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<p>Pieter said:<br>
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cite="mid:CAPerSO+yX2Vfarb70Z5AaZfENXp0cgC25CCLfNqeBujv9oAwCQ@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:Arial"><i>"Humans will no
longer evolve."</i></span>
<div><span style="font-family:Arial"><br>
</span></div>
<div><font face="Arial">I agree humans will no longer evolve by
natural selection. Not that I'm predicting anything, but how
can anybody say with any kind of confidence that humans will
not evolve by gene editing in the future?</font></div>
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<p><font face="Arial">I take your point, but insist that gene
editing is not evolution, it is engineering. If gene (esp.
germline) editing were widely available and as freely accessible
as say tattoos or piercings, then I might concede that we might
see some "evolution" with the intentional editing itself
representing the "mutation" and "popularity" being the fitness
function. I'm seeing a scene from the Quark's Bar or Men in
Black about now.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">My neo-luddite paranoia makes me expect
something more like a Star Wars "clone-army", "supersoldiers" or
*worse*? Welle's Eloi or Atwoods Crakers to happen at the hands
of "those in power" which weaves this thread back into the
one(s) about power, wealth, etc.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">DaveW: If you were a chemtrail conspiracist
you would believe that the gubm'tn (and elitist ???s) are
*already* experimenting with building a mega-parasol in the
upper atmosphere. Maybe Elon Musk will announce an exaptation
of his Starlink arrays to have larger and larger solar panels
that are orientable like mini-blinds. The amateur (and
professional) astronomers will *really scream* about that?</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">My problem with engineering vs evolution is
that *at best* we bring our best *systems thinking* to
understanding the systems in place which we are mucking with
and then our best *design thinking* and then build episystems
on top of the last system we built, iterating asymptotically
toward some recognized/stated/desired goal. And THAT assumes
we know what a good goal is, and that there are not unintended
consequences, etc. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">Of course, evolution is nothing if not
"unintended consequences" by some measure (up to "what means
intention?"). <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">I don't know if it is utopian or dystopian to
imagine a planet paved over entirely with golf courses and PV
panels... maybe some would need a few WestWorld Adventure Parks
to satisfy everyone?</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">Engineer on!</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">- Steve<br>
</font></p>
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