Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book, readable and timely
Review: Dr. Rifkin and I were simultaneously interviewed on WICR FM in Indianapolis on November 19, 1998. (My book, Mobius, discusses the evolution of life and of humanity, and the host of the show thought there was much common ground with The Biotech Century.) Thus, I have had the benefit of reading The Biotech Century, as well as the opportunity of speaking with the author at length about it. I do not agree with all of Dr. Rifkin's points. If I happened to have an untreatable genetic disease, I personally would not wish to see laws enacted which would restrict my access to a cure that involved permanently changing my genetic structure. If my children could be born without the disease, so much the better, in my humble view. But I still give Rifkin five stars for The Biotech Century. Rifkin has been labeled as an alarmist, and I disagree. The corporate spin doctors have conditioned all of us to believe that there is little or no risk to splitting the gene and tampering with the code of life. Rifkin lets us know of some of the hazards, and he does so with brilliance. Richard R. Hofstetter, lawyer, author of Mobius (1998).
Rating:
Summary: Raises Awareness
Review: I agree that this book is not perfect, nor the author the most appropriate person to write it, but what's a hell! You can find errata in almost every book! At least he cares and has the courage to write this book. Jeremy Rifkin is very well informed and what really matters here is that this book is an excellent source of information to raise awareness of what is going on in this field, about the irresponsible work that is been conducted by big corporations playing with genes and doing dangerous things that can affect the present and future life in our little world. Rifkin also outlines that everyone has to be responsible for his own actions. I have read also his other book "Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture" (5 Stars)
Rating:
Summary: A must read for all Christians
Review: I read this book cover-to-cover in one weekend, and I have rarely encountered a work that challenges the imagination and expands the boundaries of thought as thoroughly as this book. Rifkin's book falls somewhere between economics, biology, futurism, sociology, and theology - and it's a masterful blend. Rifkin lays out the potential of the new genetic science (curing diseases, ending our dependence on environmentally-destructive technologies) and underlines the risks (genetic warfare, eugenics, genetic contamination of natural species). But I was the most impressed by his analysis of how the new science offers a new paradigm for understanding nature, humanity, and our place in the universe. I have read similar treatments from a number of scientists, but Rifkin's was by far the most accessible and compact. The new paradigm is a shift away from Darwinism, which holds that life evolved through a random process of natural selection, toward a view that life is the driving force of its own evolution, changing its shape through the way it interracts with the environment - the upswing of this is that life is an evolution of consciousness. Life evolves based on how it chooses to evolve. Our deliberate control of genetics is seen as an extension of life's evolution toward greater conscious control of its own destiny. (If I fail to adequately convey the substance of the new paradigm, my apologies.) The new view of evolution is in sync with "process theology" proposed by A. Whitehead and championed by figures like Salvador Dali, among others, and chaos theory. Rifkin doesn't use this term, but on the popular level, I think many people will immediately recognize this line of pantheistic thinking as "New Age." I couldn't help but be reminded of the "evolutionary messiah" motif of films like the Matrix, Dune, and Dark City. According to Rifkin, societies always invent a cosmological understanding of how nature works that mirrors the way their society is organized. Darwinism came about from 19th-century Englishmen reading Capitalism - with its emphasis on competition and survival of the fittest - into nature. As a result, western society was able to assure itself that laissez-faire capitalism, despite its brutality, was the way the world was supposed to work, because it was exhibited in nature itself. In the process, Darwinism overthrew theism as the reigning ideology among society's elite and substituted atheism. Now society is creating a new cosmology - a form of pantheism that makes humankind the ultimate manifestation and guiding agent of cosmic Mind. This cosmology mirrors the networked, nodal existence of our computerized world, where "survival of the fittest" has been replaced by the survival of those best able to acquire, adapt, and manipulate information. Rifkin points out that if we are to challenge the indiscriminate use of genetic engineering, we must fight the new paradigm before it becomes taken for granted in society. Once people accept the assumption that nature is inherently mutable and re-shapes itself according to its will, then those who argue against genetic tampering will be viewed much the way Young Earth Creationists are viewed today. To most people's minds, genetic engineering will be right and natural - and to protest it will be ridiculous. The unanswered question is this: how do we fight the new paradigm? If Darwinism was simply the result an English botanist reading Capitalism into nature, then what is the truth about how