Evolving Ourselves — Juan Enriquez summarizes his new book at TechonomyBio 2015

I am reading a pre-print of “Evolving Ourselves” and his TechonomyBio 2015 talk describes how unnatural selection and non-random selection are dominating the evolution of our biome and our species. More below.

It reminds me of the class I co-taught at Stanford with Larry Lessig in 2004 on genetics, evolved artifacts, and the regulatory ecosystem. I wrote at the time:

We went in with the presumption that society will likely try to curtail “genetic free speech” as it applies to human germ line engineering (changing the DNA of egg or sperm), and thereby curtail the evolution of evolvability. Lessig predicts that we will recapitulate the 200-year debate about the First Amendment to the Constitution. Pressures to curtail free genetic expression will focus on the dangers of “bad speech”, and others will argue that good genetic expression will crowd out the bad. Artificial chromosomes (whereby children can decide whether to accept genetic enhancements when they become adults) can decouple the debate about parental control and agency. And, with a touch of irony, China may lead the charge.

Many of us subconsciously cling to the selfish notion that humanity is the endpoint of evolution. In the debates about machine intelligence and genetic enhancements, there is a common and deeply rooted fear about being surpassed – in our lifetime. But, when framed as a question of parenthood (would you want your great grandchild to be smarter and healthier than you?), the emotion often shifts from a selfish sense of supremacy to a universal human search for symbolic immortality.

P.S. The video also came out for our opening panel; it starts at minute 4:27 of “You Say You Want a Revolution” with (Drew Endy of Stanford, David Glazer of Google, me, and Chris Waller of Merck). And here’s a summary article that runs with my parenting metaphor.