Reprogeneticism Has a Future

In an age of exponential technological growth, where technology is nearly boundless in its application, should there be any limits?

So far as I think the answer is, in short, a complicated no. In order to expand our upon our theories we must exercise our scientific capacities so that certain goals can be established and met within a reasonable framework. However, I think that the harm principal is truly the only restriction upon which to base our collective endeavors. There are those among us who seek the purity of nature in many areas, those who believe that technology holds us captive; that when we destroy the earth from which we are wrought to build and consume that we lose a bit of our humanity. Some may compare reprogeneticism to some project associated with Hitler's attempt to steer the human race to genetic perfection by wiping out people he saw as unfit when diversity seems threatened. I suggest that as long as there is no direct violation of the harm principle that human beings should be allowed to progress within their scientific means into every avenue and application that science may lead us unto.

I'm not here to say that genetic diversity is a bad thing. I'm also not here to say that genetic diversity is an inherently good thing either. Diversity is a the fundamental success of evolution. It represents a natural form of the old proverb that one ought not to put all their eggs in one basket. Without diversity, life would not exist, as changing environments and lack of adaptive ability would have killed off any life long ago. Some level of consistency is necessary, however.

Diversity doesn't spell success in itself though. Diversity has often lead to failure. Probability instructs us to hold values toward diversification such that if enough hands are played then at least one will turn out to be a winner. Diversity is simply a methodological process that eeks out enough successes to manage a continuation of a system. We all are aware of diversity's successes as we now sit here and contemplate our own existence, but we often neglect or completely look over diversity's many failures.

Genetic diversity gave us the great "lizards" that were the dinosaurs, but nearly ALL of them were wiped out because they lacked the ability to adapt to certain cataclysmic global events. In such an instance much genetic diversity was wiped out when a giant rock slammed into the Earth, many millions of years ago, and destroyed much of the diversity of life on land. Many water based creatures did survive however, so life eeked by simply because life held a diverse hand.

The problem with diversity is that it has no conscience. Evolution cares not for its consequences. It exists despite death but has no limit on suffering. Evolution isn't an entity, it is an explanation of the process in which life continues - in which life persists. Evolution's diversifying ways have left many failed entities in agony staggering along the line dividing life from death. It doesn't even matter that all lifeforms as we know them are mortal. It only matters that they survive long enough and hold the ability to reproduce. Evolution never produced life forms that were perfect it simply produced life forms that were sufficient for the environments they inhabited.

Life progressed and eventually spawned creatures with sufficient reason, that is creatures with the capacity to break down the great complexity of reality into significant portions that could then be manipulated with for focused and excellerated consequences. For the cause of our continued existence we have been hard at work manipulating our environments for our benefit. We have developed methods such as science and logic that have afforded us the opportunity to assess literally everything under the sun and beyond. As selfish creatures we have realized that the more we understand about the universe the more opportunity we have to benefit. Technology abounds from spears to the internet.

With our continued pursuits we continually alter and update our technologies that allow us to transform our reality. Since evolution was never granted us a guarantee in success, as a species we ended up with a lot of dysfuntionalities. Some are benign and others are detrimental. We exhibit diseases ranging from cancer to AIDS and everything in between that serve to remind us of our fragile biological states. Anyone can look at a rock and know that it does not think and that it is not aware. It is a matter of scientific understanding that a rock has no conscience. A rock may last many thousands or millions of years, however, human beings individually have a relatively short rate of existence.

Our limitations are something we are very aware of and because we want to continue to live we find ways to work around our limitations. We have developed "cures" for many diseases and we continue to find ways to remedy the many dysfunctions that lay our mortal lives to rest so that we can continue our collective existence. We all look not only to extend our lives but to reach a greater satisfaction in our lifetimes.

Future technologies will likely provide us the opportunity to manipulate the very processes of our existence. We will be able to understand with greater certainty the processes that shape us and thereby have the ability to manipulate them to our benefit. We've been manipulating our bodies for years as technology affords us the opportunities to do so. We shall continue on this path as technology affords us even greater opportunities to extend and augment our bodily existences and it is reasonable to assume that in those pursuits that, so long as we do not intentionally violate the harm principle, they are acceptable. After all, it is the harm principle in which we base our most basic fundamental rights upon as individuals from which we can as a collective endeavor to pursue greater goals.