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Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies-and What It Means to Be Human. By Joel Garreau. Rpt.; New York: Broadway, 2006. 400 pages. $26.00 ($15.95 paper). Reviewed by Dr. James R. Downey, Professor of Science and Technology, US Army War College.
Technology is advancing at a dizzying pace. The cell phone you buy today is nearly out of date before you leave the store. Sequencing your personal DNA for under $1000 may be just around the corner. Nanoscale robots might some day be built and enter your brain providing significantly faster and more sophisticated human intelligence, blending the line between man and machine. Joel Garreau takes these kinds of developments and explores them to their potential extremes, both good and bad, in his book Radical Evolution. At first glance, the title might suggest some major modification to the evolutionary development of humans or the planet. In one sense this is true since the book explores the radical evolution of technology and how it might affect the future of mankind. To those less familiar with developments occurring in info-, bio-, and nanotechnology this book presents a useful overview. For the national security audience Garreau's work provides an insight into the impact that twenty-first century technologies could have on the continuing Revolution in Military Affairs.
The book opens by suggesting we are about to embark on dramatic changes previously not experienced by the...