A petition for full GMO labeling has been launched in South Korea, which seeks to require GMO foods to be labeled. Yuval Harari warns that genetic engineering could lead to the extinction of the human species, which he argues would mean breaking the law of natural selection and replacing it with intelligent design. He emphasizes that while advances in genetic engineering offer many benefits, they also raise ethical and social issues, and that humanity must use the technology wisely to design a better future.
Recently, I came across a news article about a petition for full GMO labeling in South Korea. The main content of the petition is that GMO foods should be labeled as such, with no exceptions. This was also said to be a pledge of the president, but what is GMO that has become an issue of great interest to many people and even the president?
GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) is a genetically modified food, which means a food that has been developed to have a trait that cannot occur naturally using genetic engineering technology. The development of GMOs involves the use of genetic recombination, which, as the name suggests, involves taking useful genes from one organism and combining them with another to create a new organism. The main advantage of GMOs is that they are genetically superior to existing organisms. However, their safety has yet to be fully proven, and many people have expressed concerns about GMOs in a variety of ways.
Yuval Harari, author of Sapiens, has a new take on the “genetic engineering” used in GMOs. He argues that genetic engineering could lead to the extinction of Homo sapiens, or the living human race. This is because genetic engineering is breaking the law of natural selection and replacing it with the law of intelligent design.
Until now, life has evolved by the laws of natural selection without an omniscient God or designer. For example, giraffes compete for food, and the longer-necked giraffes are able to secure more food, so the shorter-necked giraffes are culled, resulting in longer necks. This example shows that evolution is a natural process, not the work of a designer.
As you can see, natural selection has played an important role in the evolution of life. However, genetic engineering involves the direct intervention of humans to create new life forms. This technological intervention can pose a different set of problems than the traditional process of natural selection.
Humans thought that no organism could violate the laws of natural selection, but in the end, humans themselves are using genetic engineering as a weapon to break down the walls of natural selection and build a new castle called intelligent design. If the last four billion years of Earth’s existence have been a period of natural selection, then a new world dominated by intelligent design is about to open up. The main difference between intelligent design and natural selection is that there is a creator, and that creator is us, Homo sapiens, which is an important element of Harari’s argument.
Advances in genetic engineering have already been remarkable in many fields. For example, in agriculture, pest-resistant crops have been developed to increase productivity, and in medicine, genes are being manipulated to treat specific diseases. These technological advances have contributed significantly to improving the quality of life for humanity. But behind these achievements are ethical and social issues.
Humans have done some amazing things with genetic engineering. Brazilian bioartist Katz has created green fluorescent rabbits that are genetically engineered to glow by combining rabbit and jellyfish genes, and mice have grown large ears made of cartilage tissue on their backs. They’re even working on restoring extinct animals. Maybe at some point in the future, we’ll see live mammoths in zoos and communicate with Neanderthals. Intelligent design is also being used to take advantage of the strengths of some organisms to compensate for the weaknesses of others. For example, GMOs, which insert genes into crops to make them more resistant to pests and frost, are a prime example of this. The technology has also been used to help humans improve their quality of life and live longer. The genes of E. coli have been manipulated to produce insulin to help treat diabetes.
However, the authors argue that genetic engineering can also modify and intellectually engineer humans themselves, which could eventually lead to the extinction of Homo sapiens. By extinction, the authors don’t mean the complete disappearance of an individual, but rather the transformation of an entity into something new, not the same as it was before: the possibility that we will no longer be Homo sapiens.
For Homo sapiens, this could be similar to the disappearance of 2G phones. 2G phones were only capable of texting and calling, but with the addition of technologies like the internet, cameras, and the CPU, which is the core part of a cell phone, we don’t see 2G phones anymore. Even if 2G phones exist today, as most of us use smartphones, they will soon become obsolete because they are in a position to be left behind due to the lack of support for various technologies. Homo sapiens will also disappear if we don’t change or become something new, as genetic engineering and biotechnology have drastically altered our physiology, immune system, lifespan, and intellectual and emotional capabilities.
We don’t want there to be any entities in the future that exceed our capabilities. In the novel Frankenstein, a scientist who attempts to create a superior being ends up creating a monster. Perhaps it symbolizes the fears we have about technological advances. The creation of new beings raises many ethical and social issues. For example, the benefits of human enhancement through genetic engineering are likely to be available only to a privileged class with a vested interest. This would disrupt the hard-earned equality of our society, and could lead to significant social inequality.
Despite these problems, humanity cannot stop the development of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is not just an advance in science and technology; it can be a new tool for human survival and prosperity. For example, developing crops that are resistant to pests and climate extremes is essential to addressing the food challenges posed by climate change, and developing vaccines using genetically engineered technologies is crucial to combat infectious diseases that are spreading around the world.
However, these technological advances also bring new challenges. As genetic engineering advances, we need to consider the ethical use of the technology and its societal impact. This is not just for scientists or policy makers, but for all of us to think about and address.
Therefore, what is important for humanity now is not to think about the existence of Homo sapiens, but what do we want the individual to be in the future? We need to clearly recognize the potential and limitations of genetic engineering technology and design a better future based on this. This requires a combination of scientific research and social discussion, and respect for diverse opinions and perspectives.
Humanity has overcome many challenges in its development. Genetic engineering is one of these challenges, and we will be able to overcome it wisely. It’s not the technology itself that matters, but how we use it. We should strive to make the world a better place through genetic engineering, and this requires continued research and ethical consideration. The future of humanity is in our hands.
