| GREAT MAMBO CHICKEN AND THE TRANSHUMAN CONDITION Science Slightly Over the Edge Ed Regis Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1990 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN 0-201-56751-2 | 308pp. | SC/GSI | $13.00 | |
There are those who believe that you can't change human nature, that the quality of life, and its quantity (i.e. lifespan) will always be much like they are now; that everything (or at least everything fundamentally novel) has already been discovered or invented.
Such people are NOT the subject of this book.
The subtitle of this book is very apt. Ed Regis leads us on a rambling journey through the remote hinterlands that lie beyond the settled territory of established science.1 Here dwell the minds of science fiction writers like Arthur C. Clarke. Here too are many pioneering scientists and engineers, dreaming grandiose and even Cosmos-girdling dreams. Concepts like travel to the planets are to them old hat, boring, mundane. Their visions include visiting the far rim of the Milky Way, dismantling the Sun for raw materials or putting a shell around it to trap all of its energy, transferring human minds into immortal machines, or achieving immortality the old-fashioned way by repairing the bodies they were born in. Some even plot to evade the heat-death of the universe!
But this is not just a recitation of far-out concepts. Through anecdotes and carefully chosen quotes distilled from their writings and many interviews, Regis presents these scientists and free-thinkers as fully-realized characters, avoiding the one-dimensional portrayal. His style is as free-wheeling as his subject matter, the tone appropriately skeptical and humorous without descending into ridicule. (Indeed, the only people who come off badly are the nay-sayers, many of whom are skewered in Chapter 8.) One leaves the compendium of proposed marvels with a feeling of gratitude that so many keen minds are pouring so much effort into exploring alternative possibilities for the future. It is, in short, a great read.
Oh, yes — the "Great Mambo Chicken" of the title came from an experiment in adaptation to heavy gravity. Twenty-three generations of fowl were raised in a centrifuge at 2.5G, with the unsurprising result that they developed stronger bones and bigger muscles. It can truly be said that such chickens would rule the roost. Foster Farms, however, probably would not be interested.
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.