Super You: How Technology is Revolutionizing What It Means to Be Human

7. In Hacks We Trust? The Political and Religious Backlash Against the Future

Your baby has a debilitating genetic disorder that runs in your family. She will be born horribly impaired and will likely die in the first weeks of her life. Her doctors have detected it early, in utero. However, there might have been a technology available that could have corrected the issue. But your elected officials—supported by morally opposed religious clerics—took legislative steps that hamstrung the scientific process by making it illegal to pursue the research. It’s possible overseas, where there is no preventative legislation, but not at your local hospital.

Robotic technologies are poised to make all cars and trucks driverless. It eliminates once and for ...