The Future of Mankind Part IV
Start Part IV
Population expansion , regardless of how fast it explodes will never overrun the Earth because sooner than later, population density will contribute to that demise, either through resource exhaustion, pestilence or war.
In the more densely populated areas of the world, pestilence is a likely result of packing too many humans in with too many of earth’s other creatures that are required to feed us. Look at China, India and Indonesia today. The National Institutes of Health openly estimates that a disease will cross over the animal/human barrier within the next few years that will adapt to a human/human basis of transferal. Because this disease (such as avian or “swine” flue) is new to the human race, no defenses are there to combat it and a vast world-wide pandemic will follow that has the potential of killing millions and millions of humans. It is not a question of “If” this will happen, it is a question of “When”.
One does not have to actively be involved in war to die from it, especially in our not so brave new world of nuclear and genetically engineered possibilities, biological and chemical agents none of which are contained nor recognize national borders. The availability of such devices is only going to proliferate with time.
The new kid on the technological “better watch me” block is a totally different animal in that it can either destroy us or save us, depending upon how it’s used.
The potential technology with the most promise of either doomsday speculation or great advances for the human species is that of genetic modification. This has been going on in slow motion for many years in many laboratories, gardens and kennels and is a chief reason why we are able to feed those multitudinous mouths of an ever expanding horde of people. But so far it has been used on veggies, plants and trees and other slow growing and slow spreading things that offer a very good chance of control. It has been done v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.
Now however, we are applying genetic modification to dogs, cows, sheep, a pig, two monkeys (recently cloned) frogs, viruses, bacteria and probably humans (Shhhh!) and now it’s being done really, really fast.
Genetics is not a new science. Agriculture has been in the business of genetic modification for centuries and a major thing changing for them now is the speed at which these modifications can be made and tested.
In days past, agronomists would breed and breed and cross pollinate and breed some more in order to select the traits in a plant, or tree or animal they desired to have. Dog owners have been modifying genes in dogs forever in order to create new subspecies of canines with critical (to the breeder) traits.
So what’s the big deal about modifying DNA or playing around with the human and plant and animal genetic makeup directly instead of just cross pollination or breeding experiments?
Well, for one thing, instead of just modifying a single species by breeding or selecting for desirable traits within that species, we now can do something better.
We can insert a gene from a luminescent insect (think lightning bug) into a frog. We get a glowing frog. How convenient! No more big lights required for frog gigging at night. (This is a true example of a genetic modification that has already been done).
The serious thing here is that we are no longer limited to single specie genetic source for modification of that species. We can take a gene from a bug, virus, animal or plant and insert it into some other plant, virus, bacteria, animal or bug that is not related to the original genetic sample at all. We can now cross-modify from specie to specie and genus to genus and that is a whole new ball game.
This makes for some pretty broad experiments in modification of living things. Picture a human with owl genes – big sexy eyes and he can walk around in the dark without a flashlight. And think how the ladies will be wowed by the length of his eyelashes! How about a human with gills and a modified skin that makes him truly amphibious. Not an impossibility in the future.
There are two voices that can be presently heard on this very broad and complex subject. One voice is very loud and strident and full of end of the world as we know it screeching.
This voice includes the noisy output of all religious groups across the board and political persuasions that pander to those religious groups. It boils down to the fact that all religions are terribly threatened by the idea of us being able to grow a human being from the guts of a sperm and an empty egg. Or that we may be able to modify a human being in some wild and wooly manner by inserting or removing genes of human DNA or some other species’ DNA to get something that “god” didn’t design. (Oh please forgive me for even mentioning “intelligent design”)
End Part IV
Every time man asserts his intelligence over mother nature, she shows who’s the boss and the folly of man. Tinkering with DNA and the endless list of our “experiments” will lead to some disastrous outcomes due to unintended consequences. The earth evolved to perfect balance over billions of years-each part a delicately intertwined piece of the whole. Our arrogance will be our undoing. Short term benefits, long term disasters. I don’t want Frankenstein for a neighbor or in my fridge. And no, I haven’t seen the inside of a church in 20 years. Nature will determine our correct population eventually.
Pandemics usually erupt when there is malnutrition in a population, causing weakened immune systems. They often spread in conjunction with war, which moves people from place to place…Within a generation much of the world will experience food shortages, and there will be a massive outbreak in the 3d world. If we keep letting them into America, we’ll have another disaster on the order of the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1919….
And God laughed! Like the techno-narcissists who think we’ll soon colonize Mars, we have some who think we’ll create a ‘higher species’ of mankind. Too funny for words!
Remember, Muck, if 2% of the Marshall Islands haven’t disappeared in the next 365 days, then you and your prophecies are bullshit.
OK Muck, we could cross a Turnip with a Liberal; it couldn’t harm the Liberal any.
Muck . You are right about the chances of a pandemic. Our collective environment(ecosystem) was a very finely interlocking machine until we became the dominant and most numerous species. Our modifications have put a major wrench into the gearing and it’s slowly grinding to a stop with damage that can’t be imagined. Sooner or later we will see consequences we can only guess at and it won’t be pretty.
GMO’s to feed the world is BS. It profits BigAg-not the peasants. It was propaganda. Petroleum to food feeds the masses, not GMO. As that is the case, your new tech wonder foods are also BS. As with all new tech, it is reliant on oil to work. Fracking oil isn’t saving us-look at the EROI. Conventional-high EROI-oil is depleting. There goes your high tech. It returns to the simple Malthus equation.
Muck,
“Picture a human with owl genes – big sexy eyes and he can walk around in the dark without a flashlight. And think how the ladies will be wowed by the length of his eyelashes!”
Or, we could cross a man with a horse; maybe call it a Satyr. With cool ears, a big sexy tail, and walking on hoofs. And think how the ladies will be wowed by the length of his _ _ _ _!
Thoroughly enjoy your posts, BTW
“And think how the ladies will be wowed by the length of his _ _ _ _!”
N-e-c-k?
Yeah its a ‘Brave New World’ out there but there is no stopping it because people will demand it. Need a heart, kidney or liver transplant you now have to find a human donor and take immuno-suppressants to prevent rejection but what if your own DNA could be implanted into a pig embryo and its organs harvested for you? They are working to do exactly that.
Why not create a ‘humanzee’ to do low skill or dangerous work. You don’t have to give these creatures the vote or minimum wages because they are not human beings so just entitled to the same protection we afford dogs and cats.
Read the prophecies and know the future.
That’s is what is going to happen and anything not in accord with them is just speculative fiction.
We already have Martin Brundlefly flitting around here.
Full circle then. Gods made man, first by making him to mine gold in South Africa 300,000 years ago, then improving on him. Hmm, so that’s why the Africans were made. Then they made Adamu.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sitchin/sitchinbooks_timeline.htm