(Here’s another archive. I would
really want to consolidate my blogs. I hope I can recover all of them. I’ve
written this in 2009. Just forgot the exact date.)
Hello everyone. I have just
finished reading Evolution isn’t what it used to be and I was fascinated and at
the same time depressed for two reasons.
I was dumbfounded about the discoveries and knowing what was going on in the world of science. I didn't know that the reasons why I should be grateful about research and developments grew exponentially. I was totally oblivious about some of its development.
I was depressed because (1), as the writer elaborated, even though the advancement in technology is very
interesting, astonishing and very helpful indeed, it is mind-boggling too and,
for some reasons, very frightening. Like I have this fear now that if people
lose the grip on their ethics and some touches of biocentrism, humans can
actually transform into a new monstrous organism—cruel and merciless and
cynical; (2) the book was published in 1996. As in 1996! How many years have
passed? More than a decade! The writer has been mentioning predictions that are
actually happening now. Some (or should I say ‘most’) of his ideas might have
already been feasted by worms as they were buried in the bookshelves/lost
webpages a long time ago [and were replaced by something else which I totally have
no idea]. This is really frustrating. Just as I felt a little triumph as I have
taken some steps forward by learning something new from W. T. Anderson, I
felt gloomy—why do we always have to be outdated and blithely (and/or
reluctantly) scavenge on obsolete stuffs?!
Oh crap! If it wasn’t sold in a
50%-off-sale scheme in an effort, perhaps, to finally dispatch the book, I
wouldn’t have met it. But on the bright side, at least, I was no longer as
ignorant as before. I am still absorbed and enthralled so I’m writing a
review/reaction/whatever-you-call-it write ups. I hope you’d get interested.
The Computer Meets the Gene
From the Butterfly Net to the
Internet
This part of the book roughly
discussed the history of “evolution” from fragile papyrus scrolls used in
Aristotle’s early times to the astonishing internet as a means of containing
information and, hopefully, disseminating them.
I have always thought that the
creation of internet, albeit unintentional as to how the “common” people around
the globe eventually make use of it, is a blessing by the virtue of human
mind’s brilliance. But little did I know it’s more than a life-saver when I
“re-search” in the net for some stuff in school that would be an arbiter for a
pass or a fail; little did I know that it’s more than just a cheap and fast way
to get updated with movies I am eager to watch, or singles about to be released
or gossips about the stars I fancied and hated. I have realized that if I step
back and look at the bigger picture and begin to consider other arena aside
from my basic concerns, the more I realized the vitality of its existence and
operation—especially for the hastening of scientific breakthroughs. As
expected, why on earth would I think that internet aided the ambitious dream of
geneticists to finish the Human Genome Project? Why would I consider that
computer is actually helping in the inventory and keeping the Gene Banks
working as part of human efforts to save the diminishing global gene pool?
I have imagined how hard it was
before for the scientists in the old days to unveil mysteries of science when
they are working independently, and primitively. Most of them were deprived
from the existing studies of other discoverers from the other parts of the world
that could have helped them advance few steps in their researches rather than
beginning from scratches. It would have been easier and less lonely if about the breeding studies of Mendel (which
was actually inspired by the Darwinian theory) and more exchange of useful
ideas have been possible if at that time the luxury of accessibility in no time
was at hand.
The augmentation of human brains,
through the help of computers, offered the development of humans to change and
to change the changes faster than ever.
