I was walking around at the Stanford Bookstore and I saw this book:

The book is called Enhancing Evolution - the Ethical Case for Making Better People. by John Harris. (Amazon, Princeton University Press ) and it looks like a very interesting book indeed.

The book covers Harris's arguments for why we ought to promote technologies that would allow us enhance our bodies - most notably through altering our DNA. A lot of people have a general sense of repulsion to that idea, but Harris asks us to think about the other ways we enhance ourselves - glasses, coffee, drugs, surgeries, chemotherapy. We do so many unnatural things to our bodies in an attempt to make ourselves better. Harris argues it is our nature and sometimes our moral duty, to improve ourselves and help improve others.

I'm personally supportive of genetic enhancement because I think the greatest threat to humanity is 1) our own inability to make short-term sacrifices in pursuit of long-term goals - leading to failed diets and global warming. And 2) our propensity towards xenophobia and violence which divide us and cause so much suffering through wars and other conflicts. These are inclinations that are not caused by society as they are inclinations evolved into humans through the millions of years of living in small groups, facing immediate dangers from the world and from other groups.

I read a couple chapters in the bookstore and I think the writing is accessible and ethically sound. I'm writing an honors thesis on the ethics of patient selection in organ transplantation so I'm familiar with basic ethical theories, but you don't even need to know that to enjoy and learn from this book. Check it out.

Tim Ferriss is the author of "The Four Hour Work Week"


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Timothy Ferriss recommends you check email only once per week, don't read the newspaper and don’t save for retirement. These are only a few of the taboo recommendations found in Tim’s book, “The 4-Hour Work Week.”

It would be easy to dismiss Tim’s advice as lunacy if it weren’t for his impressive list of achievements. Tim used his time-saving technique to learn six languages, become a National Chinese kickboxing champion, and a Guinness World Record holder in tango, all at 29. Tim now adds author of the #1 business book in America according to the Wall Street Journal to his long list of accomplishments.

Tim candidly discusses the contents of his book, his life philosophy and how he propelled his book to #1 using blog marketing. Tim's ability to use technology to do more with less time and money is impressive and fresh.

- Nir

First, the title: it refers to the long-held Western belief that “All swans are white.” This was a belief given up in a second once Australia was discovered and a black swan sighted. What the experts had counted upon was untrue and it unsettled ornithology. That anecdote is the whole point of the book: you cannot predict anything with any great degree of accuracy.