The Prescience of E. M. Forster

Compared to 1984 or Brave New World, E. M. Forster’s 1909 futuristic novella The Machine Stops was, in some ways, the most eerily accurate prediction of our current technological milieu.

By Geoffrey Dutton | January 2, 2020 | Automation, Culture, Environment, Philosophy, Relationships, Society | Addiction, Atrophy, Class, Computers, Decadence, Dependence, Dystopia, E. M. Forster, Eugenics, Fiction, Internet, Nature, Pollution, Progress, Social Commentary, Synthetic Food

Podcast #25: Marcy Darnovsky Talks Genetic Engineering

Marcy Darnovsky, Executive Director of the Center for Genetics and Society, chats with us about the moral minefield of genetic engineering.

By Mo Lotman | January 23, 2019 | Ethics, Family, Genetics, Health, Medicine, Podcasts, Reproduction, Society | Access, Bioethics, Caste System, CRISPR, Designer Babies, Embryo Screening, Equality, Eugenics, Gattaca, Genetic Engineering, Genetic Enhancement, Germline Editing, Germline Modification, Insurance, IVF, Limits, Louise Brown, Mitochondrial Donation, Morality

Genetic Testing Kits: Fueling Historical Discrimination?

Ideas about genetic identity have fueled racism, discrimination, and even forced sterilization, making mass DNA gathering a fraught proposition.

By Sarah Russo | July 11, 2018 | Ethics, Genetics, Health, Identity, Medicine, Reproduction, Society | Biology, BRCA-1, Center for Genetics and Society, Disability, Discrimination, Disease, Ethnicity, Eugenics, Gender, Gene Editing, Genetic Engineering, Genetic Screening, Genetic Testing, Genetics, Germline Editing, Health Disparities, Healthcare, Hemophilia, Illness, Injustice, Katie Hasson, Muscular Dystrophy, Race, Racism, Sickle Cell Anemia, Sterilization, Stigma, The Human Genome