THE ABSTRACT SUBLIME: Life as information waiting to be rewritten

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

Address correspondence to: Jon Turney, Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London, UK, E‐mail: [email protected]

Page numbers of quotes refer to the Flamingo paperback edition, 2000.

I discuss some other features of cosmic and evolutionary narratives in an earlier essay in Science as Culture (Turney, 2001).

As this suggests, despite its title, much of Life Without Genes is concerned with genes. When he is in Gene Space, Woolfson's view of genes rather neglects his stress elsewhere in the book that organisms embody many other kinds of information than DNA sequences. Most of his discussion sees the genome as an algorithm for directing the construction of a (potentially viable) organism.

A debate spanning extremes currently well marked out by the recent volumes by Francis Fukuyama and Gregory Stock (Fukuyama, 2002; Stock, 2002). Fukuyama's position might be summarized as ‘keep humans human’, while Stock's is based on an evolutionary narrative which calls for us to realize our cosmic destiny by taking control of our own future evolution. Woolfson represents a third position, which takes future modification so much for granted it simply seems not worth arguing about.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jon Turney

Address correspondence to: Jon Turney, Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London, UK, E‐mail: [email protected]