Authors: Steven Kotler
Also, I need to thank my agent Paul Bresnick, who was the first to believe in the possibility of this book and then worked so hard to make it a reality. Everyone at Amazon has been amazing. Special thanks are due to both Julia Cheiffetz who, before she switched jobs, bought the original manuscript, and Tara Parsons, who so ably saw it through to publication. Thanks are also due to both Ryan Holiday and Brent Underwood for their digital ninjitsu. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to Charles Pierce, John McPhee, and David Quammen, three majestic wordsmiths who helped me see the real possibilities in science writing.
Steven Kotler
is a
New York
Times best-selling author, an award-winning journalist, and the cofounder and director of research for the Flow Genome Project. His books include
Bold, The Rise of Superman, Abundance, A Small Furry Prayer, West of Jesus
, and
The Angle Quickest for Flight
. His work has been translated into more than forty languages and has appeared in over eighty publications, including the
New York Times
, the
Atlantic Monthly, Wired, Forbes
, and
Time
. He also writes Far Frontiers, a blog about the intersection of science and culture, for
Forbes.com
. Kotler lives in northern New Mexico with his wife and too many dogs.
Index
addiction treatments,
169
AIDS
sperm donation and,
262
steroids in treatment of,
196
–
98
alcoholism treatments,
169
al-Shabaab,
238
Alta Charo, R.,
207
American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine,
186
American Association of Reproductive Medicine,
258
American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM),
194
American Journal of Diseases of Children,
38
American Medical Association,
195
American Society of Artificial Internal Organs,
74
opiate addiction after,
11
Anabolic Steroids Control Act,
195
Anderson, David,
214
Anderson, Eric,
145
,
148
,
150
,
151
Annas, George,
245
anthrax,
239
free radicals and,
191
on inflammation,
198
legislation against steroids and,
195
–
96
metabolism in,
191
stem cells in,
199
Anti-Drug Abuse Act,
195
Argonne National Laboratory,
118
ARKYD 100 space telescope,
149
Army Corps of Engineers,
83
–
85
,
90
Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge,
88
,
91
–
92
artificial intelligence,
27
–
28
,
223
.
See also
mind uploading
artificial limbs.
See
prosthetics
Ashcroft, John,
210
Asimov, Isaac,
27
Asphaug, Erik,
147
aspirational genome,
131
compared to exploration of North America,
149
for platinum-group metals,
150
technology for,
148
for water,
151
“Asteroids of Gold” (Simak),
145
astral projection,
36
Atkinson, Peter,
136
,
137
,
138
,
140
Atomic Energy Commission,
109
“Atoms for Peace” (Eisenhower),
109
Avatar
(film),
27
ayahuasca,
161
Aztecs,
167
Babbitt, Bruce,
84
Behr, Barry,
262
Beijing Genomics Institute,
237
–
38
Béliard, Octave,
87
Berger, Theodore,
26
Berthold, Arnold,
192
Bigelow Aerospace,
129
BioBricks,
234
Biological Weapons Convention,
230
biosensing technologies,
242
Biosphere 2,
89
biotechnology, rate of progress in,
28
–
29
.
See also
synthetic biology
crowdsourcing designs for,
221
–
23
FBI biosecurity conferences on,
236
–
37
genetically targeted,
224
–
25
,
227
–
28
against heads of state,
224
radical transparency against,
243
–
46
sensing technologies against,
242
–
43
Blood, Benjamin Paul,
168
Bloom, Howard,
219
Blue Brain project,
28
Blue Heron Biotechnology,
231
brain-computer interface (BCI),
26
Brand, Stewart,
111
Brandt, Laura,
91
Branson, Richard,
145
“Brief proposal on immortality: an interim solution” (Martin),
27
British Journal of Sports Medicine,
190
British Telecommunications,
25
Brown, Clare,
255
Brown-Séquard, Édouard,
193
Built to Survive: HIV Wellness Guide
(Vergel & Mooney),
197
Bush, George W.,
11
,
111
,
207
,
209
–
10
,
211
–
12
,
213
,
214
,
217
,
238
,
261
Butcher, Grace,
37
Calder Hall,
110
Calfee Design Factory,
99
California Health Span Institute,
185
Cameron, James,
27
cancer.
See also
end-of-life care
genetically targeted treatments for,
224
–
25
,
240
–
41
stem cells in treatment of,
205
–
6
Captain Capsid,
222
Carbon Mitigation Initiative,
114
carbon taxes,
113
Carter, Jimmy,
116
Catholic Church,
260
Celera,
228
Challenger
space shuttle,
129
The Changing Body
(Fogel, Floud, Harris, & Hong),
54
–
56
Charo, R. Alta,
207
Chicago Pile-1,
109
China
coal-related deaths in,
112
China Syndrome,
110
Church, George,
232
Cierva, Juan de la,
102
The City and the Stars
(Clarke),
27
Clarke, Arthur C.,
27
Clean Air Act,
84
insect-borne illnesses and,
134
cloning
stem cells and,
208
,
214
–
15
,
217
–
18
cochlea, artificial,
26
Cochrane, Peter,
25
–
27
,
28
,
30
–
31
Cochrane, Thomas,
117
Cockcroft, John,
109
Colbert, Stephen,
143
Collins, Rick,
194
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP),
84
,
88
–
90
consciousness
fear of death and,
xv
–
xvi
,
29
–
30
oneness with the universe and,
46
–
47
in out-of-body experiences,
35
–
40
true nature of,
28
Consolmagno, Brother Guy,
143
–
44
,
147
–
48
,
149
,
152
Controlled Substance Act,
169
ConvAirCar,
100
Costa, Dora,
52
Cray supercomputer,
226
C-reactive proteins,
198
culture and science,
xiv
cummings, e. e.,
xv
Curtiss, Glenn,
100
Daily Mail
(newspaper),
224
d’Aquili, Eugene,
45
Daschle, Tom,
214
Davis, Gray,
212
Day-Glo protein,
138
death
definition of,
210
end-of-life care and,
159
–
61
,
162
–
63
,
175
–
77
near-death experiences and,
37
–
43
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
15
,
18
Democritus,
109
The Denial of Death
(Becker),
xv
–
xvi
,
29
Department of Health and Human Services,
195
,
210
desalination,
121
Diamandis, Peter,
xi
–
xiii
,
141
,
145
,
148
,
150
Disabled Sports USA,
15