The ALAN Review Fall 2013
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Lawrence Baines and Jane Fisher From Cave Art to Cryonics quick scan of the books that students carry program a shorter lifespan into the DNA of humans around in school reveals a plethora of young so that women die at age 20 and men die at age 25. A adult (YA) fantasy and science fiction titles. In Pretties (Westerfeld, 2010), characters pop pills to Insurgent (Roth, 2012), The Scorch Trials (Dashner, remain perpetually beautiful and “bubbly.” It is a dose 2011), and The Rise of Nine (Lore, 2012) seem to be of tracker jacker venom that convinces Peeta that as- current favorites. However, some students just do not sassinating Katniss is the right thing to do in Mock- enjoy science fiction, despite the popularity of books ingjay (Collins, 2011). While such speculations about such as Matched (Condie, 2011) and Hunger Games trends in microbiology may seem bizarre, they are (Collins, 2010), and the seemingly endless sagas of no more incredible than actual developments, which vampires and wizards. Some students simply prefer to include tiny brain implants that dramatically increase read nonfiction, especially the kind of “true stories” intelligence and nanoparticles that, once injected into that make them gasp and ask, “Is that really true?” the bloodstream, detect and cure human disease at the The good news is that the number of quality, cellular level before it starts. nonfiction books for students is burgeoning. No mat- These developments, along with hundreds of ter the topic, from cave art to cryonics, a universe of others (including spacecraft crafted to the size of a new titles has the potential to invigorate the classroom sewing needle) are featured in Physics of the Future with fresh perspectives. As with literary fiction, a (Kaku, 2011a). Recently, when I brought a two-page primary criterion for the selection of nonfiction texts is excerpt from Kaku’s book, entitled “Life in 2100” the quality of the writing. In our classrooms, we like (Kaku, 2011b), that proclaimed that “the Internet will to integrate YA nonfiction with contemporary trade be in your contact lens,” “cars will be driverless,” and books, selected online articles, videos, news stories, “the robot industry will dwarf the size of the current websites, and as much relevant art, music, and sen- automobile industry” (pp. 45–46) to an eighth–grade sory stimuli as we can find. Routinely using sensory English class, students actually attempted to pry the stimuli (usually from the Internet) in conjunction with article out of my hands so that they could read it. The print nonfiction encourages students to move from article also generated enthusiasm among students in reading to understanding, and at the teacher’s discre- a twelfth-grade Advanced Placement class. In the AP tion, to research and creative projects. class, one student commented that he hoped a driver- less car would improve the road habits of elderly Pondering the Future drivers; another student predicted that school admin- istrators would likely prohibit Internet-ready contact Several recent YA dystopian novels postulate about lenses, as they had already banned cellphones. the ways that innovations in microbiology could go While it can be useful to pair YA literature with awry. For example, in Wither (DeStefano, 2011), sci- YA and adult nonfiction with similar themes (Walther entists who are trying to eradicate disease accidentally & Fuhler, 2008), the oeuvre of nonfiction is sufficient- 46 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Fall 2013 i46-52-ALAN-Fall13.indd 46 9/15/13 10:08 AM ly compelling to constitute a worthwhile area of study could become operable in robots. At the point where all its own. Researchers interested in student engage- humans and machines merge, immortality becomes ment have long established that students are more plausible. likely to read when topics are related to their own In the book Ending Aging (2005), De Grey notes lives (Gambrell, 2011; Guthrie, Wigfield, Metsala, & that aging is often the result of mutations of cells. As Cox, 1999; Wang & Holcombe, 2010). Perhaps nothing cells mutate or die, the body begins to shut down. De is more relevant to the lives of adolescents than the Grey asserts that by inhibiting cell mutation, a human future and their prospective place in it, so we built a could live much longer, unit around an exploration of the future. perhaps to the age of 1000 Futurist and inventor Kurzweil has written years old. De Grey has an Perhaps nothing is more several books (2005, 2012) and created a website as interesting talk on TED (De a forum for discussing the future. The KurzweilAI Grey, 2012) and articles relevant to the lives of website (www.kurzweilai.net) brims with free and videos of his speeches adolescents than the articles, books, and videos. The Web address of the and presentations abound site