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Hacking Darwin
- Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
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Hacking Darwin
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Publisher's Summary
From leading geopolitical expert and technology futurist Jamie Metzl comes a groundbreaking exploration of the many ways genetic engineering is shaking the core foundations of our lives-sex, war, love, and death.
At the dawn of the genetics revolution, our DNA is becoming as readable, writable, and hackable as our information technology. But as humanity starts retooling our own genetic code, the choices we make today will be the difference between realizing breathtaking advances in human well-being and descending into a dangerous and potentially deadly genetic arms race.
Enter the laboratories where scientists are turning science fiction into reality. Look towards a future where our deepest beliefs, morals, religions, and politics are challenged like never before and the very essence of what it means to be human is at play. When we can engineer our future children, massively extend our lifespans, build life from scratch, and recreate the plant and animal world, should we?
Passionate, provocative, and highly illuminating, Hacking Darwin is the must-listen book about the future of our species for fans of Homo Deus and The Gene.
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What listeners say about Hacking Darwin
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ian
- 2019-06-12
Very good book, narration a bit robotic
Recommended. Thoughtful, insightful and grounded. Exciting and scary. Narration is a bit robotic but tolerable.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- komogortev
- 2019-11-27
solid conversation starter
the book is a solid conversation starter for society but the overly dramatic voice with loud exhales on the end of each phrase made it somewhat difficult to go through the book
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- adam
- 2019-06-04
Very important listen!
Really thought provoking and important information here. The narration is terrible but the info is just to important to care.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindra Pekay
- 2022-09-11
well presented
information accessible to all
I enjoyed learning about the human genome and gmo food
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Justin Loder
- 2021-06-19
ok
Narrator is not very good. He needs to just read it and not pause on every word. It got kind of annoying.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- George Voulgaris
- 2021-04-04
Absolutely Eye-Opening & Informative
By nature I am naturally inquisitive about many things and have always had some general interest in genome editing and DNA sequencing, especially after seeing the 2019 documentary Human Nature in which CRISPR and Cas9 (one of the enzymes produced by CRISPR) is discussed. This book not only discusses breakthroughs like crispr-cas9 but also provides current and detailed information and analysis about a multitude of issues revolving around the extreme positives and negatives that genetic engineering is bringing to the world.
Metzl did a beautiful job in presenting this information in a clear, unbiased, and relatable format.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Joseph A.
- 2020-12-13
Highly recommend, the future is upon us
An amazing book that starts the conversation on genetic engineering, covering a plethora of topics on the horizon but approaching fast. The narrator is not as bad as other review made it seem. His performance does not vastly stray from what is standard if you are an avid Audible listener.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- just a lowly reader...
- 2020-09-18
Very interesting social questions raised.
This book raised several very important and timely questions about what is ethical for future reproduction and how it can be regulated, especially across national boundaries.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cody Kroening
- 2020-08-19
Enlightening
A very interesting and educational take on the current genetic revolution, will listen to again.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lyfs2Short2Waste
- 2020-02-25
Best Book of 21C to Date
This book is awesome! An historical and predictive combination of significant events. Mind blowing narratives about where we have been, where we are headed, the political and scientific ambitions and controls that have been shaping and changing our worlds. Stimulating facts and intriguing food for thought make you wonder and ponder about our evolutionary trajectory and potential impacts. I didn't want it to end! Everyone should get this book.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- sct
- 2019-05-18
Technology Overview - Good; Policy Discussion - No
I bought the Audible after hearing Jamie on the Joe Rogan podcast. Metzl seemed articulate and passionate about the subject so I wanted to know more.
As someone who follows these advances at a pop-science level, I found the technology discussions to be interesting. I think he did a good job providing scientific historical context and broad coverage of all aspects of genetic research. While some criticized that he didn't go deep enough but I think the level was appropriate given goal he articulated on the podcast to bring this subject to the uninitiated.
I was less impressed with the chapters on ethics, policy, morality as this is where the author's bias was in exhibition. I realize that people have opinions, but if you're going to build a case for me, I need to see both sides of the argument. I can't say that I'm a fan of Greenpeace, but I'd like to understand why they believe GMO's are bad. On the discussion about abortion, he used the lazy trope of pro-lifers are either religions, old or conservative. There are pro-life positions that are science based; there are pro-life positions that are based on human natural rights. Further, people's acceptance of "abortion" is on a spectrum - i.e., disposing blastocysts from IVF is different than 3-trimester abortion.
