While this isn’t entirely on topic all this talk of research and the preventative measures we take in our lives to stop cancers etc. made me wonder what measures can we take before we’re even born. Juan Enriquez, speaking at the TED 2009 said that we are evolving into what he calls “Homo Evolutis”. That is, we not evolving passively like we have up until this point, but now have the technology to take control of our evolution through genetic engineering, screening, and hormone manipulation. Eventually, he hypothesizes, we will have the technology to take the best traits from other species and incorporate them into our own DNA. While much of the current technology available to us can only help us after birth, and therefore is technically not evolution, technology is getting to a point where pre-birth manipulation will be possible, feasible, and safe. Of course there will be many moral and ethical decisions to be made along the way, but according to the current path we are on, we may see evolution happen before our very eyes.
To find out more about his theory visit the link below:
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/02/we-are-becoming-a-new-species-we-are-becoming-homo-evolutis.ars
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Our evolution is a really interesting topic to consider. I have been thinking about it from a different standpoint, not in terms of where we will choose to go genetically, but where we have been going for years, and where we may accidentally be going in the future. Each technological advance, from agrarian society to stem cells radically affects natural selection. I wonder if we haven't almost entirely destroyed natural selection in modern society. Destroyed is probably the wrong word, but our concept of natural selection has been so radically altered that it is almost unrecognizable in its current form. Diseases and the genes that cause or predispose for them that would have ordinarily have been selectively removed are now treatable and can be conceivably passed on. It really makes me wonder what we are actually selecting for at this point, its really interesting, but also concerning and is something I haven't seen any major publication on till now.
Post a Comment