomorrowland
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Unfortunately, since few in the industry share Rothman’s position on donor tracking and almost no one on the banking side wants to see donor anonymity revoked, without some sort of intervention, the dangers of accidental incest and hidden genetic disease will continue to grow. The truth of the matter is, as the famed physicist Freeman Dyson once pointed out, “If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation. Whoever concerns himself with big technology, either to push it forward or to stop it, is gambling in human lives.”
Acknowledgments
This book would never have been possible without a great number of people. In helping me decode the science and develop the ideas, I owe a debt of gratitude to Peter Diamandis, Dezso Molnar, Andrew Hessel, Mark Gordon, James Olds, Marc Goodman, and Rick Doblin. My dear friend Michael Wharton served as an indispensible first reader/editor. My amazing wife, Joy Nicholson, kept me sane and laughing throughout.
As none of these stories would have gotten written without the magazine editors who assigned the original pieces, a great thanks to Joe Donnelly at the LA Weekly, AJ Baime at Playboy, Adam Fisher at Wired, Ilena Silverman at the New York Times Magazine, Don Peck at the Atlantic, Rick Theis at Ecohearth, Gary Kamiya at Salon, Torie Bosch at Slate, Mark Frauenfelder at Make, and Pamela Weintraub at Discover.
Also, I need to thank my agent Paul Bresnick, who was the first to believe in the possibility of this book and then worked so hard to make it a reality. Everyone at Amazon has been amazing. Special thanks are due to both Julia Cheiffetz who, before she switched jobs, bought the original manuscript, and Tara Parsons, who so ably saw it through to publication. Thanks are also due to both Ryan Holiday and Brent Underwood for their digital ninjitsu. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to Charles Pierce, John McPhee, and David Quammen, three majestic wordsmiths who helped me see the real possibilities in science writing.
Steven Kotler is a New York Times best-selling author, an award-winning journalist, and the cofounder and director of research for the Flow Genome Project. His books include Bold, The Rise of Superman, Abundance, A Small Furry Prayer, West of Jesus, and The Angle Quickest for Flight. His work has been translated into more than forty languages and has appeared in over eighty publications, including the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, Wired, Forbes, and Time. He also writes Far Frontiers, a blog about the intersection of science and culture, for Forbes.com. Kotler lives in northern New Mexico with his wife and too many dogs.
www.stevenkotler.com
Index
addiction treatments, 169
AIDS
sperm donation and, 262
steroids in treatment of, 196–98
aircraft, personal, 97–105
alcoholism treatments, 169
alligators, 91–92
al-Shabaab, 238
Alta Charo, R., 207
Alzheimer’s disease, 206, 241
American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, 186
American Association of Reproductive Medicine, 258
American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), 194
American Journal of Diseases of Children, 38
American Medical Association, 195
American Society of Artificial Internal Organs, 74
amputations, 3–21
opiate addiction after, 11
pain from, 9, 11
psychological trauma of, 7, 9
Anabolic Steroids Control Act, 195
Anderson, David, 214
Anderson, Eric, 145, 148, 150, 151
Annas, George, 245
anthrax, 239
anti-abortion war, 208–10
anti-aging medicine, 183–200
causes of aging and, 191–93
free radicals and, 191
on inflammation, 198
legislation against steroids and, 195–96
metabolism in, 191
stem cells in, 199
testosterone in, 192–93
Anti-Drug Abuse Act, 195
Argonne National Laboratory, 118
ARKYD 100 space telescope, 149
Army Corps of Engineers, 83–85, 90
Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, 88, 91–92
artificial intelligence, 27–28, 223. See also mind uploading
artificial limbs. See prosthetics
Ashcroft, John, 210
Asimov, Isaac, 27
Asphaug, Erik, 147
aspirational genome, 131
asteroid mining, 141–52
compared to exploration of North America, 149
economics of, 149–50
mapping for, 147–48
for platinum-group metals, 150
science fiction on, 145, 148
space missions and, 144, 146–47
technology for, 148
for water, 151
“Asteroids of Gold” (Simak), 145
