ScienceAnd Blog

THE SOURCE OF HUMANITY

In this second section I want to put forward the basic idea that our humanity is a product of evolutionary processes. The mind of Homo sapiens has evolved, constrained partially by the selection pressures of population growth and population density, into the cultural gamodemes existing today. These socio-ethnic interbreeding populations are products of the collective minds following evolutionary principles: they are the cultural gamodemes.  The social control ensuing is an evolved product of mind; and, the social conditions produced are the interaction of this social control with the populations.

The sum of the collective consciousness of the cultural gamodemes is embodied in the idea of humanity. Humankind’s goals, desires and progress are products of the eccentricities of our collective humanity and their distillations are cultural traits of our genus. Humanity must be maintained in our future phylogeny as necessary attributes for Homo to colonize our Universe, for they provide a flexibility that allows adaptation to changing conditions.

MAINTAINING POTENTIAL

Diversity of humankind  and of the cultural gamodeme will probably be a part of the future because choice will be considerably more effective: and maybe only have temporary effects dictated by the individual. Moreover, it is a fundamental observation of population ecology that population diversity supports population stability. In a society that is free of disease, where individuals have a long and youthful life, and live their life based upon their ability and effort, things will be different as choices proliferate. Moral attitudes we deem questionable or wrong today may not be so in the future, for life will be lived more for pleasure and less for necessity.

Science reveals that the physical differences amongst people are genetically trivial; however, it is highly unlikely that the variations in skin color, facial features and general appearances will disappear because ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. Physical diversity  will be more of a choice made by parents than by

chance, but the common complement of attributes we observe in humankind  today will be supplemented.  Some of these modifications will be ‘fad’ such as temporary green hair that is photosynthesizing.  Others will be permanent adaptations for new environments. As nanotechnology  advances, the location of the sense organs need not be in the same spot as biology has placed them: and may be supplemented by other novel senses.  Genetic modifications will allow humankind to exist in a variety of climatic zones, both here on Earth and elsewhere in our stellar system. If we so choose the inclusion of an anti-freeze gene in the human genome will allow individuals to colonize frigid  zones.  The arid zone can be conquered by genetic modifications of the skin and breathing / cooling mechanisms, allowing the retention of water within our bodies; and,  the future may see the addition of gills by modification of the breathing system. This will open-up an entirely new environment for real colonization on Earth: the oceans.  Beyond obvious modifications in the human form lie changes for extra-terrestrial conditions: from gravity to atmosphere.

Earth currently exhibits a  latitudinal population diversity gradient related to the temperature at which chemical reactions take place.   It is this temperature gradient that determined that the equatorial latitudes have greater diversity than the frigid latitudes; and, that population density is more erratic in the Polar regions.   Superimposed upon this latitudinal gradient are the actions of predatory humankind that have modified the present-day observed  diversity.

As far as the incorporation of permanent new traits into the genotype is concerned, time will remain a factor in human development. We will probably need more than a single generation of modified humans prior to general acceptance and incorporation of a particular trait.  Remorse may come when a new individual states “I did not ask to be born”; and, we have played the role of the creator. However, this is still not a moral issue.  There are possibilities on the horizon to fix even this problem.  Scientists are intensely studying the ways in which genetic traits are switched on and off. It may be possible to provide any novel trait, incorporated in the zygote by germ line engineering, with a genetic switch.  This genetic switch may allow an individual gene to be turned off or on by the individual that possesses it, at any time in the future.

There is the possibility of truly exotic abilities to be incorporated in an individual.  As nanotechnology advances so will the development and implantation of machines to replace poorly functioning natural organs.  Improvements over a wide range may prove of great advantage to certain professions.  Imagine a human with the smelling ability of a bloodhound and consider its use to a forensic scientist or criminal investigator. Whereas, gills and improved senses may be initially an ‘add-on’, there incorporation in to Homo roboticus and Robotico earthensis are highly probable.