In article , Michael Ragland
 wrote:

[snip entire mis-named article]

I'd like to recommend to the interested readership a new book which is,
essentially, about this very thing:

McKibben, Bill. 2003. "Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age".
Times Books, 271 pp.

McKibben, as you might guess, is quite concerned about various
approaches to engineering change in human lives, and he considers three
main ideas (and glances off of a fourth: cryogenics): genetic
engineering, nanotechnology, and "cybernetics", writ large (which, I
suppose, should be CYBERNETICS).

The title refers not to an exclamation -- "Enough!" -- but rather, to
the term itself, and particularly in opposition to a related term:
more. A very nice review in the NY Review of Books (by Margaret Atwood;
in the 12 June issue, pp 6-10) refers to the film "Key Largo", where
the Bogart hero character and the villain (Edward G Robinson, of
course) are asked what Robinson wants. He doesn't know, but Bogart
does: "He wants more."

So here, "more" doesn't oppose "less", but rather
"enough". It's enough
to be human, and we all know what happens when people ask for, and get,
more than that -- just ask Faust.

Anyway, it's quite relevant in the present discussion, which is only
relevant because it's about the future evolution of humanity.

-Josh Hayes, moderator, sci.bio.evolution
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