Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Artificial life 'needs regulation'

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, June 14, 2010

Artificial life 'needs regulation' - public survey says

from the BBC. Isn't that a downright quaint that the public should want a say in the development of artificial life forms? Do you think they will be given much say by the profit driven elites in our capitalist societies? Maybe when hell freezes over. In relation to this quaint notion of public input,

Professor Paul Freemont, co-director of the UK centre for Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London, said his gut reaction to this idea was that it could be "very difficult".