Possible future evolutionary consequences to Homo as a result of the implementation of biotechnology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18778/1898-6773.87.1.05Abstract
Biotechnology has become one of the most powerful forces on the planet, since it is capable of altering life processes at a molecular level. Since human bodies are dynamic biological systems, medicine requires to understand the evolutionary antecedents of Homo, especially in relation to neurohormonal regulation. Furthermore, increasing human dependence on biotechnology has led to relaxed natural selection in Homo, with subsequent increase of genetic load. In this paper, we speculate on the possible consequences of the application of parsimoniously derived biotechnologies onto the biological system of humans, with special attention to three areas: 1. human brain augmentation; 2. biotechnology and public health; 3. relaxed natural selection and genetic load. Human ability to manipulate and alter the structure and function of the body may not only make natural selection redundant but will be guided by a teleology whose purpose will seek to improve upon nature’s design.
Downloads
References
Agrawal AF, Whitlock MC. 2012. Mutation load: the fitness of individuals in populations where deleterious alleles are abundant. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 43:115–35.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110411-160257
Bateson G. 1973. Steps to an ecology of mind. St Albans, Great Britain: Paladin.
View in Google Scholar
Ballon JS, Feifel D. 2006. A systematic review of modafinil: potential clinical uses and mechanisms of action. J Clin Psychiatry 67(4):554–66. https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.v67n0406
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.v67n0406
Benedetti F, Aggio V, Pratesi ML, Greco G, Furlan R. 2020. Neuroinflammation in bipolar depression. Front Psychiatry 11:71. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00071
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00071
Berk M, Dodd S, Kauer-Sant AM, Malhi GS, Bourin M, et al. 2007. Dopamine dysregulation syndrome: implications for a dopamine hypothesis of bipolar disorder. Acta Psychiatr Scand Suppl116:41–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2007.01058.x
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2007.01058.x
Bostrom N. 2003. Are you living in a computer simulation? Philos Q 2003; 53(211):243–55.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9213.00309
Borry P, Bentzen HB, Budin-Ljøsne I, Cornel MC, Howard HC, et al. 2018. The challenges of the expanded availability of genomic information: an agenda-setting paper. J Community Genet9(2):103–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-017-0331-7
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-017-0331-7
Bouton CE, Shaikhouni A, Annetta NV, Bockbrader MA, Friedenberg DA, et al. 2016. Restoring cortical control of functional movement in a human with quadriplegia. Nature 533:247–50. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17435
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17435
Bratsberg B, Rogeberg O. 2018. Flynn effect and its reversal are both environmentally caused. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 115(26):6674–78.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1718793115
Brisch R, Saniotis A, Wolf R, Bielau H, Steiner J, Bernstein H, et al. 2014. The role of dopamine in schizophrenia from a neurobiological and evolutionary perspective: old fashioned, but still in vogue. Frontiers in Psychiatry 5(47):1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00047
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00110
Brown P. 1992. Recent human evolution in East Asia and Australasia. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 331:23542.
View in Google Scholar
Budnik A, Liczbinska G, Gumna I. 2004. Demographic trends and biological status of historic populations from Central Poland: the Ostrów Lednicki microregion. Am J Phys Anthropol 125(4):369–81.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.10272
Bundy DT, Souders L, Baranyai K, Leonard L, Schalk G, et al. 2017. Contralesional brain-computer interface control of a powered exoskeleton for motor recovery in chronic stroke survivors. Stroke 48:1908–15.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.116.016304
Burgess J. 1998. Occam’s razor and scientific method. In: Schirn (ed.), The Philosophy of Mathematics Today. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 195–214.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198236542.003.0008
Charlton NG. 2008. Understanding Gregory Bateson: Mind, beauty, and the sacred earth. Albany: State University of New York Press.
View in Google Scholar
Chatterjee A. 2006. The promise and predicament of cosmetic neurology. J Med Ethics 32(2):110–13.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.2005.013599
Dutton E, van der Linden D, Lynn R. 2016. The negative Flynn effect: a systematic literature review. Intelligence 59:163–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2016.10.002
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2016.10.002
Ehrlich P. 2000. Human natures: genes, cultures, and the human project. Chicago: Island Press.
View in Google Scholar
Flynn JR. 2009. What is intelligence? Beyond the Flynn effect. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press.
