Calestous Juma's New Book Explains Why Humans Resist Tech Innovations like Biotech

Harvard University Professor Calestuos Juma examined why people oppose new technologies such as biotechnology in his new book Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies.

Some of the chapters of the book discuss issues surrounding GMOs such as transgenic crops and GE salmon. According to Juma, people do not actually despise innovation because of its novelty, but because it introduces something that will disrupt their way of life. Innovation also has the tendency to detach people from nature or their sense of purpose, which are vital to human experience.

Juma's idea of writing the book started in the late 1990s when he witnessed international negotiations on GM crops regulation. He listened to the arguments of opposing groups and realized that even if they have polarized views, they both have a common goal.

Get a copy of the book from Oxford University Press. Read more about the book from Genetic Literacy Project and The Washington Post.