Freeman Dyson is a world-class scientist and a good writer. His latest essay in the NY Review of Books is entitled "Our Biotech Future". Reading it, I know how an individual reasonably aware of the world in 1907 must have felt when listening to the futurologists of the early 20th century.
From the essay title, one gets the impression (which is confirmed) that Dyson believes that biology is this century's 'plastic' (to quote The Graduate). One of his visions which I really don't understand is the belief that there will be biotechnology games (like computer games) that will create a race of people that will really understand biology.
Dyson is a fan of Carl Woese, who seems to have believed that the world was a better place before Darwin 'discovered' evolution. In this pre-Darwinian world separate species did not exist. But now this Darwinian interlude is over. Apparently, Woese believed that organization was everything.
Dyson sees biotechnology as the savior of the world - sustainable economic development, elimination of poverty, etc. He postulates earthworms that extract metals from clay and seaweed that extracts gold from seawater.
Probably some of what he says will happen. But I think he's being overly optimistic.
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