Speechification

An absolutely fascinating piece, this. Scary, but fascinating. And leaves you wondering quite why it feels scary (I think I know).

Professor Julian Savulescu, an eminent ethicist at Oxford University, on why it might benefit society as a whole to allow genetic modification and enhancement of humans. Simplifying, his arguments are relatively straightforward: ignoring the fact that we already enhance - via ritalin, say, or even coffee and alcohol - if we could genuinely and safely improve IQ, behaviour, even morality through tweaking genetics and pharmacology, shouldn’t we do that? The impact on everything, from architecture to sport to law to relationships, is barely capable of being comprehended - at least, without the sharpener of modafanil and Ritalin that US airforce pilots use when flying over Iraq.

The image I’m left with, however, is that of a rabbit that had a fluorescent gene from a jellyfish transferred into it. Perfectly safely, apparently. Thus, a fluorescent rabbit, and Savulescu points out that there’s no reason we couldn’t make a fluorescent human right now, the same way. At least they’d have each other.

Background Briefing: Stronger, smarter, nicer humans (mp3)

I’m putting this 2002 programme up not because of the topic (I reckon you know all about the ‘Mozart effect‘ by now) but because it’s really good, satisfying factual radio: Presenter Paul Robertson is leader of The Medici Quartet: he’s enthusiastic and (obviously) knowledgeable.

He interviews a lot of fascinating scientists and musicians - including Oliver “Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat” Sacks - about the music’s effect on listeners and about the catalogue of supposed medical conditions that may have contributed to Mozart’s genius (MP3).

The show’s web page is here, a profile of the composer from the Radio 3 site here and - blimey - the show’s Real stream is still up too (it’ll be five years old tomorrow!). The British Library’s lovely flippy-page Shockwave facsimile of a late Mozart manuscript has loads of music clips and an audio commentary to listen to too - so that’s your afternoon sorted out.