View in Google Scholar
Giurgea C. 1972. Vers une pharmacologie de l’activité intégrative du cerveau. Tentative du concept nootrope en psychopharmacologie. Actual Pharmacol 25:115–56.
View in Google Scholar
Hasler G. 2010. Pathophysiology of depression: Do we have any solid evidence of interest to clinicians? World Psychiatry 9(3):155–61. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2051-5545.2010.tb00298.x
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2051-5545.2010.tb00298.x
Henneberg M. 1998. Decrease of human skull size in the Holocene. Hum Biol 60:395–405.
View in Google Scholar
Henneberg M, Steyn M. 1993. Trends in cranial capacity and cranial index in Subsaharan Africa during the Holocene. Am J Hum Biol 5:473–79.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.1310050411
Henneberg M, Steyn M. 1995. Trends in mortality and health status in South Africa over the last thousand years and their implications for the opportunity for natural selection, Homo 46:27–37.
View in Google Scholar
Jayanthi S, Gonzalez B, McCoy MT, Ladenheim B, Bisagno V, et al. 2018. Methamphetamine induces TET1- and TET3-dependent DNA hydroxymethylation of Crh and Avp genes in the rat nucleus accumbens. Mol Neurobiol. 55(6):5154–66.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-017-0750-9
Krasnova N, Justinova Z, Cadet JL. 2016. Methamphetamine addiction: involvement of CREB and neuroinflammatory signaling pathways. Psychopharmacol (Berl) 233(10):1945–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-016-4235-8
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-016-4235-8
Knable MB, Weinberger DR. 1997. Dopamine, the pre-frontal cortex and schizophrenia. J Psychopharmacol 11:123–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/026988119701100205
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/026988119701100205
Kurzweil R. 2000. The age of spiritual machines: When computers exceed human intelligence. New York: Penguin Books.
View in Google Scholar
Laland JM, Seed A. 2021. Understanding human cognitive uniqueness. Annu Rev Psychol 72(1): 689–716. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-062220-051256
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-062220-051256
Lappin JM, Darke S, Farrell M. 2017. Stroke Farrell M. Stroke and methamphetamine use in young adults: a review. J Neurol Neurosurg 88:1079–91. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2017-316071
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2017-316071
Lappin JM, Sara GE. 2019. Psychostimulant use and the brain. Addiction 114(11):2065–77.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14708
Limanaqi F, Gambardella S, Biagioni F, Busceti CL, Fornai F. 2018. Epigenetic effects Induced by methamphetamine and methamphetamine-dependent oxidative stress. Oxid Med Cell Longev 22:4982453 https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/4982453
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/4982453
López-Figueroa AL, Norton CS, Lopez-Figueroa MO, Armellini-Dodel D, Burke S, et al. 2004. Serotonin 5-HT1A, 5-HT1B and 5-HT2A receptor mRNA expression in subjects with major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry 55:225–33.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2003.09.017
Mellanby K. 1947. Medical experiments on human beings in concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Br Med J 1(4490):148–50. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.4490.148
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.4490.148
Pietschnig J, Voracek M. 2015. One century of global IQ gains: a formal meta-analysis of the Flynn effect (1909–2013). Perspect Psychol Sci 10:282–306.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615577701
Roelcke V. 2004. Nazi medicine and research on human beings. Lancet 364 (Suppl 1): s6–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736 (04)17619-8
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17619-8
Roser M, Ritchie H, Dadonaite B. 2013. Child and infant mortality. Our world in data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality
View in Google Scholar
Rossiianov K. 2003. Beyond species: Il’ya Ivanov and his experiments on cross-breeding humans with anthropoid apes. Science in Context 15(2): 277–316. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269889702000455
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269889702000455
Ruff CB, Trinkaus E, Holliday TW. 1997. Body mass and encephalization in Pleistocene Homo. Nature 387:173–76. https://doi.org/10.1038/387173a0
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/387173a0
Sahakian B, Morein-Zamir S. 2007. Cognitive enhancement: professor’s little helper. Nature 450(7173):1157–59.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4501157a
Saniotis A. 2007a. ‘Recombinant nature’: transgenics and the emergence of hum-animals. E-LOGOS 1–20.
View in Google Scholar
Saniotis A. 2007b. Social and genomic constructions of chimera. J Futures Stud 11(3):47–60.
View in Google Scholar
Saniotis A. 2011. Analysing Gregory Bateson’s ‘ecological intelligence’: Where Bateson and Aristotle meet. Biocosmology – neo-Aristotelism 1(4):459– 66.
