• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the full show

GUEST: Michael Bess, Chancellors Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, the recipient of various fellowships from the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Human Genome Research Institute, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. His earlier books include Choices Under Fire, and The Light Green Society.

Technology has shaped our lives in ways so serious that we barely live without our computers and smart phones today. The Internet and everything it has enabled has reshaped our world in just a few short decades. By the standards of human development this is the blink of an eye.

Can we predict what our future holds based on the direction of current technological innovation? Author Michael Bess predicts that our bodies and minds are the canvasses which technology will transform. In studying the fields of pharmaceuticals, bioengineering, and epigenetics, Bess imagines a new world where humans can enhance or tweak nearly every imaginable aspect of our lives.