A rich person’s plastic surgery

We continued our study of evolution by looking to the future and asking these fascinating questions:

• Will humans continue to evolve by natural selection?
• Might we start to “design” (genetically engineer) new characteristics or capabilities in humans and other animals?
• Might we start to build mechanical elements into the bodies of humans and other animals to create cyborgs?
• Might human intelligence be surpassed by artificial intelligence and the evolution of intelligent life take a new direction?

Here’s a selection of the children’s very interesting thoughts and responses:

Most fundamentally, Artie says:  “I think we will change our DNA to make us healthier and stronger and live longer.”   Ruby adds that computers will have some practical uses: “I think humans will invent human-like robots that move around the community to provide things to help with their life style” – and others thought that they might even help to solve some of the world’s biggest problems such as climate change.

Mariam thinks that we will at some point be able “to choose how people will look when they are born or be able to choose our own characteristics.”   Fred thinks it might be more like a rich person’s plastic surgery: “Soon genetic modification will be advanced plastic surgery where rich people will get better shaped mouths, more dextrous hands, tanned skin colour and teeth whitening – and A.I will be doing it.”

More speculatively, Eddie raised the extraordinary and disconcerting idea of a world silent of human conversation:  “We might not need to speak if our brains are engineered with robotics to be able to transfer thoughts to anyone.”  Maisie had an interesting thought linked to this which was that “you would be able to tell if someone is lying.” What would this mean for the world?   Fin has the plot-line for his first novel: “I think that if you could hook your brain up to a computer then your brain could be hacked into and you could be forced to do something against your will.”

Callum imagines this long-term change to the world ecology:  “I think life and AI will improve together and there will be millions of other hybrid animals made in labs and then released into the wild.”  Cameron is apocalyptic: “I think robots are going to get smart and want to take over and the humans will be erased.”

Olive gives this thoughtful assessment:  “I think the future of human evolution could go either way – good or bad.  We could end the human race by changing too much, or we could save our world….  If we did decide to change and develop our species, everybody would have to be on board and many people are scared and disagree with the prospect of the future race.”

Horniman Museum trip

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We had a very enjoyable day at the Horniman Museum.  We spent most of our time in the natural history gallery, looking at and sketching the extraordinary taxidermy and fascinating evidence of evolution (shown in comparisons of skeletons of different animal species, for example).  We then had a workshop about evolution and handled lots of specimens which showed the different ways that animals have adapted to their environments. We also found a little time to look around the beautiful musical instruments room and world gallery.

We were interested in this little-known but important species:

 

Nature versus nurture

We talked today about how we are shaped, as human beings, by both our genetic inheritance and by our environment (our life experiences and the choices that we make).

One of Fred’s grannies, aged 8

But do genes or environmental factors matter more?  Here are thoughts from Amari, Josh, Callum, Orin, Ruby and Filip.

I think environment is more important than inheritance because it’s the way I’ve shaped my life.  I might have inherited skills from my family but it’s whether I actually use these skills that determines me.  You have to make choices.  In life, these choices are often a result of your experiences.  Just because I might have a certain resemblance and similar characteristics to other family members, doesn’t mean I have to devote my life to this inheritance.  It’s the path we choose that matters most.  Amari

Your inheritance is about your features and looks but environment makes me who I am and brought me here.  Josh

Inheritance is the making of you and environment is what leads you to your future.  Callum

I think that environmental factors are what really shape you, like practice and determination.  I’ve inherited lots of traits but I’ve been shaped by the world around me.  Orin

I think nature is more important than nurture because life isn’t about environmental things to me, it’s about things that are inherited from your family because they’re more unique and I think it’s nice to be unique.  Ruby

I think environment is important because what happens in life is important.  When you know how to do something it is mostly environmental because you have trained at it and done it loads of times.  Life is about taking the chance to train in the things that you have interests in.  Filip

Evolution

We’ve started a new science project on evolution by trying to understand the broad sweep of evolution of life on Earth over the last four billion years!  Here’s Filip’s depiction of evolution, ending with a faceless modern human playing Fortnite and eating KFC!

And here’s Olive’s, ending with the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, just six millions years ago.

It was interesting to dwell on just how short a time species of human have been on Earth – and on how very recently Homo Sapiens evolved.  But when the children were asked what they wanted to know about evolution, all the questions were about whether and how human evolution might continue and about the potential for genetically-engineered super-humans and robots.   We’ll come back to this at the end of the project.