View in Google Scholar
Saniotis A, Henneberg M. 2011a. An evolutionary approach toward exploring altered states of consciousness, mind-body techniques, and non-local mind. World Futures 67(3): 182–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02604027.2011.555250
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02604027.2011.555250
Saniotis A, Henneberg M. 2011b. Medicine could be constructing human bodies in the future. Med Hypotheses 77(4):560–64.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2011.06.031
Saniotis A, Henneberg M. 2020. Anatomical variations and evolution: re-evaluating their Importance for surgeons. ANZ J Surg 91(5):837–40.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16429
Saniotis A, Henneberg M, Kumaratilake J, Grantham JP. 2014. “Messing with the Mind”: evolutionary challenges to human brain augmentation. Front Syst Neurosci 8:152. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2014.00152
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2014.00152
Saniotis A, Henneberg M, Sawalma A-R. 2018. Integration of nanobots into neural circuits as a future therapy for treating neurodegenerative disorders. Front Neurosci 12:153. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00153
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00153
Saniotis A, Henneberg M, Mohammadi K. 2020. Genetic load and morphological changes to extant humans. J Biosoc Sci 53(4):639–42.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021932020000413
Savulescu J. 2003. Human-animal transgenesis and chimeras might be an expression of our humanity. Am J Bioeth 3(3):22–25.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/15265160360706462
Shayer M, Ginsburg D, Coe R. 2007. 30 Years on–a large anti-‘Flynn effect’? The Piagetian test volume and heaviness norms 1975–2003. Br J Educ Psychol 77:25–41.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1348/000709906X96987
Sharma G, Friedenberg DA, Annetta N, Glenn B, Bockbrader M, et al. 2016. Using an artificial neural bypass to restore cortical control of rhythmic movements in a human with quadriplegia. Sci Rep 6:33807.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep33807
Shih JJ, Krusienski DJ, Wolpaw JR. 2012. Brain-computer interfaces in medicine. Mayo Clin Proc 87:268279.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2011.12.008
Shugart YY, Wang Y, Samuels JF, Grados MA, Greenberg BD, Knowles JA, et al. 2009. A family-based association study of the glutamate transporter gene SLC1A1 in obsessive-compulsive disorder in 378 families. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiat Genet 150B: 886–892. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.30914
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.30914
Smith TE, Martel MM, DeSantis AD. 2017. Subjective report of side effects of prescribed and nonprescribed psychostimulant use in young adults. Subst Use Misuse 52(4):548–52.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2016.1240694
Teasdale TW, Owen DR. 2005. A long-term rise and recent decline in intelligence test performance: the Flynn effect in reverse. Personality and Individual Differences. Pers Individ Differ 39(4):837–43.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.01.029
Tobin MJ. 2022. Fiftieth anniversary of uncovering the Tuskegee syphilis study: The story and timeless lessons. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 205(10):1145–58. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202201-0136SO
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202201-0136SO
Tornay SC. 1938. Ockham: Studies and Selections. LaSalle, IL: Open Court.
View in Google Scholar
von Bertalanffy L. 1957. Allgemeine Systemtheorie. DUZ 1957;12:8–12.
View in Google Scholar
Wang Y, Adamczyk A, Shugart YY, Samuels JF, Grados MA, Greenberg BD, et al. 2010. A screen of SLC1A1 for OCD-related alleles. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiat Genet 153: 675–79. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.31001
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.31001
Wojtalik JA, Hogarty SS, Cornelius JR, Phillips ML, Keshavan MS, et al. 2016. Cognitive enhancement therapy improves frontolimbic regulation of emotion in alcohol and/or cannabis misusing schizophrenia: a preliminary study. Front Psychiatry 6:186.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00186
You W, Henneberg M. 2016. Type 1 diabetes prevalence increasing globally and regionally: the role of natural selection and life expectancy at birth. BMJ Open Diabetes Res Care 4(1):e000161.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2015-000161
You W, Henneberg M. 2017. Cancer incidence increasing globally: the role of relaxed natural selection. Evol App 11(2):140–52.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.12523
Zhejiang J. 2019. Experiments that led to the first gene-edited babies: the ethical failings and the urgent need for better governance. Univ Sci B 20(1):32–38.
View in Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1800624
Published
Versions
- 2024-06-03 (2)
- 2024-04-04 (1)
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.