Anders Sandberg re-reads Haldane's 1923 'Daedalus': biotech prophecy that still sounds modern
anderssandberg · x · 2026-11-07
Anders Sandberg shares a thread of notes re-reading JBS Haldane's 1923 futures-studies classic Daedalus, or Science & the Future.
- Haldane made the classic prediction of a biotech future, anticipated public revulsion against GMOs, and foresaw profound value change
- He expected technology to approach physical limits like lightspeed, then flagged energy and stability as the remaining constraints — sounding remarkably modern
- In The Last Judgment he expands the energy constraint (again skeptical of atomic power); the stability argument is filtered through his Marxism, but his supply-chain/systemic-risk reasoning is heterodox and interesting
- He also complained about art decaying from artists' poor science education, a very Two Cultures take
Sandberg judges Haldane succeeded as a teacher: the little book's reach through countless later works exceeds anything he could have imagined.
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