astral projection, 36
Atkinson, Peter, 136, 137, 138, 140
Atomic Energy Commission, 109
“Atoms for Peace” (Eisenhower), 109
Aum Shinrikyo, 233–34
Avatar (film), 27
ayahuasca, 161
Aztecs, 167
Babbitt, Bruce, 84
Batzer, Jeff, 8–9
Baumgartner, Felix, 125–30
Becker, Ernest, xv–xvi, 29, 175
Behr, Barry, 262
Beijing Genomics Institute, 237–38
Béliard, Octave, 87
Berger, Theodore, 26
Berthold, Arnold, 192
Bigelow Aerospace, 129
BioBricks, 234
bioethics, 211–12
Biological Weapons Convention, 230
BiOM prosthetic, 18–20
biosensing technologies, 242
Biosphere 2, 89
biotechnology, rate of progress in, 28–29. See also synthetic biology
bioweapons, 219–46
crowdsourcing designs for, 221–23
FBI biosecurity conferences on, 236–37
genetically targeted, 224–25, 227–28
against heads of state, 224
radical transparency against, 243–46
sensing technologies against, 242–43
Blees, Tom, 111, 119
Blood, Benjamin Paul, 168
Bloom, Howard, 219
Blue Brain project, 28
Blue Heron Biotechnology, 231
brain-computer interface (BCI), 26
Brand, Stewart, 111
Brandt, Laura, 91
Branson, Richard, 145
Breedlove, Craig, xii, 97
“Brief proposal on immortality: an interim solution” (Martin), 27
British Journal of Sports Medicine, 190
British Telecommunications, 25
Britton, Willoughby, 43–45
Brown, Clare, 255
Brown-Séquard, Édouard, 193
Built to Survive: HIV Wellness Guide (Vergel & Mooney), 197
Bush, George W., 11, 111, 207, 209–10, 211–12, 213, 214, 217, 238, 261
Butcher, Grace, 37
Calder Hall, 110
Calfee Design Factory, 99
California Cryobank, 249–63
California Health Span Institute, 185
Cameron, James, 27
cancer. See also end-of-life care
genetically targeted treatments for, 224–25, 240–41
stem cells in treatment of, 205–6
Canseco, 183, 184, 187–88
Captain Capsid, 222
Carbon Mitigation Initiative, 114
carbon taxes, 113
Carter, Jimmy, 116
Catholic Church, 260
cattails, 90–91
Celera, 228
Challenger space shuttle, 129
The Changing Body (Fogel, Floud, Harris, & Hong), 54–56
Charo, R. Alta, 207
&nbs
p; Chernobyl, 110, 112, 118
Chicago Pile-1, 109
China
coal-related deaths in, 112
nuclear energy in, 119, 121
synthetic biology in, 237–38
China Syndrome, 110
Church, George, 232
Cierva, Juan de la, 102
The City and the Stars (Clarke), 27
Clarke, Arthur C., 27
Clean Air Act, 84
climate change, 111–14, 119
asteroid mining and, 145–46
insect-borne illnesses and, 134
Clinton, Bill, 84, 118, 207
Clinton, Hillary, 224, 230
cloning
legislation against, 215–16
stem cells and, 208, 214–15, 217–18
coal, 112, 114
cochlea, artificial, 26
Cochrane, Peter, 25–27, 28, 30–31
Cochrane, Thomas, 117
Cockcroft, John, 109
Colbert, Stephen, 143
Collins, Rick, 194
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), 84, 88–90
Conrad, Alfred, 51–52
consciousness
downloadable, xv, 23–31
fear of death and, xv–xvi, 29–30
oneness with the universe and, 46–47
in out-of-body experiences, 35–40
psychedelic drugs and, 155–81
true nature of, 28
Consolmagno, Brother Guy, 143–44, 147–48, 149, 152
Controlled Substance Act, 169
ConvAirCar, 100
Corliss, Lindsay, 157, 165–66
Costa, Dora, 52
Cravens, Gwyneth, 112, 115, 116
Cray supercomputer, 226
C-reactive proteins, 198
crowdsourcing, 221–23, 235–36
culture and science, xiv
cummings, e. e., xv
Cures Now, 214, 216
Curtiss, Glenn, 100
Daily Mail (newspaper), 224
d’Aquili, Eugene, 45
Darwin, Charles, 49, 54
Daschle, Tom, 214
Davis, Gray, 212
Day-Glo protein, 138
death
anxiety over, xv–xvi, 26–27, 175
definition of, 210
end-of-life care and, 159–61, 162–63, 175–77
fear of, 42–43
near-death experiences and, 37–43
PTSD after brushes with, 43–45
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 15, 18
de Kruif, Paul, 193, 204
Democritus, 109
dengue fever, 133, 134
The Denial of Death (Becker), xv–xvi, 29
Department of Health and Human Services, 195, 210
depression, 44–45
desalination, 121
DHEA, 186, 198
diabetes, 206, 213–14
Diamandis, Peter, xi–xiii, 141, 145, 148, 150
Di Pasquale, Mauro, 188–89, 190
Disabled Sports USA, 15
disruptive technologies, xiv–xvi, 31, 152
DIY Drones, 243
DMT, 161
DNA testing, 255–56
Dobelle, William, xiv, xvi, 61–77, 247
Dobelle Institute Artificial Vision System for the Blind, 67–75
Doblin, Rick, 162–64, 171–74, 176–77, 179–81
Doheny Eye Institute, 76–77
do-it-yourself biology (DIY Bio), 229, 243
Dolly the Sheep, 208
Donor Eligibility and Determination Labeling, 261
Donor Semen Archive, 256
Donor-Sibling Registry, 256
