I READ THEREFORE I AM

 

I sometimes think that my reading is similar to people binge-watching TV.   I probably read at least thirty-five books a year, plus periodicals and articles that grab my attention.   There is never a time that I am not reading one or more books.    It is almost as if I am living in alternate worlds away from the realities of today. 

The human race is changing rapidly and I am not sure I like what I see.   Evolution throughout the animal world has required hundreds, if not thousands of years to achieve.   From African Eve to Homo sapiens required three million years.

 

 In the 1970s Alvin Toffler wrote Future Shock.  He proposed that changes in our knowledge and environment took many decades, if not centuries, before human acceptance.  He predicted that humans were incapable of accepting rapid change, and historically that had been proven.   This was probably true until the advent of computers.  Changes had always occurred slowly and, as a result, human evolution moved slowly.

  That has speeded up.

Because of technology and cell phones, the synapses in human brains are being rewired.  Where once we were social animals communicating through personal interaction, now our social interactions are primarily through technological devices.  Instead of talking we text. Our friends are followers.  We are rapidly moving to a virtual world.   We are evolving, and this is happening over decades, not centuries.

 

 Genome editing (CRISPR), pioneered by Jinnifer Doudna, has suddenly advanced human technology to an era of designer humans.    The Nazis dreamed of this; but now it is a reality.   Through CRISPR it is possible to manipulate the gender, hair and eye color, build, etc of an embryo.   A master race?    The moral implications are reigning in human experimentation, but the technology is here.  It is only a matter of time.  Like nuclear energy, what can be used for human benefit in defeating disease, can also be used to the human detriment.

   

Artificial Intelligence is another technology we have a tentative handle on.   Humans are limited by their acquired knowledge and the speed of access.   Computer speeds and storage capacity is unlimited and increasing exponentially due to nanotechnology.   As we advance in quantum technology all the knowledge of the world could be stored on chips no bigger than the point of a pin.    Supercomputers are being designed to teach themselves (AI) and through the internet could acquire all knowledge in the world almost instantly.  By the end of this century, computers will control every aspect of human life: energy, transportation, architecture, medicine…  Will computers become the herder and we the sheep?

 

That is if we survive this century.

 

The United States has 5,428 nuclear weapons, United Kingdom 225, Russia 5,977, North Korea 20, China 350, India 160, Pakistan 165, Israel 90, and France 290.   

How long before some unstable person does the unthinkable: the megalomaniac Donald Trump had the nuclear launch codes.   Kelly called Trump an idiot, John Bolton called him a moron.  The head of the CIA said it was like dealing with a kindergartner and that Trump was unbriefable because of his short attention span – we dodged that bullet (or warhead.)   Now Putin is nuclear rattling.

 

The world is changing rapidly and the human race is evolving. 

Science follows science fiction and the worlds of Ray Bradbury and Michael Crichton may be the step-cousin of the future. 

 

The Ol’Buzzard

SCIENCE FOLLOWS SCIENCE FICTION

 

 

Einstein is not the only one to do thought experiments.  The good science fiction writers with a scientific understanding (Michael Crichton), take today’s science and technology and transpose it into a possible future.    Very often, years later, science fiction becomes science reality.

 

Scientific discoveries are happening all the time but get lost in the noise of politics and culture.   Walter Isaacson’s new book Code Breakers has now moved to the best sellers list.  It brings to light the science of CRISPR; but is more a biography of one of the discoverers, Jennifer Doudna.  

 

CRISPR is a technology that allows bio-scientist to edit strings of DNA.  It offers the real possibility of genetically protecting the human race from Alzheimer’s, cancer, leukemia, sickle cell anemia and other inheritable maladies; along with a cure for many virus infections like HIV, flue and Covid…

 

 CRISPR has already been used on humans.  In China, scientist He Jiankui edited the genes of unborn twins Lulu and Nana, protecting them against HIV which carries a devastating stigma in China.

 

There is also a down side of gene editing that could lead to one of the many science fiction future.  Using CRISPR we can cut-and-paste genes outside the body and then reintroduce them, as well as modify genes in-uterus.    Once certain genes are modified, they can become inheritable.   We have been modifying genetic traits for decades through selective breeding.  We have been able to design cattle, dog and cat breeds as well as breeding plants with specific traits.   Now we can do this by DNA cell manipulation.  CRISPR offers the real possibility of designer human beings.

 

Using CRISPR we now have the capability of defining hair color, eye color, height, muscle mass and resistances to illness; but we may also be able to define intelligence, life span, skin tone (race?).   

 

Some biologist believed that certain emotional traits are defined by DNA, such as aggressiveness, religiousness, ethical behavior… in which case they could also be modified. 

 

We could be talking about a total redesign of the human race. Designed warriors, designed workers, a master race?  We have been there before.

 

  And who would control this power?   Likely the people rich enough to fund the research.

 

Of course, Christianity wades in immediately claiming scientist are playing God:  A God that has given us birth defects, infant mortality, infant and childhood diseases, retardation….

 

Science always drags us forward, while religion attempts to drag us backwards.

 

CRISPR can’t be put back in the bottle.  CRISPR is here.  We are at the very beginning of a genetic revolution.   Forty years ago, Apple came up with the personal computer.  It had a blinking cursor on the screen and could do very basic operations, with a 112 kilobytes memory.   Today, forty years later, my Walmart purchased computer has gigabytes of memory and operating capacity far beyond my ability.  Where will genetics be in forty years?

 

If it can be done someone will do it.

If it can be done some country, race or religion with the money to finance will use it: Russia, China, US, Israel, Mormons…  

 

Within the next forty years we are going to see science fiction evolve to science, and a human race that will eventually look back on us as primitives.

 

In a way, I am glad I won’t be there.

the Ol’Buzzard