Homo sapiens has developed intelligence and technology as a result of evolution, but its future evolution may lead to its demise through physical changes. Whether biotechnology will evolve into new forms of existence or whether ethical discourse will inhibit the process is a matter of debate.
All living things evolve to survive in their environment. Throughout evolution, organisms have tried to gain an advantage in the competition for survival by increasing their adaptability. Gaining an advantage in competition with other species through superior physical evolution is central to this process. Early organisms were sensitive to even simple environmental changes, resulting in the emergence of different species in different environments. In this evolutionary process, before the advent of homo sapiens, the brain was considered a waste organ that consumed energy, and even as intelligence developed, knowledge did not accumulate (‘A jumbo brain is a jumbo drain on the body’ (2014, Yuval Harari)). However, this was not the case for Sapiens, whose superior intelligence enabled them to learn how to store and transmit knowledge, which allowed them to overcome their physical inferiority and win the competition with other species to become a “successful” species, spreading 7 billion individuals across the globe.
The success of Homo sapiens was not limited to the development of intelligence, but also led to the development of culture and technology. With the development of language, the accumulation of knowledge grew by leaps and bounds, and Homo sapiens gained the ability to control nature. By using fire, making tools, and working together in communities, Homo sapiens were able to efficiently manage the resources they needed to survive. This combination of intelligence and technology propelled homo sapiens to overcome their physical inferiority.
But whereas the evolution of Homo sapiens so far has made us better and better at accumulating knowledge without physical changes, the evolution of Homo sapiens in the future will bring physical changes that will lead to the end of Homo sapiens. We analyze this end from a biotechnological perspective.
Homo sapiens evolved to solve simple desires, like finding food. When early homo sapiens were hunting and gathering, their evolution was closely tied to the physical changes necessary for survival. But after the Industrial Revolution, homo sapiens were able to solve their food worries, and their overall happiness increased. We could now travel anywhere we wanted on the planet in a day, and we could enjoy our leisure time. But just as a person who eats cheap food becomes desensitized to it and seeks out better food when they eat at an expensive restaurant, so too has Sapiens become desensitized to happiness and seeks out more and more happiness. In pursuit of more and more happiness, sapiens will try to solve the obstacle to happiness that is death.
Homo sapiens began to look for ways to transcend existing organizational limitations. Among the elements, carbon is the only one that can bond with the same atom over and over again. Therefore, compounds containing carbon are considered essential for a body that requires many complex polymers, and these carbon compounds are called organics. Early homo sapiens would struggle within these organized bodies. By utilizing stem cells, which can differentiate into any cell, some organs could be repaired immediately if damaged, and the process of aging could be slowed down or even stopped altogether if it could not be reversed. Thus, the average life span would increase to near infinity, and the planet would no longer be able to support humans. Just as we migrated from Europe after discovering the New World, we will migrate to find new planets that are habitable. Initially, we will continue to interact with each other, but gradually the scientific and technological development of each planet will differ.
On certain planets, homo sapiens will no longer be confined to a body that is a limited organism. Initially in the form of cyborgs, whose organs are replaced by machines except for the brain, or androids, whose brains are equipped with CPUs, and finally in the form of bodies made entirely of inorganic materials, sapiens will cease to be a species because they are made of metal, not cells, according to the cell theory, which states that “the cell is the functional and structural unit of an organism” (Matthias Jakob Schleiden, 1938).
On a more technologically advanced planet, even an inorganic body would feel like a shackle. Their metal bodies would rust or be destroyed by severe physical impact, which could lead to death. In other words, their very existence in physical form would be a hindrance. Having made significant scientific progress through the steady accumulation of knowledge, they will become computerized and evolve into a virtual form without a physical body in the Internet. They will be able to share their thoughts and feelings with everyone at every moment, and the vast amount of knowledge they have accumulated will be immediately available to everyone.
Eventually, the desire to become a god will lead Homo sapiens to become Meta sapiens, which is beyond the category of living beings, and furthermore, cyber sapiens will emerge, which have no physical body and exist only in the Internet world. We don’t know if this development is evolution or apocalypse. However, it seems necessary to be wary of the desire to become gods beyond the current biological limits. However, there are also voices that are worried about the haphazard development of science and technology in this evolutionary process. Without ethical considerations, the consequences of reckless technological advancement can be unpredictable and destructive. Given the important role that ethics has played in restraining the development of science and technology, the meta-sapiens and cyber-sapiens described above may seem unlikely, but ethical discourse will play an important role in checking the unchecked development of science and technology.
