It is in this context that the enormous significance of the current revolution in biotechnology can be fully appreciated. Recombinant DNA technology is the tool which allows scientists to alter life so that it better fits the technological milieu. Genetic engineering, in fact, allows for life to be treated as technology. It is now possible to snip, insert, recombine, rearrange, edit, programme and produce genetic material much the same way as the engineers of the industrial revolution were able to separate, collect, utilise and exploit inanimate materials. Just as the factory system allowed for the production of unlimited amounts of identical machines, just so current advances in cloning are attempting to produce industrial numbers of identical life forms.
Genetic engineering is the final adaptation of life to machine.
Global warming is dealt with by genetically engineering plants and animals to withstand the temperatures and droughts resulting from global warming. Chemical pollution in agriculture is addressed by engineering herbicide resistant plants that can survive, no matter the volume of weed-killing chemicals used. Spoilage of food in our global food system is solved by genetically designing foods for long shelf-life. Species after species is being altered to fit and better survive in the technological milieu. Of course the actual success of this Procrustean engineering of life has been very limited.