Future perfect
The human genome has been sequenced. The question now is what next?
Many discoveries and inventions shaped the 20th century, but there is a good case to argue that electricity was the most important of them. As the 19th was the steam century, the 20th was the electric one. There is at least a possibility that 21st may be the DNA century.
Certainly, the technology is now at the mew born baby stage. And certainly, politicians will find ways to tax it. But babies grow up. People now alive will witness the synthesis of completely artificial life forms (if only to show that it can be done) and the creation of new species, not merely new varieties, of living things. They will see the routine incorporation of biology into industrial processes. They will see a revolution in medicine for themselves, and the birth of people whose biology has been optimized from conception to be resistant to disease and old age. They may even see a world where children are tailored to the wishes of their parents.
They will also see a shift of mind-set. It will be brought home that living things, people included, are indeed no more than information-processing machines, while at the same time it will be shown just what it is that makes humans so special and different from their fellow creatures. The underlying unity of humanity will probably be emphasized in ways that might even help to dispel racial prejudice. In the longer term, the genetics the neurobiology that underpins the predisposition to such prejudice, along with many other aspects of human behaviour, may yield it self up. Yet evil, or the capacity for it will persist.
On the way, there will be accidents-especially accidents caused by the fact that biological inventions, unlike the physical inventions of the past, will frequently be able to reproduce themselves without human assistance. Dealing with these accidents. New ways of thinking of a different kind may be forced on people by the biological self-knowledge that the century will bring. It will be an interesting ride. And it may end up, literally, reshaping humanity.
Many discoveries and inventions shaped the 20th century, but there is a good case to argue that electricity was the most important of them. As the 19th was the steam century, the 20th was the electric one. There is at least a possibility that 21st may be the DNA century.
Certainly, the technology is now at the mew born baby stage. And certainly, politicians will find ways to tax it. But babies grow up. People now alive will witness the synthesis of completely artificial life forms (if only to show that it can be done) and the creation of new species, not merely new varieties, of living things. They will see the routine incorporation of biology into industrial processes. They will see a revolution in medicine for themselves, and the birth of people whose biology has been optimized from conception to be resistant to disease and old age. They may even see a world where children are tailored to the wishes of their parents.
They will also see a shift of mind-set. It will be brought home that living things, people included, are indeed no more than information-processing machines, while at the same time it will be shown just what it is that makes humans so special and different from their fellow creatures. The underlying unity of humanity will probably be emphasized in ways that might even help to dispel racial prejudice. In the longer term, the genetics the neurobiology that underpins the predisposition to such prejudice, along with many other aspects of human behaviour, may yield it self up. Yet evil, or the capacity for it will persist.
On the way, there will be accidents-especially accidents caused by the fact that biological inventions, unlike the physical inventions of the past, will frequently be able to reproduce themselves without human assistance. Dealing with these accidents. New ways of thinking of a different kind may be forced on people by the biological self-knowledge that the century will bring. It will be an interesting ride. And it may end up, literally, reshaping humanity.
posted by rek's studio | 13.5.05
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