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Scientific Inquiries and Faustian Dangers

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In 1952, the "Partisan Review," one of America's oldest and most respected literary and cultural journals, asked American intellectuals to assess the effects of political and cultural changes due to events following WWII, such as the rise of communism, the Cold War, and America's emerging economic superiority. Earlier this month and 50 years after the 1952 conference, the Partisan Review journal held another conference titled "Our Country, Our Culture" to assess yet again how the past 50 years have affected the American society and its relationship to the rest of the world at large.

On this week's show we heard more excerpts from one of the discussions held at this conference on the rise of science of technology over the last half century. Boston University Professor of Biomedical Engineering James Collins, inventor and entrepreneur Raymond Kurzweil, and New York University Professor of Medicine Gerald Weissmann offered their thoughts on the question of whether there should be a halt to certain kinds of scientific inquiries because of theor potential Faustian dangers.

This program aired on June 9, 2002.

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Robin Lubbock Videographer, Photographer
Robin Lubbock is a videographer and photographer for WBUR.

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