combines inventor Kurzweil’s last name with AI on the Internet. future and their prospec- or “artificial intelligence,” though the site says that AI An organization called stands for “accelerating intelligence.” Recent offerings the Methuselah Founda- tive place in it. include stories about a robot programmed to clean and tion, founded by De Grey, tidy up, a forthcoming manned flight to Mars in 2033, has as its mission “to the benefits and liabilities of a swarm of artillery-en- significantly extend the healthy lifespan of humanity.” hanced drones, and three-dimensional avatars (one is The organization’s website (methuselahfoundation. Princess Leia from Star Wars) who are soon going to org) describes several initiatives, including informa- greet tourists in New York City airports. tion about a prize established for the first company Kurzweil is famous for making outlandish predic- that regenerates a complete human organ (Methuselah tions about the future, so an initial reaction to his Foundation, 2012). Also, there is the SENS (Strategies website might be a roll of the eyes. However, for for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Foundation, a those who bother to track his predictions, Kurzweil’s clearinghouse on breakthroughs on aging, which lists record is quite impressive (Kurzweil, 2013). In fact, in De Grey as one of its chief scientists (SENS, 2012). a 148-page update on the accuracy of his predictions, Among the most radical of organizations related he writes, to aging is Alcor, a corporation that will freeze you through a process called cryonics, with the prom- I made 147 predictions for 2009 in ASM [the book Age of Spiritual Machines], which I wrote in the 1990s. Of these, ise that you may be revived at some point in the 115 (78 percent) are entirely correct as of the end of 2009, future, preferably after the cure for aging has been and another 12 (8 percent) are “essentially correct” —a total discovered. While cryonics might seem outlandish of 127 predictions (86 percent) are correct or essentially or improbable, as of May 31, 2012, Alcor had 968 correct. Another 17 (12 percent) are partially correct, and members and 111 patients (Alcor, 2013). A patient is 3 (2 percent) are wrong. an individual who has paid the $200,000+ member- Kurzweil is also famous for saying that the indi- ship fee for full body cryopreservation or $80,000+ vidual who will live to be 150 years old is alive today. for neurocryopreservation (just the brain). A member He confesses that he is trying to stay alive as long as has paid an initiation fee and a number of additional possible because he believes that, relatively soon, new fees in the hope of finding enough cash to pay for the breakthroughs in science will permit humans to live preservation process at some point before Judgment a high-quality life for hundreds of years without the Day. Alcor also features a free, slick magazine that is hindrances commonly associated with old age. Indeed, well worth reading. the title of one of his books is Fantastic Voyage: Live The premise of cryonics has emerged in recent Long Enough to Live Forever (Kurzweil & Grossman, YA fiction, such as Across the Universe (Revis, 2011). 2005). According to Kurzweil, if consciousness, per- Delving into real, science-based speculations about the sonality, and brains could be downloaded, then they future can be enlivening for students who might not 47 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Fall 2013 i46-52-ALAN-Fall13.indd 47 9/15/13 10:08 AM be big literature-lovers. Learning about transformative Immortality is a theme in many Norse and Greek technologies that could dramatically impact the future ancient myths, an obsession with the Romantic poets, is a way of giving students a sense of time and place and it shows up frequently in novels such as The in the midst of tumultuous change. Picture of Dorian Grey (Wilde, 2013), Tuck Everlasting (Babbitt, 1975), and current dystopian YA literature, How Long Will You Live? such as Incarceron (Fisher, 2011), The Postmortal (Magary, 2011), and The Declaration (Malley, 2008). An interesting way to begin the How Long Will You These fictional works should prove especially engag- Live? project is to show how a person’s physical fea- ing to students after perusing the landscape of the tures change with time. A photographer from Argenti- factual future-in-progress. na has a nice website that shows photos of his family over several years (Goldberg, 2012). Every Bone Tells a Story Ask students to write down three facts from each of these websites: Before Ancient Greece, and perhaps even before the development of language itself, there was art. Mithen • A governmental report on changes in life expectan- (2005), in his provocative book The Singing Neander- cies (United States Special Commission on Aging, thals, posits that singing, dancing (of a sort), and art 2013) actually preceded language.