Donor X Project, 256
Donor Y Project, 256
The Doors of Perception (Huxley), 169
dopamine, 42
Dow, Albert, 8–9, 20
Down syndrome, 57
Draper, John, 235
dreamlets, 41, 43
Drug Enforcement Agency, 195
drugs
out-of-body experiences produced by, 36–37
psychedelic, 155–82
steroids, 183–200
war on drugs and, 161, 169–70, 173, 183–84, 188–89, 193–95
Dullnig, Michael, 196
DuPont, 232
Dyson, Freeman, 263
Earth systems research facility, 89
EBR-I nuclear reactor, 109, 117–118
ecosystems
ecological niches in, 54
lack of knowledge about, 91–95
rebuilding the Everglades, 81–95
terraforming, 81–95
Ecstasy. See MDMA
Ehrlich, Paul, 204
Einstein, Albert, 109
Eisenhower, Dwight, 109
Eldredge, Niles, 54
Eleusinian Mysteries, 167
empathodelics, 160
end-of-life care, 157–67, 170–71, 174–76, 178–82
LSD in, 178–79, 181–82
MDMA in, 170–71, 174–76, 178–79, 180–82
psilocybin in, 160
research on, 161–62
endorphins, 42
Energy from Thorium Foundation, 120
Engerman, Stanley, 51–52
Enríquez, Juan, 58
epigenetics, 55
epilepsy, 43–44
ethics
distributed justice in, 211
genetic engineering and, 232–33
of space exploration, 143–45
of sperm banking, 251
stem cells and, 206–18
Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, 260
“The Ethics of Exploration” (Consolmagno), 144
eugenics, 58–59
Evans, Nick, 189–90
Everglades, 81–95
alligators in, 91–92
Army Corps of Engineers taming of, 85–86
cattails and blue-green algae in, 90–91
cost of restoring, 85
drought and, 83–84, 89–90
Floridan aquifer and, 88
Kissimmee River in, 85–87
lack of knowledge about, 87–90
Lake Okeechobee in, 88–90
loss of species in, 84, 87
pollution in, 84, 89
sugarcane farming in, 90–92
water impoundments in, 88–90
evolution
acceleration of, 49–59
economic development and, 51–53
gene-culture dynamics and, 55–57
geological shifts and, 53–54
inefficiency of, 53–54
metabiological, 55
of mosquito drug resistance, 134
of mosquitos and malaria, 134–35
of new species, 59
punctuated equilibrium in, 49, 54, 56
techno-physio, 54–57
existential anxiety, 175
exoskeletons, bionic, 20
extinction, 83
extreme states, xiv–xv, 33–48
after-effects of, 42–43
biological basis of, 40–43, 45–48
brain changes after, 43–45
brain changes during, 45–48
concentration in, 46–47
euphoria in, 41–42
in fighter pilots, 40–42
near-death experiences, 37–45
psychedelic drugs and, 155–82
REM sleep and, 44–45
reproducibility of, 47–48
in skydiving, 35–36
transformative nature of, 42–48
triggered by drugs, 38–39
triggered by fear, 39
Facebook, 3
Fairfax Cryobank, 246–47
Faisal, Turki bin, 255
Farmer in the Sky (Heinlein), 87
fascinomas, 38
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 236–37, 244
Fermi, Enrico, 109
fertility clinics, 247–63
Catholic Church on, 259–60
; economics of, 250–51
stem cells and, 208–10, 211
Feynman, Richard, 30
Fisher, Lucy, 213–14
Floridan aquifer, 88
Floud, Roderick, 54
Flow Genome Project, 145
flying cars, xii, 97–105
Fogel, Robert, 51–52, 54–59
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 67
on psychedelic research, 174
on sperm banking, 251, 261–62
on steroids, 195
Foundation Fighting Blindness, 74
Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, 232
Fraser, Claire, 245
Frazer, James, 258
free radicals, 191
Freud, Sigmund, 175
Fuentes, Carlos, 23
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, 122–23
Gates, Bill, 121
gene-culture dynamics, 55–57
GeneGenie, 27, 222
General Electric, 113, 221
genetic code, xv. See also sperm banks
aging and, 191
in binary code, 226–27
evolution and, 55, 57, 58–59
Human Genome Project and, 57, 228
interaction of culture with, 56–57
largest collections of, 249
printing, 231
stem cells in repair of, 199
synthetic biology manipulation of, 230–32
genetic engineering, 226–30
barriers to entry in, 229–30
BioBricks in, 234–35
of bioweapons, 219–46
cost of, 228, 229, 243–45
crowdsourcing in, 221–23
dangers of, 227, 232–33
environmental dangers of, 133–34, 138–39
gene sequencers in, 228–29
genetic markers in, 136–37
improved technology for, 226–27, 228–29
jumping genes in, 136–37, 138–40
open-sourcing, 243–45
synthetic biology and, 230–32
viruses in, 221–23, 233
genetic markers, 136–37
Genetics and IVF Institute, 257
Genome Institute, 212
genomic sequencing, 57
G-LOC, 40–42
Goldman, Robert, 187
Goldstein, Larry, 210–11
Goodman, Marc, 219–46, 224
Google, 28
Gould, Stephen Jay, 49, 54
gradualism, 49
Graham, Bob, 237
Granger, Richard, 58