Lastly, I think he made a mistake on the narrator. If Jamie wants to build a brand, he should get his voice out there - he seemed to do fine on the Rogan podcast. The narrator they chose, though technically proficient, sounded like sunglass wearing, robotic, human-hating, Agent Jones from the Matrix. Once you get this in your head, you can't unthink it.
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21 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Wynns
- 2019-05-22
Performance detracts from book
I gave it a college try but found the performance too distracting and irritating. The performance sounds like listening to my computer read text. It is monotone, mechanistic, over annunciated, awkward and not natural. Which is sad considering I heard a podcast with Jamie, inspiring my purchase, and he was natural, smooth and accessible. The performance style handicaps the writers message. I quit after 1 hour into the book.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- ROBERT EDELHAUSER
- 2019-05-25
Would have been much more enjoyable if Jamie Metzel had narrated his own book
Eric Martin’s voice is very annoying however was slightly improved by increasing the cadence to 1.25x
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- 415Charlie
- 2019-07-01
Meh
some interesting information, awful voice over, insufferable egotistical author overuses the word "we" and clearly thinks he's much better positioned to decide what people do with genetic technology than the people themselves. I didn't pick up much new information or insight from this book
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Reed
- 2019-06-26
bad narration!
this narrator just doesn't keep the kind of flow needed to make this a marathon listen. I wish the author had done it himself.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- wilson suarez
- 2020-06-12
great book, painful audiobook
the narrator is monotone and makes listening to this a chore even though the author has exhaustively detailed gene editing and the book is presented and organized in an attractive way.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Lukas Kucinski
- 2019-07-16
Interesting Topic, Well Written, Lispy Narrator
I enjoyed the subject matter. Its written in a very accessible manner and the bigger ideas in the book make it compelling. I had an issue with the narrator though. It sounds like he has some kind of speech impediment/lisp. Took me a couple hours to get used to him. Never really did. Good book overall, but I wouldn't recommend audiobook because of the narrator.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dzmitry Shatsila
- 2019-05-30
Incredible
Incredible book
Future is here
By the end of it will make you wonder how much we will develop over the next couple for decades
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jan S
- 2019-05-24
This book is a must read/listen
This book is a must-read/listen for every responsible human. Metzl goes into detail on the great changes coming as a result of humans taking charge of our own evolution using embryo selection and genetic engineering. His appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in May 2019 is a good introduction to the material discussed in this book. My mind was continually being blown, sufficiently enough that this is the first review I have posted. As for the reader, his diction is clear and the performance is satisfactory related to the material but it has all the warmth and charm of Jack Webb narrating the TV show Dragnet.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- William G Carrig
- 2021-08-04
Not a bad book.
I have seen some reviews about the narrator of this book. None favorable.
If you stick it through, it's not a bad book. There are some interesting sections of this book that detail what we are currently capable of. While Metzl is not a scientist, he never pretends to be. He is very good at researching the information and presenting it in an easy to absorb format.
The narrator of this book seems to be trying to channel the love child of Rod Serling and Carl Sagan. However, he does not have good mic etiquette and frequently sounds like he is struggling to breath. This was tedious to listen to. It was also easy to lose focus and drift away because of the droning love child channeling thing.
Overall, if you are interested in this material, it is worth the read. You may have to rewind it a few times to catch something you drifted off during.
So I am editing my review. This is based on having listened to the book once and I am going through it again because the material is quite interesting and very much worth the listen.
The main reason the narrator sounds the way he does is because he finishes every word before starting the next one. The result makes him sound a bit droning, but I have to say it a much better read than I expected.
He also does not mispronounce any of the words. He has made a major effort to make sure his rendition of this book is not only clear, but precise. We have all listened to science books before where in a narrator pronounces a word incorrectly and consistently. This can be very irritating. Not so with this book. He gets every word of it correct and he is very clear in what he is narrating. This makes this book a pleasure. Trust me, you will get used to his pace.
Jamie Metzl has a PhD in Psychology. This does in fact make him a scientist. My own personal bias is that you really can not consider a discipline a science when your entire laboratory lies to you. I could be wrong on that. Maybe that makes you a better scientist.
This book is well worth the read. Or listen if you will. Jamie has some interesting insights into the future of the human race and he has done his research. It is clear he knows the subject matter very well. While he does not go in depth into the science of every aspect of his subject matter, that is not the point of this book. If you are interesting in the subtitle, you should read this book. You will get used to the narration and probably learn to appreciate it as I have.
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1 person found this helpful