November 25, 2006: Radical Evolution - Joel Garreau

Art Bell welcomes Joel Garreau, reporter and editor at the Washington Post, to discuss his book Radical Evolution, which examines how genetics, robotics, information technology, and nanotechnology are converging to alter human nature within two decades. Garreau explains that for the first time, technology is aimed inward at modifying minds, memories, and metabolisms rather than outward at changing the environment.

Garreau outlines three scenarios for humanity's future. The heaven scenario envisions conquering disease, aging, and death through exponential progress. The hell scenario warns that these same tools in the wrong hands could end civilization, citing the Australian mousepox experiment where one genetic tweak created a virus fatal to every lab mouse. The prevail scenario suggests human social innovation can keep pace with technological change, as the printing press once led to the Renaissance and democracy.

The conversation covers DARPA-funded research including a telekinetic monkey at Duke University controlling a robotic arm six hundred miles away using brain signals, memory pills expected within three years, and military programs to burn body fat at will. Art raises concerns about blurring the line between human and machine, while Garreau argues that humanity has historically adapted just fast enough to survive its own inventions.