Stephen Hawking calls for DNA upgrade

Isolating homo sapiens into a separate species of primates took several million years. During this time, the useful part of the DNA has changed a couple of million bits. Thus, the rate of evolution in humans can be roughly estimated as 1 bit per year.

So begins the lecture “Life in the Universe” by the famous Stephen Hawking. He talks about the emergence of superman, that is, a new race of people, which will arise as a result of a dramatic evolutionary leap when people begin to correct their own DNA.

“For comparison,” the professor continues, “50,000 books in English are now being published every year; they contain hundreds of billions of bits. Of course, most are useless trash that cannot be used for life in any form. However, even if so, the speed of adding useful information can still be millions or billions of times higher than it is now in DNA. ”
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“I think you can take a broader view of things and include external (externally transmitted) information in the evolution of the human race,” suggests Stephen Hawking.

Mechanical-electronic components can be integrated into the place of individual DNA sections, which gradually can completely force out DNA from the genome, just as DNA has forced out early life forms.

According to Hawking, you should first eliminate known genetic defects such as fibrocystic degeneration or muscular dystrophy. For them there are single genes that are fairly easy to identify and fix. Other characteristics of a person, such as intelligence, will not be easy to upgrade, because complexes of genes are responsible for these qualities, and it will be more difficult to find them, as well as to determine the connections between them.

However, Stephen Hawking is confident that over the next century, people will find ways to modify intelligence and instincts, such as aggressiveness. Only in this way can we avoid self-destruction and colonize other planets.

via The Daily Galaxy