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Review of Our Posthuman Future by Francis Fukuyama
" . . . history's central question — that of what kind of society best suits human needs — has been settled only if human nature remains as it is, warts and all."
" . . . [In] The End of History and the Last Man," . . . he argued that with the demise of communism, liberal democracy had emerged without rival as a political system with universal appeal. The challengers of this tempting thesis included Samuel P. Huntington of Harvard, who argued that struggles between the world's major cultural groups would predominate in a post-Communist world. [His new book acknowledges] that history cannot end without an end to science, or at least to science that alters human nature."
"Human nature 'is fundamental to our notions of justice, morality and the good life.' By messing with the human genome in order to enhance intelligence or physique or other desirable qualities, biotechnology may cause us 'to lose our humanity — that is, some essential quality that has always underpinned our sense of who we are and where we are going,'"
"[In The End of History h]e argued that history was not a meaningless cycle but had a direction imposed on it by the logic of modern science, a direction that 'would seem to dictate a universal evolution in the direction of capitalism.' Though the advanced industrialization made possible by science and technology does not necessarily lead to political liberty, Dr. Fukuyama wrote, the human desire for recognition, cited by Hegel as the driving force of history, is best satisfied in a liberal democracy."
"As to his critics, he agrees that culture is important but does not consider the fault lines between the seven civilizations identified by Dr. Huntington as likely to be permanent. Dr. Fukuyama believes that liberal democracy, because of its affinity with human wants and desires, holds universal appeal. It evolved in Western Europe but is no more a necessarily European possession than is modern science."
"'The Western modernizing package gives access to a standard of living everyone wants . . . Many don't want the whole package. They want a job, not necessarily Hollywood. But there is a certain logic to modernization — to have the TV you have to have certain institutions, including the rule of law.'"
Though religion and culture can impede modernization, Dr. Fukuyama sees no reason to suppose that the Islamic and other civilizations will not in time adopt their own versions of liberal democracy. 'The basic structure of world politics continues to be the juggernaut of modernization as pioneered by the West,' he says." . . . though he credited science and technology for giving history its forward direction for the last 500 years, he says he is much less certain that biotechnology will be handled with the same wisdom as previous innovations." ... [more]
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