On Beyond Living: Rhetorical Transformations of the Life Sciences (Writing Science)

188 Pages·1997·1.86 MB·English

by  Richard Doyle

ON BEYOND

LIVING

Rhetorical Traniformations
of the Life Sciences

Richard Doyle

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 1997
Stanford University Press
Stanford, C:alifornia
© 1997 by the Board of Trustees of the
Leland Stanford Junior University
Printed in the United States of America

C:IP data are at the end of the book

Figure I (p. 32) is reprinted from My. Tompkins Inside
Himself, © 1967 by George Gamow and Martynas Ycas.

Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of
Penguin Books USA Inc.
Acknowledgments

This book emerges out of an ecology, human and otherwise. Evelyn Fox

Keller, through her teaching, work, and friendship, activated and focused

my astonishment at and love of technoscience. This book would be im­

possible without her. Brian Rotman's work and warmth have morphed

my brain beyond recognition. Frederick Dolan's teaching, guidance, and

friendship percolate through every page of this book. Michael Fortun

taught me how to think about practices and how to practice some of my

thinking. Paul Harris's phone calls, road trips, and laughter constantly

rescue me and remind me what we're up to. I am continually grateful for

Avital Ronell's remarkable thought and warm support.

The Department of Rhetoric at Uc.

Berkeley-Matt George, Mi­

chael Witmore, Felipe Gutierrez, Melani Guinn, Michael McDonald,

John Schliesser, John Dolan-made it possible for me to hack the process

of Becoming-Academic and taught me more than I can recount. Thanks

. to David Cohen for making the Rhetoric Department such an aleatory

and thoughtful academic niche. I am grateful to Jennifer Culbert for the

thinking and the years of affirmation and support. The Uc. Humanities

Research Institute group on biotechnology provided both financial and

cognitive resources for the early phases of this proj ect. Special thanks

to Carl Cranor, Donna Haraway, Camille Limoges, Paul Rabinow, and

Diane Paul. The Rathenau Summer Academy in Berlin has provided

much feedback and aid for this proj ect-thanks to Timothy Lenoir, Hans­

Jorg Rheinberger, and Louis Kaplan. Roddey Reid has been a fount

of advice and insight, and Stefan Helmreich has provided me with cru­

cial conversations everywhere from Santa Fe to Cornell. My thanks to

the Mellon Foundation and MIT for a Mellon Post Doctoral Fellow-
V111 Acknowledgments

ship. Helen Tartar, Paul Bodine, Nathan MacBrien, and Amy Klatzkin

expertly guided me through the editing and polishing of the manuscript,

but I am to blame for any errors that crept into the book. Sherry Brennan,

Jeff Nealon, Don Bialost6sky, Susan Squier, and my new Penn State

colleagues and students have already helped me cultivate a new set of

possibilities in central Pennsylvania. Amy Greenberg never ceases to

astound me with her love, thought, and sense of possibility. Finally, I'd like

to thank my parents, Jack and Ann Doyle, who gave me much more than

DNA. This book is dedicated to my brother John.

R.D.
Contents

I.

2.

The Sublime Object of Biology

I

Mr. Schrodinger Inside Himself The Rhetorical Origins

of the Genetic Code

3 ·

25

From Codes to Words: George Garnow and the Age of

the World Scripture

4 ·

5 ·

It's a Nucleic Acid World: Monod, ]acob, and Life's Future

39

65

Allergies of Reading: DNA, Language, and the Problem

of Origins

6.

86

Emergent Power: Vitality and Theology in Artificial Life I09
Notes 135
Bibliography 163
Index 171
ON BEYOND LIVING