Pieter said: > /"Humans will no longer evolve."/ > > I agree humans will no longer evolve by natural selection. Not that > I'm predicting anything, but how can anybody say with any kind of > confidence that humans will not evolve by gene editing in the future?
I take your point, but insist that gene editing is not evolution, it is engineering. If gene (esp. germline) editing were widely available and as freely accessible as say tattoos or piercings, then I might concede that we might see some "evolution" with the intentional editing itself representing the "mutation" and "popularity" being the fitness function. I'm seeing a scene from the Quark's Bar or Men in Black about now. My neo-luddite paranoia makes me expect something more like a Star Wars "clone-army", "supersoldiers" or *worse*? Welle's Eloi or Atwoods Crakers to happen at the hands of "those in power" which weaves this thread back into the one(s) about power, wealth, etc. DaveW: If you were a chemtrail conspiracist you would believe that the gubm'tn (and elitist ???s) are *already* experimenting with building a mega-parasol in the upper atmosphere. Maybe Elon Musk will announce an exaptation of his Starlink arrays to have larger and larger solar panels that are orientable like mini-blinds. The amateur (and professional) astronomers will *really scream* about that? My problem with engineering vs evolution is that *at best* we bring our best *systems thinking* to understanding the systems in place which we are mucking with and then our best *design thinking* and then build episystems on top of the last system we built, iterating asymptotically toward some recognized/stated/desired goal. And THAT assumes we know what a good goal is, and that there are not unintended consequences, etc. Of course, evolution is nothing if not "unintended consequences" by some measure (up to "what means intention?"). I don't know if it is utopian or dystopian to imagine a planet paved over entirely with golf courses and PV panels... maybe some would need a few WestWorld Adventure Parks to satisfy everyone? Engineer on! - Steve
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