According to bestselling author and social commentator Joel Garreau, advances in genetic, robotic, information and other technologies are transforming the essence of what it means to be "human" — and giving us the power to dictate the course of our evolution. On November 9, Garreau explored this premise in his presentation for the NJIT Technology and Society Forum. It's Garreau's assertion that we will soon possess the ability to give humans the super powers of fictional super heroes. Will such control over our physical destiny lead to future well-being greater than we can imagine, or to the destruction of our species?

Garreau is a reporter and editor at The Washington Post and principal of The Garreau Group, the network of his best sources committed to understanding who we are, how we got that way, and where we're headed, worldwide. He has served as a senior fellow at the University of California at Berkeley and George Mason University, and is a member of Global Business Network, the pioneering scenario-planning organization.