Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age

Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age<br> By Bill McKibben. | Henry Holt. $25.

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Asked to name “the most technologically sophisticated people on this continent,” few would short-list the Amish. But Mother Jones contributing writer Bill McKibben praises these considered Americans in Enough, his rumination on science and selfhood. McKibben doesn’t want his readers to drive buggies, but he does want to slow the “all-out race to technologize” that has gripped the Western world. He admires the Amish for eschewing technologies that threaten their community’s cohesion, while embracing others (say, mechanical manure spreaders) that prove useful tools.

The Amish show that “technological discrimination” is still “within the realm of human possibility.” And Enough argues that we need such powers of discernment, now more than ever, as we face innovations — cloning, genetic engineering — that challenge our very understanding of humanity.

In the opening chapter, McKibben recounts his elation at pushing his physical limitations to complete a marathon. But what if those limitations ceased to exist — if his genetically engineered great-grandson could run 26 miles without difficulty? Enough asks simply, earnestly whether better race times (or longer life spans, higher IQs, more symmetrical jawlines) will, in fact, make us better people.

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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