There’s a beautiful, open field here in Milton perfect for my dog to run freely while I walk and take stock of myself, my family, the country and the world. Possibly I could avoid the nagging sense of dread I’ve felt lately if I had some music plugged into my ear. Instead, troubling thoughts rush in.
I should probably blame the books I’ve read this summer. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” by Rebecca Skloot, was first. What a fascinating — and true — story about how an African-American woman’s cells, taken in a test for cancer, are disseminated without her permission to researchers around the globe.
The cells grow with unbelievable vigor and offer such promise for medical breakthroughs that scientists use them for decades to solve many medical mysteries. When her children learn of their mother’s heroic “HeLa” cells, though, they react with confusion and anger.
I also just finished a book my rising ninth-grader had to read for her high school Language Arts class, Lois Lowry’s “The Giver.” A dystopian novel about a seemingly perfect world where harsh memories and suffering are banished, it helps a young reader imagine how an ideal world without pain may instead leave humanity very unhuman.
Science fiction literature has been around awhile, exemplified in Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” and Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” — three dystopian masterpieces that are, fortunately, still required reading in most Georgia high schools.
These books were on my mind when I happened upon “The Techno-Human Condition,” by Arizona State University engineering and science professors Braden R. Allenby and Daniel Sarewitz. This book warns that advancements in science and technology, fed by an unfettered appetite for human improvement and longevity, are moving too rapidly for us to discern if their outcomes will be beneficial or disastrous.
The book also introduced me to the ideas in “transhumanism” — a belief among scientists in the perfectibility of the human, very likely as technology combines with biology to create enhanced people stronger, smarter, healthier and more productive than ever imagined. Should we be thrilled at this idea, or horrified? Our cultural love affair with superheroes makes me think most people will welcome the opportunity to become one.
As a parent with kids hooked on technology and entranced by today’s entertainment, I have a special concern with the way the world is going. I can’t stop my kids from taking it all in, but at least I can read the books they read, see the movies they watch and sit around and talk about it. And I can do so using my own sense of truth, based on the values I feel are necessary for a good existence.
Perhaps in the process I’ll get them to think about what the heck is going on, help them form their own opinions and then encourage them to go into their brave new world equipped with critical thinking skills and a moral compass. I feel it’s my job as a mom.
I’m just afraid that it won’t be enough.
Veronica Buckman lives in Milton. Reach here at vrbuck01@aol.com
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