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Yet, the 21st century will provide such compelling technologies as genetic engineering and nanotechnolo-
gies (work at the atomic, as opposed to the molecular level) that have the potential to threaten any human in-
volvement whatsoever – far more than the simpler technologies of yore. According to Joy, "Specifically, robots,
engineered organisms, and nanobots (robots on the atomic level) share a dangerous amplifying factor: they can
self-replicate. A bomb is blown up only once – but one can become many, and quickly get out of control." And
the risk of this would be substantial damage to the physical world, the environment on which humans and all of
Earth's other organic co-inhabitants depend.
The promises of these new technologies are equally powerful: virtual immortality, providing treatments
and cures for almost every disease, and solutions and advances that could expand the human life span indefi-
nitely and improve the quality of our lives – particularly the environment. All the while, Joy says, "with each of
these technologies, a sequence of small, individually sensible advances leads to an accumulation of great
power, and, concomitantly [coupled with], real danger."
Simply getting rid of machines would be suicide, Joy points out. So perhaps an equally viable option is that
human progress be tempered with the care of ensuring that human involvement remains essential to that pro-
gress, thereby ensuring that human needs are maintained and the quality of life improved. While it's true that
machines and other products of our technologies have no consciousness, it does not mean that they will not
some day have the cognitive qualities to perform tasks as humans do. Today, that is called science fiction.
But as we have learned from our science fiction literature of the past, such things are based on real possi-
bilities, many of which we have already witnessed in our lifetime, such as space travel, visiting other planets,
the creation of the atomic bomb, nuclear power and machines that will talk to you. Perhaps English author H.G.
Wells, considered by many to be the father of modern science fiction, could foresee such human decline "at a
time when civilization passes it zenith," when he authored his first literary work, "The Time Machine" in 1895.
In speaking of the result of human progress witnessed far into the future by the Time Traveler, he wrote: "The
great triumph of Humanity I had dreamed of took a different shape in my mind. It had been no such triumph of
moral education and general co-operation as I had imagined. Instead, I saw a real aristocracy, armed with a per-
fected science and working to a logical conclusion the industrial system of today. Its triumph had not been sim-
ply a truth over Nature, but a triumph over Nature and the fellow man."
13. CAPTIVE CHIMPANZEES FIND SANCTUARY
It took a great collective effort to rescue a group of chimpanzees from the laboratories of the Coulston
Foundation. These chimpanzees, which were part of the US space program, were awarded to Coulston in Au-
gust 1998 by the US Air Force and the Department of Defense as a result of a Congressional decree. And so, on
October 28, 1999, after a yearlong lawsuit against the US Air Force, the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care
(CCCC) was awarded 21 of the chimpanzees that will be retired to a 150-acre sanctuary in South Florida. The
chimpanzees are expected to move to their new homes sometime this spring or summer, as soon as the com-
pound can be prepared to accommodate them. Even though it was the will of many people to retire the "Space
Chimps", including such well-known supporters as Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Roger Fouts, it was the efforts of
CCCC founder and director Dr. Carol Noon that made it happen. "This has been an agonizing year, but today
makes it all worthwhile," Dr. Noon said after the agreement was announced.
The agreement follows a yearlong lawsuit brought against the U.S. Air Force by the Center. The Center
filed its case after the Air Force awarded 111 of its 141 chimpanzees to The Coulston Foundation in August
1998. The chimps were the subjects of a controversial. The Center, which has world-renowned primatologist
Jane Goodall on its board of directors, submitted a proposal to the Air Force to retire the chimps to a sanctuary,
but the bid was rejected. The remaining 30 chimps were sent to Primarily Primates in San Antonio, TX, which
is a sanctuary for chimpanzees and other "domesticated" wildlife unable to be returned to the wild.
Chimpanzees have been used as human surrogates in biomedical experiments for most of the 20th century.
The reason was that chimpanzees are most similar to humans of all other animal species; they share about 98,5
percent of humans' DNA; and it was "logically" felt that the very dangerous and often lethal tests for the ad-
vancement of human medicine would be best served by using chimpanzees. This gave rise to the development
of a large number of biomedical research laboratories, such as the Coulston Foundation, which have heavily
relied upon such research on chimpanzees and the billions of dollars they have received in funding for such re-
search.
