The Lethargy of Darwin

Here's a surprise: Human beings aren't perfect.

In fact, we're pretty messed up. It's not really our fault, evolution is a messy business. We're supremely well equipped for life on the savannah, not so much for Wall Street. Eyes that evolved for limitless horizons fail after staring all day at a screen eighteen inches away. Hearts meant to support a running hunter collapse in a sedentary office worker.

We are just not built for this modern world that we have created.

Many people believe that we should change our way of life to better fit our physical needs. Reduce our intake of sugars and meat, exercise more and so forth.  We can certainly do so, to a degree, but our lives demand more than our physiology is prepared to give. These efforts are little more than stop gaps. Very much needed stop gaps.

One day we will be able to adapt ourselves in much more fundamental ways, but that day isn't here yet.

Right now, human cloning and genetic modification are illegal across most of the planet, with good reason. Our methodologies are so crude that using them would most certainly be immoral and unethical. This, however will not be the case for long.

The time is rapidly approaching when we will not only be adept at genetic engineering, but be hard pressed to find reasons not to make use of those skills. Like I said, we are a truly messed up species, not only physically, but mentally as well. Our instincts are no more suited to modern life than our bodies are. Fight or flight made sense ten thousand years ago, but today it leads to tragedy more often than salvation. Our thought processes are crude and mostly run under the surface, giving us little control over them.

The rate of change in our societies and technologies are outstripping nature's biological coping strategies. If we hope to survive in the long term, we will have take control of our own destinies. That means removing chance from the slow, slow mechanisms of evolution.

This WILL happen somewhere, sometime. Whether you like the idea or not means absolutely nothing. Once the process begins, there will be no stopping it. Wars may be fought, millions may die, but it will continue. We will have to decide what side of the argument we will be on. Will we stand with the past or the future?

As a man will bad eyes, bad knees, a bad heart and an addictive personality, I know where I stand.

The saying goes, "Evolve or die." Well, Darwin is just too damned slow. It's our turn. Soon.