# Humans Will Want to Improve on Life by J. D. Bernal > “Men will not be content to manufacture life: they will want to improve on it.” > **— J. D. Bernal**, *1929, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, “The Flesh”* ## Sources and Context - **Complete chapter:** [“The Flesh,” *The World, the Flesh and the Devil*](https://bactra.org/Bernal/flesh/), first published by Kegan Paul in 1929. Bernal moves from the prospect of making life to deliberately changing its capacities; the sentence is a forecast about human ambition, not a report of an accomplished biotechnology. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|We Were Never Going to Make It]] - **Article:** [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Transhumanism|Transhumanism]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/J. D. Bernal|J. D. Bernal]] - [[wiki/The World, the Flesh and the Devil|The World, the Flesh and the Devil]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Men will not be content to manufacture life: they will want to improve on it.” — J. D. Bernal, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, 1929 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-bernal-improve-on-life ```