Bioethics and Fiction

September 14, 2006

HarperCollins announced Tuesday that Michael Crichton’s next novel, NEXT will focus on genetics. Crichton, trained as a medical doctor, has a history of using bioethics issues to drive his plots.

His novel Prey involved nanotechnology, and way back in the early 70s his Terminal Man dealt with issues we would now categorize as neuroethical. His films Westworld and Runaway envisioned a world of intelligent (and destructive) machines. Crichton’s last novel, State of Fear, which addressed global warming, had an appendix with a fascinating overview of the pseudo-science behind the eugenics movement of the last century. Actually, I’ve just discovered that the appendix is available on Crichton’s website. All that to say, I’m looking forward to reading NEXT.

On another note, I’ve just finished reading Pagan Kennedy’s Confessions of a Memory Eater, a novel that asks “what if you could relive your past—highlights only?” With the experimental drug MEM, your memories come back with perfect clarity. The book raises some interesting points, although I found the writing to be a bit overdone, as if the author is trying a little to hard. At only 248 pages though, it’s a quick read.