"A Modest Proposal For The Perfection Of Nature" - читать интересную книгу автора (McIntyre Vonda N)

Except for the cyanobacteria, the ocean's cacophony of microscopic organisms has
followed redwoods, mammoths and Hallucigenia into extinction. The krill are
gone. Krill would be of as little use to people as sharks and seabirds, fish or
jellyfish, seashells or whales. They are all gone, too.
The water deepens beyond the reach of light. The continental shelf ends in a
precipice, dropping off into darkness.
On the sea floor, the glasslace shells of diatoms lie clean and dead, slowly
settling. In a moment of geologic time, they will form white limestone.
In the deepest trenches, black smokers gush scalding chemical soup. Machines
sense the vents of heat, swim to them, and settle over them to trap the energy
from the center of Earth. Nothing remains for the sustenance and evolution of
primordial life in these extraordinary environments.
The strange creatures that lived there, and died, were never any use to human
beings.
All the resources of sea and land serve our needs.
Cities of alabaster and adamantine grace the crests of mountains and span the
flow of rivers. The cities' people live rich, full lives, long and healthy, free
of disease. We are well fed. We have interesting, challenging occupations and
plenty of time for leisure, family and virtual reality. We can experience any
adventure, from wilderness to exotic ritual, without the expense, trouble or
danger of travel. We can experience any adventure that ever happened, any
adventure anyone can imagine. The virtual experience matches reality or
invention in every way: sight, sound, smell, touch and movement.
Our civilization pulses with vitality. We have unlimited opportunity: of
thought, of achievement, of freedom, and of the pursuit of happiness.
Whatever we require, human ingenuity can invent and provide. And if, in some
unlikely but imaginable future, we should wish to recreate any organism, the
means to do so exist. DNA sequences, RNA sequences, are easy to write down and
archive; there is no need to store messy biological material, either tough and
persistent DNA or fragile and degradable RNA. We are magnanimous; we have
preserved the blueprints for everything, even parasites and pathogens.
No one has bothered to recreate an organism in a very long time. We have
considered the question long and hard, and we have made our decision. No
creation of nature has an inherent right to exist, independent of our need.
We have perfected nature, for we are its masters.