Alphachimp Studio > Pop!Tech > Human Nature > Joel Garreau

From Fast Company's Blog:

The author of Edge City and The Nine Nations of North America, previewed the findings of his upcoming book, Our New Selves: The Future of Human Nature (rejected title: While God Wasn't Looking -- Garreau says the publisher feared the righteous wrath of the religious right). Soon, he says, we'll be living in a world of bio-enhanced people -- and not just Barry Bonds. While spending a year hanging out at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- the central research and development organization for the Dept. of Defense) Garreau met a telekinetic monkey named Belle who can play video games with her brain -- a handy skill, it may turn out, for guiding an F-22.

He also discovered a team of telepathic marmosets who can transmit messages to each other mentally -- sure to lead to a sequel to Bringing Down the House. On the human horizon, Garreau sees pills that will improve memory, give us better immune systems, strengthen our skeletons, endow us with talent in the arts, math, and languages, or give us Olympic class athletic talent. "All the comic book superpowers are already in existence or are in engineering now, and will be ready for humans before your mortgage is paid," he says.

Listen to a podcast of the presentation.