Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity

Our DNA is becoming as readable, writable, and hackable as our information technology. The resulting genetic revolution is poised to transform our healthcare, our choices for the characteristics of the next generation, and our evolution as a species. The future could bring breathtaking advances in human well-being, but it could also descend into a dangerous genetic arms race.

These claims are made in the recent book "Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity", https://hackingdarwin.com/ by Technology Futurist Jamie Metzl, https://jamiemetzl.com/

Jamie's view is that society isn't at all ready for the fast-approaching future of widespread genetic hacking.

Here is some feedback for his book:

*) “An outstanding guide to the most important conversation of our lives” — Ray Kurzweil
*) "A gifted and thoughtful writer, Metzl brings us to the frontiers of biology and technology, and reveals a world full of promise and peril." — Siddhartha Mukherjee MD
*) “If you can only read one book on the future of our species, this is it” — Sanjay Gupta

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To register and attend this event, visit https://www.crowdcast.io/e/hacking-darwin-genetic

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This 90 minute live webinar also features two other distinguished panellists:

Nessa Carey, http://www.nessacarey.co.uk/ is a virologist, researcher, and Visiting Professor in Molecular Biology at Imperial College London. Nessa is the author of "The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance", "Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome", and, most recently, "Hacking the Code of Life: How gene editing will rewrite our futures", https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hacking-Code-Life-editing-rewrite/dp/1785784978/

Joyce Harper, http://joyceharper.com/ is Professor of Reproductive Science at the Institute for Women’s Health, University College London. She is Director of Education at the IfWH, Head of the Department of Reproductive Health, and Director of the Centre for Human Reproduction. Joyce started working on preimplantation genetic testing in 1992 and was one of the founders of the PGT Consortium. She was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics working group on genome editing, https://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/publications/genome-editing-an-ethical-review and spoke in an Oxford Union debate in 2019 in favour of the motion: This house believes that genetic engineering will undermine the nature of humanity, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zne2gx-q_mM

Given the strong public interest in the possibilities of using the latest technology in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, London Futurists are fortunate that Jamie, Nessa, and Joyce have agreed to speak with us about key themes and implications of their research.

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The webinar will start broadcasting at 4pm UK time on Saturday 2nd May. To find this time in other timezones, you can use this calculator: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20200516T150000&p1=136

You are advised to log into Crowdcast up to 10 minutes ahead of the publicised start time of the event, so you won't miss the start of the live broadcast. You'll be able to exchange text messages with other attendees as soon as you arrive.

As the discussion proceeds, attendees will be welcome to raise questions and vote to prioritise questions raised by others.

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To register and attend this event, visit https://www.crowdcast.io/e/hacking-darwin-genetic

A small fee (UKP £2.50) is being charged to register for this event, in order to help offset the costs incurred by London Futurists with the Crowdcast and other software.

If you judge yourself as unable to pay this fee, you can use a special discount coupon code, available on the registration page, to register for free.