Monday 28 July 2008

Our Intelligent Evolution

I read an article in the Science section of US News' website which briefly mentioned the trend of people choosing the genetic makeup of their children and I wondered about what this meant from an evolutionary point of view.

It seems to me that if we are allowed to 'choose' the genetic makeup of our children, we are simply evolving to take advantage of the environment we find ourselves in and as a result evolution will once again prove its point through our continued success as a species.

Clarke/Kubrick's 'Man-ape' in '2001: A Space Odyssey' discovered how to use a bone as a tool which he then used to conquer everything that was denied the choice by some extraterrestrial force, a force which obviously judged the Man-apes to be intelligent enough to make such a creative leap.

Evolution in the pure sense, of course, is not guided in this manner but I hope you can allow me that simple illustration in the same way that I gratefully allow the suspension of my disbelief whenever I watch that movie.

I believe that we are now at a similar evolutionary crossroads, only this time our tools are not bones and the rewards are not mere survival.

Now our tools are the genetic understanding of our species through technology; the rewards, to explosively take our species to the next level both genetically and technologically.

Mistakes will be made and critics and sceptics will use these mistakes to promote their own ideals but true progress never 'uses the mistakes of others'; true progress is pure and entirely self-supporting and -propagating.

So, when I read that some people believe that "the [evolutionary] makeover isn't big enough or fast enough", and that they are taking matters into their own hands by choosing the genetic makeup of their children, I see evolution still at work. The parent's decisions are based on intelligence and—because parents will likely choose intelligence, creativity or some other similar trait—this intelligence or creativity will be passed on through their decisions to their children who will be even better equipped to take advantage of this—and their own future—environment than were their parents.

Of course, evolution always has a cost but we must look forward to the benefits when these costs manifest themselves. Evolution plays the longest game and it will always win because that is its stable state, to persist, without prejudice.