Homo sapiens has “intelligently designed” itself and advanced many technologies, including biotechnology, but this could threaten the balance of ecosystems, give rise to new species, and eventually lead to human extinction.
“Homo symbius,” meaning human in symbiosis, is a concept proposed by a South Korean professor as a new image of humanity for the 21st century. The idea is that we, Homo sapiens, need to live in symbiosis with other species in order to survive as the planet’s resources reach their limits. So why is the end of Homo sapiens a concern, and how could it happen?
In recent years, Homo sapiens has become a threat to humanity and the entire ecosystem due to its perceived superiority. Based on this “superiority,” humanity has begun to “intelligently design” itself beyond natural selection. This intelligent design consists of three main fields: biotechnology, cyborg engineering, and non-organic engineering. Of these, biotechnology in particular is pushing Homo sapiens to the brink of extinction, and in this article I will focus on biotechnology to explain why and how.
Biotechnology is the intentional intervention of humans at the biological level. An early example of this is castrating bulls to make them better at pulling plows. This technique helped humans advance agricultural technology and played an important role in the breakthrough of human culture. At the time, they didn’t have a significant impact on the ecological environment and didn’t pose a major threat to the extinction of Homo sapiens.
Today, however, biotechnology has advanced by leaps and bounds, and this has created new challenges. As humans have been able to understand and manipulate biotechnology down to the cellular and sub-cellular level, biotechnology has exceeded the ability of natural ecosystems to recover, and this has seriously threatened the balance of ecosystems.
An example of this is when the same technology that has increased the lifespan of worms by six times is applied to Homo sapiens. What would happen if we could increase our lifespan by six times? First of all, all social systems would change. The entire social system would have to be reorganized, including the current curriculum, and many social problems would arise, such as pensions.
In addition, the number of humans would increase so much that we would overconsume limited resources, increasing the risk of extinction of other species. Humanity’s heavy use of resources takes away resources available to other organisms, which could eventually disrupt the ecological balance and lead to the extinction of Homo sapiens. Einstein once said, “If the bees disappeared, the human race would disappear in four years.” Humanity is able to survive on Earth because all living things – plants, animals, and microbes – coexist and cooperate with each other. However, when humans become too numerous and overuse resources, ecosystems are destroyed, global problems such as climate change occur, and eventually Homo sapiens will go extinct due to food shortages and harsh environments. Homo sapiens that have adapted to the existing environment will be wiped out, and other species will take their place.
While we’ve already discussed the extinction of Homo sapiens due to natural selection, we’ll now discuss the possibility of Homo sapiens becoming extinct due to changes in physiological functions and intellectual and emotional capabilities. The recently developed third-generation genetic scissors, CRISPR, is a prime example of this. They consist of a short gene sequence and a protein that can cut and paste DNA, allowing them to search through billions of genomic sequences to find and change any sequence they want. This could change the mindset and genetic characteristics of Homo sapiens, creating a new human race that is completely different from the current one. If personalized babies become commonplace, the current Homo sapiens will naturally become extinct.
In conclusion, advances in biotechnology have given us the ability to control Homo sapiens down to the cellular level, and this has led to two possible extinctions of Homo sapiens. First, advances in life-extending technologies could unbalance ecosystems and lead to the extinction of Homo sapiens. Second, CRISPR could lead to the creation of a new species that is completely different from Homo sapiens. In the end, the advances we’ve made in the pursuit of dominance rather than coexistence could, in the macro, lead to the extinction of Homo sapiens. The very things we do for our own enrichment and comfort may be the cause of our extinction.
Homo sapiens, seeking to become gods in their own right, have abandoned species diversity in favor of a homogenized, monolithic species, and have abandoned coexistence with other species in favor of building their own ecosystems. However, ecosystems that have lost species diversity will not be able to adapt to external changes and will collapse, and Homo sapiens will become extinct and new species will take its place.
