http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4411712-99939,00.htmlA penny for his thoughts
Francis Fukuyama was wrong about history. His ideas on science in Our Posthuman Future aren't worth much more
Peter Conrad
Sunday May 12, 2002
Observer
Our Posthuman Future
Francis Fukuyama
....
The fuss he makes about the chemically-modified brains of people on Prozac is even sillier. Living in the puritanical US, he may not know that people have smoked, drunk alcohol and taken drugs for centuries, using whatever potions were available to tinker with their moods. It's bad for some, and not for others; our species is tough, but it's pompous nonsense to decry those who are weaker as less than human.
Worse than that, it may be viciously prejudicial. The Nazis categorised those they disapproved of as subhuman, just as Fuyukama stigmatises certain groups as posthuman: in an ugly jest, he warns that 'computer geeks in AI labs who think of themselves as nothing more than complex programs and want to download themselves into a computer should worry, since no one would care if they were turned off for good'.
There's his pseudo-scary motif again. Just why, I wonder, does he want to make us worry? I managed to preserve my equanimity until the end of his book. But now, to be honest, I do feel a certain dread. What worries me is that Fukuyama, who at best can proficiently fillet someone else's ideas, has been widely mistaken for a thinker.
(I'm sure someone has said this before...Fukuyama=f*** you)