Digital Delights - Digital Tribes

The gravity of our situation is hard to comprehend, and responses tend to the facile. Those sometimes called "techno-­optimists," such as the writer Stewart Brand, say that "we are as gods, so we might as well get good at it." Others, more skeptical, agree that industrial civilization, information technology, and scientific breakthroughs are giving humanity awesome powers but warn that the dangers may outweigh the benefits. For example, Braden R. Allenby, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Daniel Sarewitz, a professor of science in society, both at Arizona State University, reply to Brand in their book The Techno-Human Condition (MIT Press, 2011): "We have got used to, even blasé about, the possibility of nuclear winter, in the way a 2-year-old gets used to a loaded .357 magnum lying on the floor within easy reach. We are as gods? No, for we have created the power but not the mind."