__ Rants & Raves __
__ Wired's Selfish Genes __
That Yuk sensation ("Overcoming Yuk," Wired 6.01, page 44) isn't merely angst over a spilled latte.
It's the feeling of your nose being slammed into an ethical barrier. And with good reason: eugenics carries an extremely high price tag.
History shows that in humankind's lust for knowledge and power we throw caution to the wind. After Roe v. Wade, people came to expect the right to abortion on demand. Similarly, there will be no stopping genetic tampering once that has become the norm. Wired holds the mistaken belief that, given enough ticks on the tech-o-meter, we can solve all of life's problems. This tenet is a fallacy. Those who innovate bear the responsibility for their progress, and it is not sufficient, ethical, or reasonable to sweep everything under the rug of pure science.
Technology might someday enable us to engineer parts of human beings - cells, tissues, organs, or even a complete organism - for the purpose of harvesting transplant material. If there's money to be made, the black market will thrive. Once we learn to control aging and the most common illnesses, it may be possible to extend our life spans indefinitely, leading to overpopulation. Eugenics is both a blessing and a curse. Talk about the selfish gene - these sentiments epitomize Wired. Life is not a plaything in the Fetish section.
Thomas Olsen
__ Unbecoming Yuk __
Although I enjoyed reading "Overcoming Yuk," Oliver Morton has succumbed to the myth that Dolly is a clone. She's pretty dang close, but no cigar. In a true clone, the donor cell provides both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA.
I have a very rare genotype. I also need a heart and lung transplant. The likelihood of finding a suitable donor is virtually nil. Would it be ethical for me to produce a pseudo-clone or a true clone of myself so I could get the lifesaving spare parts? I could get the mitochondrial DNA by using an egg from my sister and hire a womb for the gestation process.
But would it be ethical? I don't think so. Killing a copy or pseudo-copy of myself is distasteful, even though I will die without the new parts for which this would be the only practicable source.
Karl W. Schweickardt Jr.
__ Sense and Sensibility __
I enjoy Wired's sense of self-importance, but I think it has lost its sense of irony. Let me get this straight. In "Overcoming Yuk," Oliver Morton says that screwing with billions of years of genetic code is no big deal. Steve G. Steinberg ("Schumpeter's Lesson," Wired 6.01, page 80) says that the Ethernet is still around because it is "ingrained in hundreds of millions of lines of code throughout the world." Isn't there a message there for geneticists? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Jon Daniel
__ Good Timing __
It is rare that I come across something in the media that so precisely picks my brain. But Jon Katz's "Technotragedies" (Wired 6.02, page 61) did just that. I read it this morning, after watching the beginning of President Clinton's latest media-covered nightmare. While I am not one of the president's greatest admirers, I am dismayed by the thought of what our national discourse will be in the coming months. I agree with Katz's assessment that coverage of events rarely touches on the issues that inform public policies and shape our lives. But, unfortunately, I think the solution will have to be sought on a personal level. Some of us will play solitaire, while others will live in 10-by-12-foot cabins in Montana.
James E. Storbeck
__ Data Crunch __
I disagree with Randall Rothenberg's assertion that the Net's "precision accountability" will bring down Big Media's flagrant misuse of statistical research ("Bye-Bye," Wired 6.01, page 72). On the contrary, the glut of data will rise in sharp disproportion to the number of individuals qualified to process, analyze, and put data to use. The measurements may become more precise with unprecedented sample sizes and extensive databases to cull. But this effort is useless, indeed dangerous, unless there are people around to crunch the numbers and interpret them correctly.
Cate Riegner
__ Moving Pictures __
I have been stunned by the spectacular, introductory images in Wired. The photograph of two newlyweds crossing a Beirut street (Wired 5.11, page 22) was so profound it took me weeks to resolve my emotions.
While at a Washington, DC, think-tank session with European and US leaders concerning conflicting privacy issues and the Internet, I was surprised by the American government's disregard for individual privacy and by how much the Europeans quoted Wired. I have not missed an issue since.
Thank you for being brave and optimistic.
Patrick Martin
__ Word Up __
The worldviews of cybervisionaries Danny Hillis ("The Big Picture," Wired 6.01, page 38) and George Gilder ("Happy Birthday Wired," page 40) couldn't be more at odds metaphysically. For Hillis, in the beginning was Chance, and Chance became us, and we'll become, by Chance (for no reason whatsoever), something more than we can imagine. It's as if a typhoon swept through a junkyard and cranked out a Pentium chip. For Gilder, in the beginning was the Word, and our very life and creativity - expressed through technology or otherwise - is rooted in that irreducible, transcendent, and sacred Word. The future - and the past - is on the side of Gilder. Chance had no chance to do what Hillis deems it did.
Douglas Groothuis
__ Yesterday Today __
OK, new look, very nice. But Wired's February cover should have featured Freeman Dyson instead of hyping Jim Cameron a month after everybody else did.
I bet if you had asked Cameron (a fairly swift guy himself) who should have been on the cover, he'd have chosen Dyson. Big movies may be sexy, but a chance to talk about the future with one of the guys who helped create the present counts more in the long run. Being a content provider entails some degree of responsibility or you just become eye candy at best, graffiti at worst.
Ed Manning
__ Optimistic Criticism? __
Louis Rossetto's introduction ("Some things never change," Wired 6.01, page 20) claims to hold a "critical optimism," but everything else he writes makes it clear that "critical" is to "optimism" what "tiny" is to "huge." I used to think of myself as an optimist, but perhaps I should reconsider if I don't necessarily swallow that "genetic engineering is conquering disease" (while antibiotics are moving perilously close to becoming ineffective); "new energy technologies promise to save our environment" (which nuclear energy also "promised"); and "we've entered a period of peace" (which I would never say to the people of Israel, Chiapas, Congo, or Nepal with a straight face, much less a smile).
Being critical is very important to being optimistic if you truly want to see what really is there.
John Brugge
__ Africa Versus Wyoming __
In 1989 I flew into Bujumbara, Burundi, with five Macs, a friend, and the goal of teaching desktop publishing for six months. Things didn't go exactly according to plan, though our students learned PageMaker and we published a couple issues of La Source - the only magazine in the region not affiliated with the government. Africa has its own way of doing things.
John Perry Barlow's "Africa Rising" (Wired 6.01, page 142) brought back all the excitement and frustration of those days. It reminded me of the optimism I once felt for Africa, of the vibrancy and the enthusiasm of people open to trying something new to better themselves, their families, and their country.
My wife and I moved to Gillette, Wyoming, two years ago. In many ways the experience has been similar to my days as a foreigner working in Africa. Campbell County is wealthy from coal and oil rights. Citizens and government spend without saving. There are few new businesses. No diversification. All the eggs in one basket.
If, however, I had to bet which economy will be stronger in five years, I'd take Kampala, Uganda, over Gillette, Wyoming, any day.
Jeff Kiger
__ Undo __
Just as the March issue was rolling off the press, a federal appeals court temporarily halted Lawrence Lessig's work as special master in the Microsoft antitrust case ("The Special Master," Wired 6.03, page 99). The court plans to issue a final ruling on Lessig's status in late April.
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