[HEADING=2]So I have been having some thoughts recently... [/HEADING]
Discarding all religious beliefs for the following statement and focusing on empirical fact if you please. Also please note that i'm no expert on any of the below so treat me as an idiot and correct/belittle me if you wish...
We as individuals for the most part consider the body and mind to be the same thing right?
Our DNA codes the very essence of our existence, our thought processes, our skin colour, our height, our sex etc. These bodies of ours are mere machines or vessels for our DNA. A tool for ensuring the process of reproduction and evolution is carried out. DNA has developed over these past millenia to equip our bodies with brains intelligent enough to do something rather remarkable... Genetic engineering.
Now I should hope all of us are aware of the implications that genetic engineering has produced. For the first time in organic history, we the vessels for our DNA, have developed the ability to alter our genetic code to the point of being able to produce a perfect clone. For the sake of argument lets assume we do actually have this ability as i'm sure it'll soon be possible (if ethics are cast aside). Now this clone could be optimised to suit the widest possible set of environments as possible. this would represent the pinnacle of human evolution yes? Well save for unexpected changes of climate, humans would no longer have need for evolution... Right?
If anyone is remotely familiar with the finer points of evolutionary theory, they would understand that the evolution of our DNA is driven by the goal of keeping as much of our DNA intact as possible as it is passed from generation to generation.
Becoming the perfect replicator of genetic materials is the unconcious goal of life. Now DNA isn't the be all and end all of evolution, after all, the theory is that for billions of years before protein met amino acid, molecules of all shapes and sizes begun to interact and form bonds with each other in the primordial soup. Over untold millions of years, as these molecules became more plentiful and more varied they became more complex arrangements of moleculs, able to make stronger bonds than before. DNA is merely the result of that process. A set of self-replicating molecules which at some point gave rise to organic, microscopic entities that we, billions of years later would classify as life.
Something else has been brewing recently. A new primordial soup consisting of kilobytes and electrical charges has been developing all across the world. There are more transistors in the world than ants... Computer technology, again another human endeavour, has become more sophisticated more quickly than anything else in existence.
Could the digital realm hold the key for human evolution? Can a computer code become the next version of a genetic sequence?
What i'm thinking now falls under the entirely whimsicle idea that may or not even be possible or desirable but my question and the purpose of this thread is this...
[HEADING=2]Could the next step in evolution be the merging of organic and synthetic material?[/HEADING]
A symbiotic process by which organic functions are controlled by a digital code? Could we adapt our bodies in real time to the environments we face under the direction of a cybernetic brain?. With the ability to control the way cells process and live we could regrow limbs when they are lost. We could evolve and adapt new limbs entirely. Communication amongst our own would be instantaneous. Knowledge could be created, shared and archived amongst every individual on the planet.
Okay i'll stop there lest the men in white coats come to take me away.
What do you think escapists? Can it be done? Or should I just put the magic pipe down and get back to my coursework?
Discarding all religious beliefs for the following statement and focusing on empirical fact if you please. Also please note that i'm no expert on any of the below so treat me as an idiot and correct/belittle me if you wish...
We as individuals for the most part consider the body and mind to be the same thing right?
Our DNA codes the very essence of our existence, our thought processes, our skin colour, our height, our sex etc. These bodies of ours are mere machines or vessels for our DNA. A tool for ensuring the process of reproduction and evolution is carried out. DNA has developed over these past millenia to equip our bodies with brains intelligent enough to do something rather remarkable... Genetic engineering.
Now I should hope all of us are aware of the implications that genetic engineering has produced. For the first time in organic history, we the vessels for our DNA, have developed the ability to alter our genetic code to the point of being able to produce a perfect clone. For the sake of argument lets assume we do actually have this ability as i'm sure it'll soon be possible (if ethics are cast aside). Now this clone could be optimised to suit the widest possible set of environments as possible. this would represent the pinnacle of human evolution yes? Well save for unexpected changes of climate, humans would no longer have need for evolution... Right?
If anyone is remotely familiar with the finer points of evolutionary theory, they would understand that the evolution of our DNA is driven by the goal of keeping as much of our DNA intact as possible as it is passed from generation to generation.
Becoming the perfect replicator of genetic materials is the unconcious goal of life. Now DNA isn't the be all and end all of evolution, after all, the theory is that for billions of years before protein met amino acid, molecules of all shapes and sizes begun to interact and form bonds with each other in the primordial soup. Over untold millions of years, as these molecules became more plentiful and more varied they became more complex arrangements of moleculs, able to make stronger bonds than before. DNA is merely the result of that process. A set of self-replicating molecules which at some point gave rise to organic, microscopic entities that we, billions of years later would classify as life.
Steve knows this makes perfect sense...
Something else has been brewing recently. A new primordial soup consisting of kilobytes and electrical charges has been developing all across the world. There are more transistors in the world than ants... Computer technology, again another human endeavour, has become more sophisticated more quickly than anything else in existence.
Could the digital realm hold the key for human evolution? Can a computer code become the next version of a genetic sequence?
What i'm thinking now falls under the entirely whimsicle idea that may or not even be possible or desirable but my question and the purpose of this thread is this...
[HEADING=2]Could the next step in evolution be the merging of organic and synthetic material?[/HEADING]
A symbiotic process by which organic functions are controlled by a digital code? Could we adapt our bodies in real time to the environments we face under the direction of a cybernetic brain?. With the ability to control the way cells process and live we could regrow limbs when they are lost. We could evolve and adapt new limbs entirely. Communication amongst our own would be instantaneous. Knowledge could be created, shared and archived amongst every individual on the planet.
Okay i'll stop there lest the men in white coats come to take me away.
What do you think escapists? Can it be done? Or should I just put the magic pipe down and get back to my coursework?