The Ethical Debate: Genes, Memes, and Digital Expression

These changes may not be welcomed smoothly, especially with regard to reengineering the human germ line. At the societal level, we will likely try to curtail the evolution of evolvability and "genetic free speech." Larry 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"; others will argue that good genetic expression will crowd out the bad, as it did with mimetic evolution (in the scientific method and the free exchange of ideas). Artificial chromosomes with adult-trigger events can decouple the agency debate about parental control. And, with a touch of irony, China may lead the charge.

We subconsciously cling to the selfish notion that humanity is the end point of evolution. In the debates about machine intelligence and genetic enhancements, there is a common and deeply rooted fear of being surpassedin our lifetime. When the question is framed as a matter 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.