Biopolitics for the 21st Century
By Marcy Darnovsky,
2020 Science
| 12. 14. 2009
Much appreciation is due to Andrew for his courage in soliciting "alternative perspectives" on technology innovation and life in the 21st century. I can't help but observe that his nervousness about doing so is one small sign that something is amiss in what he calls "the interface between emerging technologies and society."
One challenge we face in mending that interface is a tendency toward over-enthusiasm about prospective technologies. Another is the entanglement of technology innovation and commercial dynamics. Neither of these is brand new.
Back in the last century, the 1933 Chicago World's Fair took "technological innovation" as its theme and "A Century of Progress" as its formal name. Its official motto was "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms."
The slogan shamelessly depicts "science" and "industry" as dictator - or at least drill sergeant - of humanity. It anoints industrial science as a rightful decision-maker about human ends, and an inevitable purveyor of societal uplift.
Today the 1933 World's Fair slogan seems altogether crass. But have we earned our cringe? We'd like to think that we're more realistic about science...
Related Articles
By Mustapha Bature Sallama, Modern Ghana | 06.11.2026
In much of West Africa, a woman who cannot bear children does not merely face a medical condition. She faces a verdict. Her marriage may unravel. Her community may turn cold. Her identity, in a social order that ties womanhood...
By Emily Baumgaertner Nunn, The New York Times | 06.11.2026
When scientists at Columbia University announced they had used a newer technology to precisely edit the genes of human embryos last week, they set the academic community ablaze with debate. Is this good news or bad? How fast will...
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 06.11.2026
On my second visit with Nancy Wexler at her Manhattan apartment, she had a gift for me. It was a copy of her newly published memoir, “My Life, My Science: Pursuing a Cure for Huntington’s Disease.”
It had been signed...
By Robert P. Baird, The Guardian | 06.30.2026
In 2017, a 33-year-old political philosopher named Iason Gabriel was told by a friend that he ought to apply for a job at DeepMind, the London-based subsidiary of Google where much of its AI research was concentrated. The suggestion was not...
