Tomorrow

Future Wildcards: are these good ideas?

By Justin Long ⋅ June 30, 2009 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

If you had a pair of glasses that contained a computer always connected wirelessly to the Internet and projected a 4-foot monitor in front of your eyes that that only you could see, would your spouse think it was a great idea?

Would a cow that makes penicillin instead of milk be a good idea?

If you had a box that could make anything you wanted out of dirt and water, how much dirt would still be in your back yard?

If your car ran entirely on hydrogen, would you care about the poverty of countries that once exported oil but now have nothing we want to buy?

Would it be a good idea to create a microscopic weapon that could select one individual out of millions based on their unique DNA code, and kill him? What if the person were an oppressive dictator? What if the person were Billy Graham?

If you could cure genetic diseases in a child while they were still in the womb, would you do it? What if you could select for things like intelligence or acting ability? What if you could select sex, hair and eye color, height and weight? What if they could sue you later because they didn’t like your choices—or because you didn’t give them the best possible chance?

If your country had no clean water left, and the country next door refused you access to water, would it be cause for war? What if your country were Palestine and the country next door was Israel?

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