Kyle Munkittrick: Best and Worst

Contributors to h+ magazine were invited to submit their choices for the best and the worst of the 2000-2009 decade.

Best:

1. Transhumanism’s intellectual explosion: Cyborg Citizen, Citizen Cyborg, Our Posthuman Future, Liberation Biology, The Future of Human Nature, and “Beyond Therapy” were all written, taking futurist speculations seriously and addressing the political and social concerns associated with human enhancement.

2. The rise of normalized queer culture: Tim Gunn, Ellen DeGeneres, Andrew Sullivan and Rachel Maddow are evidence of society at large accepting homosexuals as normal and worthy of idolization. As more and more people recognize friends, coworkers and celebrities who are gay, legal equality has become a matter of when, not if.

3. Communication technology, specifically cellphones and broadband internet: The ubiquity of these two inventions has fundamentally altered how global society functions. How we research, flirt, see family, stay in touch with friends, present ourselves to the world, work, and learn have been improved in ways that are still almost incomprehensible.

Worst:

1. Severe contraction of civil liberties: The Patriot Act. Gitmo. Rendition. TSA. Color-coded fear. And that’s just in the US.

2. The politicization of scientists and science. Evolution, global warming, vaccination myths and other issues have turned scientific facts into the playthings of demagogues.

3. The medical system. How we think about it. How we pay for it. How we use it. How it operates and keeps records. It’s almost impossibly broken.

Read the other contributors’ opinions here.