From the introduction: Since the time of H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon, some prophets have envisioned new technologies that would transform the world beyond recognition. At the start of the twenty-first century, not one but three such technologies matured simultaneously: cognitive science, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology. Not one person in a thousand suspected the magnitude of the changes in store for them. Of those who saw, few realized that anyone who controlled all three technologies would become like gods. And of those, fewer still recalled that of all the taboos and abominations proscribed by religions throughout the world, there is nothing a god hates to much as competition.