In this blog post, we explore how close humanity has come to the realm of God through advances in genetic engineering and synthetic biology, as well as the possibilities and ethical implications of this.
One of the world’s most popular superhero franchises, Marvel’s Avengers series has been made into a movie and has been a huge box office hit worldwide. Watching these movies, everyone has probably imagined what it would be like to be one of the Avengers. However, this can actually be a rather frightening thought. If humanity’s advances in science and technology enable the creation of superhumans like Captain America, then one day, superhumans could take the place of humans as we know them today. In other words, we would be imagining the extinction of Homo sapiens. However, this story is no longer just a fantasy, but a reality that is fast approaching us. In recent years, remarkable advances in biotechnology and genetic engineering have been made at an astonishing pace.
For example, a gene editing technology called CRISPR-Cas9 has made it possible to modify genes with a precision that was unimaginable in the past. This has opened up the possibility of preventing or treating certain genetic diseases and, furthermore, has opened the door to artificially manipulating human genes to create humans with superior physical and mental abilities.
Driven by humanity’s relentless pursuit of eternal life, biotechnology has made tremendous advances, and it seems likely that it will give rise to a human race that is superior to the one we know today. So, from a biotechnological perspective, is the extinction of Homo sapiens really possible? If so, what kind of biotechnological advances could bring about the extinction of Homo sapiens? Let’s look at the scientific and technological feasibility of the extinction of Sapiens through technologies currently under development and research examples, and furthermore, the social feasibility based on the book “Sapiens.”
Before discussing extinction, let’s define exactly what kind of humanity we are referring to when we talk about a new human species that will cause the extinction of Homo sapiens. The limit of humanity that biotechnology seeks to overcome is death. No one in human history has ever overcome death. Therefore, in order for a new human race to be superior to the current one, it must be able to overcome death. Another limitation that biotechnology seeks to overcome is incurable diseases. There are many incurable diseases for which there is still no cure, and biotechnology aims to free humanity from them. Therefore, a new human race must be free from incurable diseases in order to be superior to the current one.
Among the various fields of biotechnology, genetic engineering, which manipulates and processes the genes of living organisms for practical applications, will enable the birth of a new human race that is free from incurable diseases and immortal. Genetic engineering began with genetic recombination technology. Genetic recombination technology is, as the name suggests, a technology that isolates useful genes from one organism and inserts them into another. A special enzyme called a restriction enzyme is used in the process of isolating useful genes. Restriction enzymes act like “scissors” that recognize specific base sequences of genes made up of DNA and cut out the genes. Space is needed to insert the genes isolated by restriction enzymes into the genes of other organisms, and the same restriction enzymes are used to create space for insertion. After the gene is inserted, a connecting enzyme connects the genes so that they do not separate. Through this technology, humans were able to insert the insulin gene into the DNA of E. coli bacteria to produce insulin in large quantities, which greatly contributed to the development of biotechnology and the medical industry.
Since then, genetic engineering has continued to advance, and humanity has steadily moved toward an era in which we can design and create whatever we want, knocking on the door of the realm of the gods. In 2010, Dr. Craig Venter, an authority on synthetic biology in the United States, published a paper stating that he had synthesized an artificial life form in a laboratory. Dr. Venter’s team succeeded in synthesizing bacteria with only the genes essential for life. The field of synthetic biology, which they are researching, is at the forefront of biotechnology and is a discipline that designs and artificially synthesizes biological components and systems that do not exist in the natural world, or improves biological systems that exist in the natural world. Based on known genetic information, a completely new artificial life form is created by artificially synthesizing a genome or inserting artificially created biological modules.
Artificial genome synthesis is achieved through a bottom-up approach, which starts with the design of individual components and completes their organic structure as a whole. First, nucleotides, the basic units of the genome, are chemically synthesized. Next, oligonucleotides, which are several nucleotides joined together, are created. In this way, the genome can be synthesized by gradually increasing the scale. If you know the base sequence of the gene you want to insert, you can synthesize an artificial genome accordingly. Although it has not yet been possible to insert artificial genomes into eukaryotes and make them biologically active, this is a realistic goal within a few decades. If we can identify the base sequences of genes related to incurable diseases and death, we will be able to synthesize genomes that exclude those sequences, creating a new human race that is immortal and immune to incurable diseases.
Death and disease are essential aspects of all sapiens, so it would be fair to say that a new human race free from these would be a different species from sapiens. Therefore, synthetic biology shows that the extinction of sapiens is entirely possible. What would this mean for society? Human class consciousness could spur the birth of a new human race.
Yuval Noah Harari says that the upper class has always been caught up in the pretense that they are superior to the lower class, and that with the help of science and technology, their pretense could become an objective reality. If the synthetic biology and genetic engineering technologies mentioned above become a reality, the upper class may bring about the extinction of sapiens in the process of differentiating themselves from the lower class. Furthermore, since incurable diseases and death are fundamental fears of humanity, humanity will naturally create a new human race in order to eliminate these fears.
So far, we have examined whether the extinction of Homo sapiens, the current rulers of the Earth, is possible from a scientific, technological, and social perspective. Through artificial genome synthesis technology in the field of synthetic biology currently being researched, we have seen that the birth of a new human race that is immortal and free from incurable diseases is technically possible. We have also seen that humanity’s desire for superiority and fear of death and disease support the social feasibility of this possibility. Based on this, we have concluded that the extinction of Homo sapiens is entirely possible.
Furthermore, the nature of humanity is to always pursue evolution and development. This is why humanity adapts to the environment, overcomes challenges, and constantly pursues new things. This trait will continue to function when a new human race emerges after Homo sapiens. When a new human race emerges, we will no longer be satisfied with the current state of affairs and will move toward new frontiers.
The extinction of Homo sapiens goes beyond a simple scientific possibility and raises philosophical and ethical questions about how we as humans recognize our own limitations and how we will overcome them. In the process of finding answers to these questions, we must move beyond mere biological survival and pursue true humanity.
