Human beings can conjure up the future like no time before in history. As of the first half of 2016, Tesla plans to land a spaceship on Mars by 2018 and humans by 2024. Robots print 3D bridges. Genetically edited T-cells fight cancer in our bloodstreams. Amazon’s Alexa, the beginning of consumer artificial intelligence, sits on kitchen counters, plays Spotify playlists, tracks the grocery list, and tells your kids jokes. To be sure this is a Promethean age, the latest stage in the deepest shifts of human evolution. Fire, wheel, printing press, internet.

But in one arena of human activity…