Engineered Evolution

by (Max Hunter) 1998/01/30


1a) Our species, HomoSapiens, arose from the stuff of beasts. Perhaps as little as a few hundred thousand years ago. Before that time the earth was populated with two or maybe more species that had the potential to become what we are today. Those other proto-human species did not survive the fire of evolution. Perhaps we killed them, perhaps they succumbed due to an unknown deficit or lack of resilience. Nonetheless, they are gone. We will not go. We are now endowed with tools that will overcome the fire and enable us to change. To change our environment and to change ourselves.

1b) We have the power to direct the next step in our evolution. If we do not take initiative and mold our future, nature will do it for us. We are a loose cannon on the evolutionary timetable, we have effectively stifled the mechanisms for change due to our social behavior. Therefore if left to it's own devices, Nature will destroy mankind. It will cleanse the earth of our menace and replace us with a less intelligent more predictable docile creature.

1c) The path to intelligence that our species has taken is a road seldom traveled, it is only available to a species under the direst circumstances. When those circumstances of the environment are such that it requires less effort to make a species intelligent that it does to make them something else. An extremely rare serendipity

1d) Now that we have this weapon, intelligence, we must use it in our defense. Against the forces of evolution that would destroy us. We must weald the sword of intelligence in defiance of the Luddite mentality that will inevitably arise in societies, religions and governments as resistance to the new man. We must use this tool to form a new species. We must mold our evolution to produce an altered man. One who improves the best of the best of our attributes both physical and social. One that in turn will continue the process of species improvement on it's own.


2a) HomoSapiens are ill equipped physically to maintain existence for very long. We have within our structure subsystems that are fragile, any of which have the potential to cause our death.

2a1) Our respiratory system does double duty. It is used to oxygenate our blood and enable our verbal communication. We have no backup system in the event of failure. Nature has given us nothing to fall back on as a crutch to keep us going in the event of a minor malfunction. Respiratory distress is a major cause of death. It only take a few moments visiting hospital wards to realize that a solution must be found. Millions of people both infant and aged suffer and strangle in their sickbeds gasping for a tiny breath. One tiny wheeze of oxygen to fill their lungs, when a better engineering job could heal them, and send them on their way.

2a2) By combining these two uses, nature has given us a tripwire to our own destruction. The path to our lungs is intersected with the path to our digestive systems. A deadly combination. Intelligence will enable us to devise a technological solution. Mechanisms can be invented and installed that will provide oxygenation on a continuous basis, thereby freeing us from this dangerous intersection. Others can be installed that will control airflow over our vocal cords enabling us to speak. An improved man thus altered will then become a master of many environments. He can live and work in the depths of the sea, and in the emptiness of space. The limitation to our expansion into these realms will then become a matter of pressure compensation, a problem we are already able to technologically solve to a great extent.

2a3) Our Renal system is also very fragile. We already have in use huge devices that inadequately filter toxins and excess fluids from our blood. The technologies must be improved to the point where one structure may be unintrusively installed in our bodies with adequate backup making our Livers and Kidneys obsolete. Such an improved man will no longer suffer and die from the myriad of minor events that currently kill millions of people worldwide.

2a4) We need more than one heart. Perhaps as many as four that each have the ability to maintain blood flow throughout our circulatory systems. One for each lung and one for each Femoral Artery in our legs. Heart attacks will disappear, or become a minor nuisance easily resolved. Minor blockages will no longer be life threatening. Our bodies already have mechanisms to reroute blood vessels in the event of blockage. The altered man will now have time to let those new pathways grow on their own without the threat of death in the interim.

2a5) With the invention of a workable nerve/mechanism interface we will be free from the limitations of structure in our bodies as a whole. A thus altered human will be essentially a brain and spinal cord with life support structure. Able to be plugged directly into anything from a earthmoving machine to a spaceship. Man at this point will be free to roam any environment, and he will become the master of all.

2a6) We carry with us evolutionary baggage. Attributes both physical and social that originated in that Odd Little Primate. Evolution is a violent and bloody process, full of stress and horror and gnashing of teeth. Our bodies are built for fight or flight and not suited to calm easy times. Likewise our behavioral attributes are built for conflict. We Hate and Fear and Lust and are full of Self Pity because it comes naturally to us. They are the four basic instincts. They are also attributes we should leave behind on our way to the next evolutionary plateau.

2a7) Recognize them for what they are. Keep watch on your emotions.

2a8) You will not succeed in mastering them, because they are ingrained in the structure of your body. Some control however is better than none. In the millions of years to come the creature that will evolve from us, may at long last be free of them. There unfortunately is no guarantee that our species will survive to change. We may be another of life's dead ends. On the way we may also be destined for devolution, a return to the wild, ignorant, savage, and Odd Little Primate. Not the first species to cause its own extinction.

2a9) The decedents of that Odd Little Primate developed language. This miracle caused a giant leap forward in our evolution. A brain without language is a confused stewpot of emotions, images, and instincts. Without any structure consistent from one individual to another. It was as if the brain was a clean unformatted hard drive. It had lots of storage space, but no consistent way to retrieve data, and no method of recording anything complex. Language is the disk operating system of the brain. It allows for consistent retrieval of data by structuring the way each bit of information is stored. It allows more than one individual to share complex information. It allows them to learn from each other.


