Imagine a world where the normal human life span is 150 years,
where worn-out vital organs are routinely replaced by spares, where
after death you will retain consciousness for eternity in
cyberspace, where nanotechnology will enable you to transform a
plastic bottle into a filet mignon for you to share with your
android spouse. Scientists anticipate such a world within a
century. Even now many signs of such biotech "progress" are with
us. Accelerating developments in genomics, reproductive
biotechnology, bionics, artificial life, genetic engineering, and
related fields are compelling us to reexamine our most deeply held
beliefs about ourselves and our world. As we do, the figure of
Victor Frankenstein and the monster he created looms large: many
people today see our predicament through the lens of the
Frankenstein story, whose lesson is that humans should not "play
God" or tinker with the toolbox of nature, at the risk of tragedy
and catastrophe. Yet there is an available alternative both to the
Frankenstein vision and to the ebullient enthusiasm of those who
anticipate a riskless future. It is the most famous and influential
post-biblical Jewish legend, the story of the golem the creation of
an anthropoid by mystical and magical means. Retold and embellished
in twentieth-century literature, art, music, drama, film, science,
technology, and popular culture, the golem legend has become a
metaphor for our times, a resource for applying the wisdom of the
past to the perplexities of the present and the challenges of the
future. In Golems Among Us, Byron Sherwin briefly traces the
fascinating history of the golem legend in Western culture, then
shows what lessons it holds for us in navigating a safe journey
philosophically, theologically, ethically, and in public policy
through the minefield of social and biological engineering in which
we now stand.
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