nature works? Rifkin doesn't offer any suggestions. I personally think that the Intelligent Design movement led by Phillip Johnson, William Dembeski, and Michael Behe stands the best chance to proposing an alternative vision of how nature works - and restraining indiscriminate use of genetic engineering. Intelligent Design is a Christian ideology. It explains genetics as the result of a transcendent God who designed the nature of each living thing (with some potential for adaptive change). As such, the genetic differences between species are part of the Creator's design, and not something to be tampered with lightly. Darwinism will fall - and with it, the last fortress of Modernism. Freud and Marx have both fallen, kicking out two legs of the Modernist troika. Once Darwinism falls - and the sheer implausibility of natural selection and the incompatibility of natural selection with molecular biology assures us that it will - western society will plunge headlong into a postmodern era. The battle for the postmodern mind might easily be a battle between Intelligent Design and pantheistic process evolution. One theory holds that life is a creation of God - the other holds that life is evolving to become God. (I think the growing influence of the new cosmology is behind the unfounded attacks on this author and this book, especially from the "post-human" disciples of utopian secular humanists like Julian Simon and Gregg Easterbook. Rifkin has come much too close to hitting the nail on the head.) That's why the Biotech Century, although not an expressly Christian book, is required reading for all modern Christians.
Rating: 
Summary: Jeremy Rifkin is a freaking Bozo...
Review: I skimmed through this piece of gibberish produced by this "person" since I have an interest and a fair amount of experince in the topic at hand. The little blurb about Somatogen making transgenic pigs is what really caught my eye. I worked for Somatogen (later Baxter Hemoglobin Theraputics) for ten years. The only way any pigs got onto the company grounds was dressed out and roasted to be eaten with lots of beans and cold beer. This fool who thinks he knows what the heck he's talking about should take himself back to grammer school and learn how to do some research into a subject he intends to write about before he commits ink to paper. Don't waste your hard earned cash on this bundle tripe.
Rating:
Summary: False facts, uninformed, waste o' dough
Review: If you want to believe an illusion, go for it. Some readers say he is well informed. Whoa. This guy talks about science without any credentials to do so.
If it makes you feel good to believe that the US is bad, the environment is collapsing, and we need socialism to survive, then this is the book for you.
If you are open minded but want truthful facts to make your own opinion, find another source.
Waste of money.
Rating:
Summary: A thought-provoking look at our future.
Review: Jeremy Rifkin has written a well-informed and provocative book. As a practising molecular biologist I consider that frequently his criticisms if not his predictions err on the side of caution. Perhaps he felt the need to restrain himself in the light of previous criticism of his hyperbole. Nevertheless, he was proven right in the past and I am sure for the most part he will be again. In his struggle for balance he frequently lets the biotech industry and its regulators off the hook, especially in the field of agricultural biotechnology, a subject that scares me to death. The writing style is a little irritating but the book is a must-read. Everyone should know what is in store for their children.
Rating: 
Summary: The Fire Flower
Review: Rifkin does not attack the idea of creation as an anti-thesis to an divine creator. Instead proposes the genesis of life was a composition of diversity produced by genes. Rifkin says man first major break through was fire. Fire allowed elements to be separated and recombine. Fire empower man to move into the industrial century. The next century would be the biotech century. It all started with a major advancement in science put a Japanese company who gained the the spotlight after they discovered who to classify a gene, remove specific gene material, and reinsert the geneic material various DNA species. The effective extracting and recombination open the door of new life. Thus, man would be able to recombine the genes to create new forms of life blocked orignial by barriers of the species. The idea of the second genesis is to take the best genes properties and introduce them into high demand life forms. Rifkin points out that the biotech century emerged proportional to increasing computer computations. The commerical of living material was thoughtfully presented. Rifkin explains legally, we do not have ownership over cell matter taken from our body. Unique celluar resistence to specific diseases can be exploited, catalog, recombined, and marketed. The gene database will produce exponential increase in new drugs, products, foods, and material. Commerical companies use the gene information which does not necessarily benefit the original sources of the genetic material. So, the creator created all diversity of life. Life was suppose to act within a sphere of influence. It seems to enhance of modify those bounds of influence would be unwise. Just rationally, I fear the unknown and lack of control. Those spheres of influence limit the range of destructive capability nature can impose. Nature can not produce an elephant which can walk up a wall.