3a) Faith is a commendable asset, only when it is based on truth. It is described as the proof of things unseen, the "I know that I know that I know." Bad faith is one based on a falsehood. It is a set of beliefs that result in injury or limitation to the advancement of the species. Good faith is any set of beliefs that reinforce the species in it's quest for truth.

3a1) I have faith that my children will be good people, yet I know that bad people come from good loving parents sometimes, yet I believe. I have seen my children mature from infants to young men and women. I have seen their tears, and their concern for people other than themselves. So I have faith and am comforted by it.

3a2) I have faith that science will search for the truth in all matters, yet I know that falsehoods sometimes become politically or financially expedient, yet I believe. I know that falsehoods eventually fall under the yoke of independent verification. Vindication will come to the truth. Sometimes later than it should, but it always comes. So I have faith and am comforted by it.

3b) Humans have an almost infinite capacity for self delusion. I know this to be true. I therefore have no faith in other peoples miracles, I only have faith in my own. Life itself is a miracle, in which I believe. Language is a miracle. DNA is a miracle. Intelligence is a miracle. The structure of matter and the laws by which the universe is constructed are miracles. The fact that mankind arose from such humble fibre as an Odd Little Primate, is the biggest miracle of all.

3c) How can good be defined as anything more or less than this. Good is anything that has the effect of insuring the survival or prosperity of the species in part or as a whole. Bad is anything that has the opposite effect. A cultural or religious definition of good and bad has no meaning at all. Cultures rise and fall, religions continually redefine themselves with every generation. There is a truth, that can easily be found. It is self evident. Every honest human instinctively knows it. It is not dictated by religious or cultural bias, although it might be reinforced by them. These are the seven basic truths.

3c1) Death is Bad. All humans while alive have the potential for good. The premature ending of another's life has the effect of destroying that potential, of preventing it from ever maturing into reality. It ends all comfort they might have given to those around them. It stops the growth to intellectual or social enlightenment. It is the finish to discovery for the individual. By ending another's life we cancel any benefit the species might have enjoyed by the existence of this member. Conversely anything we do that has the potential for increasing our lifespan or the lifespan of the species is good.

3c2) Abuse of another except in self-defense is bad. No human being should ever harm another, by violence, by emotional distress, or by verbal attack. To do so causes an injury to the species as a whole. Any victim of this abuse is rendered less productive, and more introspective by the experience. When we are occupied with "licking our wounds" we can not benefit the species. Everyone has the obligation to protect themselves and fellow members of their human family from any such intrusion, perceived or real. Defense against abuse is good. Reinforcement of another is good.

3c3) Species Classification is bad. We are all members of one human family, the species Homo Sapiens. We are all decedents of the same Odd Little Primate that emerged from the African continent in the distant past. We share the same genetic code with all ethnicities, nationalities, and religious groups. Separate is not equal. Any action or belief that has the result of creating an "Us and Them" mentality between humans only strangles one group or the other from realizing it's own potential. Tolerance of those you perceive to be different than yourself is good.

3c4) Ignorance is Bad. Growth of the species can only happen if the current generation is able to stand on the shoulders of the preceding one. We can learn from our ancestors mistakes. Only by learning can we progress. We must learn in order to survive. We must also teach. We must teach the young everything we have learned from our progenitors plus everything we have gleaned from our life so that we might form a foundation for them to stand upon in their quest for more knowledge. This is critical for the survival of the species. No ethnicity, nationality or religious group can be excluded from this obligation. Potential for advancement in every field is evenly distributed among all races, and nationalities. This potential can not be realized if every generation consumes it's life relearning lessons that were common knowledge to previous generations. My children are obligated to be more intelligent than I. Just as I am obligated to be more intelligent than my ancestors. Learning is good.

3c5) Lying is bad. All humans must be endowed with a thirst for truth. Deception is evil whether it is directed to the individual or to the whole. It robs potential by bringing into existence a spiraling vortex of error that wastes time causing deception to compound deception until the very concept of truth is weakened. It rattles it's ugly chains thru the species as a whole. There is no little white lie, there are only big monstrous ones. Goodness and truth are the same thing.

3c6) Self destructive habits are bad. Your life must be spent for the advancement of the species, or you are just excess baggage. Any activity you engage in that cuts short the length of your life limits your potential for good. It prevents your efforts from ever coming to a successful conclusion. The only successful human is the one that advanced the species during or because of his or her life. Failure is the wasting away of potential. Realization of potential is good.

3c7) Theft is bad. It doesn't matter whether the stolen thing is an idea, an object, or the affection of another, it is evil and has the effect of causing strife within the species and will result in any or all of the other bad things. It can be the cause for Murder. It is a form of abuse to another member of your species. It can be the cause of hate for those you perceive as different from yourself. It is ignorant, a lie and a self destructive habit.

3d) Ignorance is the birthplace of all evil, and will if unchecked be the ultimate cause of the extinction of the Species of Man..