reneWed, Jan 16, 2008 Like Al, I'm very impressed with Spaceweaver's extensive inquiry. It's fascinating to realize how even many non-religious people tend to believe that some recognizable variation of our present incarnation will remain in stasis as if we'd reached the pinnacle of our species' evolution, whereas others are eager to radically transcend our existential condition at the earliest opportunity. One thing is certain, as Spaceweaver notes, biotechnology will lead us along a path where the biological foundations of human identity will change in a matter of decades and we will be the ones who'll design this transformation. Now that we can play an active role in the manipulation of our own evolution by merging our technologies with our biological origins we have the potential to consciously enhance ourselves either within a familiar context or beyond recognition as traditional members of our species. With a bit of luck there will be plenty of individual options for customized evolution.
Here's a quote from the book Redesigning Humans by Gregory Stock.
Homo Sapiens is not the final word in primate evolution, but few have yet grasped that we are on the cusp of profound biological change, poised to transcend our current form and character on a journey to destinations of new imagination. This will allow us to seize control of our evolutionary future. The road to our eventual disappearance must be paved not by humanity’s failure but by its success. Progressive self-transformation could change our descendants into something sufficiently different from our present selves to not be human in the sense we use the term now. It would not end our lineage. Homo sapiens would spawn its own successor by fast-forwarding its own evolution.
Like Al, I'm very impressed with Spaceweaver's extensive inquiry. It's fascinating to realize how even many non-religious people tend to believe that some recognizable variation of our present incarnation will remain in stasis as if we'd reached the pinnacle of our species' evolution, whereas others are eager to radically transcend our existential condition at the earliest opportunity. One thing is certain, as Spaceweaver notes, biotechnology will lead us along a path where the biological foundations of human identity will change in a matter of decades and we will be the ones who'll design this transformation. Now that we can play an active role in the manipulation of our own evolution by merging our technologies with our biological origins we have the potential to consciously enhance ourselves either within a familiar context or beyond recognition as traditional members of our species. With a bit of luck there will be plenty of individual options for customized evolution.
Here's a quote from the book Redesigning Humans by Gregory Stock.