Suppose, a gene is introduced into a potatoe plant to kill aphids. The genetic property responses effectively and the number of aphids significantly drops. However, a drought reduces the water supply and the genetic deterence stops because the gene does remain active in drought conditions. The point, genetic engineer works well in a laboratory where all the variables are controlled and measured. It is conceivable Rifkin warnings are valid consider, we don't know all the properties of the gene and how they will act, in all conditions. The example, did not demonstrate harm, because the farmers could apply pesticide to kill the aphids and recovery some their crop.
Rating:
Summary: The Fire Flower
Review: Rifkin does not attack the idea of creation as an anti-thesis to an divine creator. Instead proposes the genesis of life was a composition of diversity produced by genes. Rifkin says man first major break through was fire. Fire allowed elements to be separated and recombine. Fire empower man to move into the industrial century. The next century would be the biotech century. It all started with a major advancement in science put a Japanese company who gained the the spotlight after they discovered who to classify a gene, remove specific gene material, and reinsert the geneic material various DNA species. The effective extracting and recombination open the door of new life. Thus, man would be able to recombine the genes to create new forms of life blocked orignial by barriers of the species. The idea of the second genesis is to take the best genes properties and introduce them into high demand life forms. Rifkin points out that the biotech century emerged proportional to increasing computer computations. The commerical of living material was thoughtfully presented. Rifkin explains legally, we do not have ownership over cell matter taken from our body. Unique celluar resistence to specific diseases can be exploited, catalog, recombined, and marketed. The gene database will produce exponential increase in new drugs, products, foods, and material. Commerical companies use the gene information which does not necessarily benefit the original sources of the genetic material. So, the creator created all diversity of life. Life was suppose to act within a sphere of influence. It seems to enhance of modify those bounds of influence would be unwise. Just rationally, I fear the unknown and lack of control. Those spheres of influence limit the range of destructive capability nature can impose. Nature can not produce an elephant which can walk up a wall.
Suppose, a gene is introduced into a potatoe plant to kill aphids. The genetic property responses effectively and the number of aphids significantly drops. However, a drought reduces the water supply and the genetic deterence stops because the gene does remain active in drought conditions. The point, genetic engineer works well in a laboratory where all the variables are controlled and measured. It is conceivable Rifkin warnings are valid consider, we don't know all the properties of the gene and how they will act, in all conditions. The example, did not demonstrate harm, because the farmers could apply pesticide to kill the aphids and recovery some their crop.
Rating:
Summary: Chicken Little Strikes Again
Review: Rifkin is unqualified to write a book of this nature. His writing style is excruciatingly painful to read and he does not understand the key issues or the industry he writes about. His past predictions have NEVER come true, usually just the opposite in fact. This book adds nothing to an intelligent discussion of biotechnology and its impact.
Rating:
Summary: Critical for informed dialogue --but only one side of it
Review: Rifkin raises issues that should become part of everyone's consciousness in the future, as genetic engineering gains acceptance and power. Unfortunately, the title of the book led me to believe that it would be a balanced work, with arguments for and against the advancement of Biotechnology. In reality, most of the discussion is spent cautioning against Biotechnology and condemning some of the most recent discoveries in genetic engineering. This book's title promises the full picture of Biotechnology, but delivers a one-sided argument. Read something else after you are done with it, put out the fire with ice.
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