JASON SILVA - EVOLUTION MADE SELF-AWARE

This is interesting. The idea that we are close to reaching the point when we will be able to "design" life is both exciting (in terms of how we can possibly end human disease and create more nutritious forms of food, from low-fat meat higher in good fats to plants that produce higher yields) and frightening (in terms of how humans are highly fallible and likely to misuse this knowledge).

In the bigger picture, this is a different kind of "evolution make self-aware" than Ken Wilber likes to talk about in his anthropocentric spirituality. In thinking about the possible negative outcomes, Wilber's version is less frightening.

EVOLUTION MADE SELF-AWARE

Parag and Ayesha Khanna on August 25, 2011

BY JASON SILVA

Physicist Freeman Dyson has spoken of a new "Age of Wonder"centered on computers and biology.  He has artfully articulated that in the near future "a new generation of artists will be writing genomes with the fluency that Blake and Byron wrote verses."

What I find the most astonishing about this statement is the implication that biology itself is now seen as a canvas subject to aesthetic design-  it implies that mankind will apply the intentions of his mind to influence the unfolding of biological processes. Think about this for a second. Evolution itself has just evolved and become self-aware.

The following video offers my take on stem-cell research, which I believe is a hugely important step towards mastering the information processes of our biology:

Jason Silva is a Fellow of the Hybrid Reality Institute.