Imagine being able to have a communication, a real communication, with the simulacrum of someone

who's passed away. That technology is not a black mirror episode anymore.

Hello and welcome to the GZero World Podcast. This is where you'll find extended versions of

my interviews on public television.

I'm Ian Bremmer, and we have spent a lot of time on this show talking about artificial intelligence and what it means for machines to become more human.

But what about the opposite?

What happens in a world where humans start becoming more like machines?

It sounds like a black mirror episode, and there's nothing wrong with that.

But things like gene editing with CRISPR technology and prosthetic limbs powered by AI

or human organs grown in petri dishes are now medical realities.

Technology that would have been the stuff of science fiction just a decade ago is now helping

to eradicate disease, improve the lives of people with disabilities and transform our understanding

of human life itself.

But like all new technologies, there are risks along with these benefits, including the potential

for misuse, the privacy implications,

and much broader ethical questions.

How do we balance the transformative potential of these new tools without changing the nature

of what it means for us to be human?

My guest today, Sid Arthur Mukherjee, he's a physician, biologist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author,

whose new book, Song of the Cell explores the science, history, and technology behind what he

calls the new humans.

Let's get to it.

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