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The eventual ability to use a brain to reason about and change your own species's genes isn't evolutionarily selected for? The brain and human intelligence its
by thwarted 17y ago
The eventual ability to use a brain to reason about and change your own species's genes isn't evolutionarily selected for? The brain and human intelligence itself doesn't exist outside of evolution. If it turns out that humans being smart enough to modify their own genes doesn't work out, doesn't produce viable offspring, and ultimately loses out to undirected selection, would we say that that's a failing of our capabilities or that evolution didn't select for human control of their own gene selection? Does the answer to this question change over different time scales or if our evolution was to be studied by other intelligent species?
It ceases to be undirected natural selection, but continues to be evolution.
"Intelligent design" assumes an intelligence outside and other than humans. This is part of the "playing God" argument against research in this area. So while I agree that the term "intelligent design" may be more appropriate, that doesn't preclude it from still being "evolution" over the long term (which is largely what evolution is focused on). I'd also rather not have the terms get mixed up; calling this "intelligent design" serves to confuse the ongoing religion vs science argument/debate that is holding back innovation and laws in this area.
- pmichaud 17y agoHow about "human engineering" instead of intelligent design?
- dandelany 17y agoExactly. By "evolution," Hawking doesn't mean "the biological process by which randomly generated, heritable traits that foster survival are passed on," he means "the gradual development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form."
- Retric 17y agoThe human brain already does some selection based on genetic traits. And not just simple heath/fit = good DNA, but it also evaluates your immune system. Apparently people look for other people whose smell suggests that they have an "apposing" immune system so their children will have a wider range of immunity.