Cartoon 726: Obvious 

Mankind is entering the technical biological realm described in the works of Margaret Attwood. It is a world in which organisms are sculptured and shaped by man. However, often with undesired consequences. It no longer takes a wild imagination to contemplate major revisions to the human form.

Revisions have been taking place for decades. Most of these revisions are mechanical in nature. Lens in eyes and hip replacements. There are also substitutions in the form of transplants. We are now moving into the area of more fundamental changes. These changes involve genes. We have cross spliced genes among species for a variety of reasons. We have even created novelty items, such as the neon glowing pet fish. It is only a matter of time before individuals and governments will be able to select the attributes of their off spring or citizens. Some of the attributes will come from the parents and others will be from gene pools.

We have been applying gene technology to crops and animals with success. There are plants that have been created to better produce and survive. There are animals enhanced to mature faster and have better immunity. Experiments are underway with clones to produce exact copies of the best achievements.

It is not so far fetched to wonder if mankind is not already a genetically sculptured creature by external manipulators. The signs of manipulation are very apparent. Natural organisms evolve maintaining a continuing stasis with the natural environment. This is an axiomatic survival characteristic. Organisms that at some point lose this relationship eventually fail. Mankind is greatly out of step with the natural environment. The culprit is our inappropriately tempered intelligence.

The question that should be asked is if our intelligence is a naturally evolved occurrence or a “construct”. I suspect it to be a “grafted” construct on existing raw material. A naturally evolved mankind would be in stasis with nature. Mankind would probably number a few hundred million people scattered widely in the world still using early stone age methods.

Footnote:

Manipulation conjures up the “Frankenstien”. Just imagine if the Nazis’ had today’s biological technology. Their chosen would be crafted as classical Greek visions of perfection. They would probably make the Jews diminutive and a neon green that also glows in the dark. They would not stop there. They probably would give the Jews an obnoxious odor. The Jews would be conspicuous and reviled everywhere they went. Now fast forward to today and imagine what the people in Arizona might do to the immigrants. It has already been proposed in the legislature to electronically embed a tag in all immigrants.