On this edition of Parallax Views, geneticist Adam Rutherford joins us to discuss his new, timely book Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics. British philosopher John Gray, author of Stray Dogs, praised Control saying, “[Rutherford’s] scientific demolition of the eugenic project is brilliantly illuminating and compelling. His book will be indispensable for anyone who wants to assess the wild claims and counter-claims surrounding new genetic technologies.” Believe it or not, the idea, or pseudoscientific mindset as Rutherford refers to it, of eugenics did not die with WWII and the atrocities of the Nazi Third Reich. In fact, elements of it still linger in the culture today. This is why Rutherford wrote Control, a book that attempts to explore the history of eugenics, the opposition to it, and the scientific problems with it from the perspective of an accomplished geneticist. In this conversation we discuss not only the history of eugenics, but also the opposition to it from Christian like G.K. Chesterton, eugenics and H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, tackling modern eugenicist thinkers like Richard Lynn who offer an intellectual, pseudo-academic sheen to eugenics and the ways in which Rutherford believes we should pushback on their claims, and a even a brief discursion into Adam’s work with filmmaker Alex Garland on the Natalie Portman-starring sci-fi movie Annihilation. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views!
