Thursday, July 5, 2007
The Bright Future of Black Leaves
Freeman Dyson is an optimist. He sees a future where biotech supplants physics — a familiar assumption these days — in the article he indicates biology has already achieved critical mass. He sees big corporation biotech then exfoliating to the general population, the way computers went from huge singularities to a laptop in millions of homes. He thinks this is a good and hopeful thing that will lead to experimentation and generate variety, productivity, and a return of the rural to its former central importance; with it will come an end to rural poverty. Cities would no longer be as important if people could generate their own power and food from clever biological manipulations. Black leaved silicon plants is one bizarro manifestation of this vision. Dyson's model of biological experimentation for the good is that presented in flower shows or a reptile show he attended in San Diego; people devoting their lives to breeding and coming up with remarkable variants of flowers.
The devices necessary for this implementation which could then be manipulated by the average person are possible, he says — he should know, he is a renowned scientist. But the wisdom of a general population, able to intersect with the gene pool, makes me wonder if he has observed the behavior of people in driving a simple-minded tin can on wheels called a car. Human mistakes, foolishness, misunderstanding, maliciousness, psychosis, distractedness, self-centeredness and pranksterism seems certain to infect the bright future he suggests. He says that there could be controls — I'm not sure how.
The article is still wonderful in its hope and kindness of vision. Science fiction written by a smart, goodhearted scientist.