J. B. S. Haldane’s Daedalus, or Science and the Future (1923) is the most consequential short essay in twentieth-century futurism: it coined ‘ectogenesis’, predicted hormonal contraception, in-vitro fertilisation and genetic control of humanity, and argued that the biologist would prove more disruptive than the physicist.
It provoked Russell’s reply and Huxley’s Brave New World. Download the free EPUB and read the essay that invented biotechnology’s debate.