More Than Human
Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement
"a terrific survey of current work and future possibilities in gene therapy,
neurotechnology and other fields"
- LA Times  (more reviews)

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More Than Human is about our growing power to alter our minds, bodies, and lifespans through technology - the power to redefine our species - a power we can choose to fear, or to embrace.

In 1990, a professor at the University of Colorado discovered that changing a single gene doubles the lifespan of tiny nematode worms.

In 1999, researchers searching for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease genetically engineered a strain of mice that can learn things five times as quickly as their normal kin – super-intelligent mice. 

In 2002, scientists looking for ways to help paralyzed patients implanted electrodes into the brain of an owl monkey and trained it to move a robot arm 600 miles away just by thinking about it. 

Over the last decade researchers looking for ways to help the sick and injured have stumbled onto techniques that enhance healthy animals – making them stronger, faster, smarter, longer-lived, even connecting their minds to robots and computers.  Now science is on the verge of applying this knowledge to healthy men and women.  The same research that could cure Alzheimer’s is leading to drugs and genetic techniques that could boost human intelligence.  The techniques being developed to stave off heart disease and cancer have the potential to halt or even reverse human aging. 

More Than Human takes the reader into the labs where this is happening to understand the science of human enhancement.  It also steps back to look at the big picture.  How will these technologies affect society?  What will they do to the economy, to politics, and to human identity?  What social policies should we enact to regulate, restrict, or encourage the use of these technologies?

Ultimately More Than Human concludes that we should embrace, rather than fear, the power to alter ourselves - that in the hands of millions of individuals and families, it stands to benefit society more than to harm it.

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Praise for More Than Human

"More Than Human" is a terrific survey of current work and future possibilities in gene therapy, neurotechnology and other fields.  
     —Los Angeles Times     (read full review)

"The Editors Recommend"  
     —Scientific American    (read full review)

In an excellent and comprehensive survey, Naam investigates a wide swath of cutting-edge techniques that in a few years may be as common as plastic surgery. 
     —Publisher's Weekly    (read full review)

An intriguing presentation by an unabashed advocate of the technological tricking and co-opting of mother nature. 
     —Kirkus Reviews            (read full review)

“Ramez Naam provides a reliable and informed cook’s tour of the world we might choose if we decide that we should fast-forward evolution. I disagree with virtually all his enthusiasms, but I think he has made his case cogently and well.”
     —Bill McKibben, author Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age

“More Than Human is excellent—passionate yet balanced, clearly written and rich with fascinating details. A wonderful overview of a topic that will dominate the twenty-first century.”
    —Greg Bear, author of Dead Lines and Darwin’s Children

“Sixty years ago, human beings gave digital computers the ability to modify their own coded instructions—sparking a revolution that has now given us the ability to modify our own coded instructions, promising revolutions even more extreme. Whether for, against, or undecided about genetic modification of human beings, you should read this book—a bold, compelling look at what lies ahead.”
    —George Dyson, author of Darwin Among the Machines

“More Than Human is one of those rare books that is both a delightful read and an important statement. You’ll relish the fascinating stories of physical and mental enhancement that Naam has assembled here, but you’ll also come away with a new sense of wonder at the human drive for pushing at the boundaries of what it means to be human. No one interested in the future intersections of science, technology, and medicine can afford to miss this book.”
    —Steven Johnson, author of Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life

“Ramez Naam’s look at the coming of human enhancement is a major contribution; he shows convincingly that the conceptual wall between therapy and enhancement is fast crumbling.”
    —Gregory Stock, author of Redesigning Humans

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