Dreaming with Diderot

(An edited version of this essay was published in the 50th anniversary issue of New Scientist magazine in December)

The Enlightenment idea that we can build a better future for ourselves is still young, and still lighting fires around the world. As Enlightenment ideas have spread since the seventeenth century they have ignited struggles for religious tolerance, freedom of scientific enquiry, democratic government and individual liberty. The battle for the Enlightenment, for progress itself, is still being fought, and now the battlefront has reached our gametes and neurons.