New scientific studies are showing that human evolution happens faster than we used to think, according to a recent Wired article (link: Wired News: Getting Evolution Up to Speed). Not that fast, mind you -- we're talking about a single gene mutation in 5,000 years instead of earlier estimates on the order of 100,000 years.
This new knowledge is encouraging to transhumanists like James Hughes (author of Citizen Cyborg) and Ray Kurzweil (The Singularity is Near) who want to sell us on the idea that humans should evolve much faster -- and we should take the reins ourselves in order to make it happen. Hughes says, "You can take what nature gave you, but there's no good reason to take nature as a guide for where you should go in the future."
Many of us would rather give mother nature the benefit of the doubt, however, or at least an honest hearing. Surely there's a world of difference between intentionally changing the germline to alter our species permanently within a generation or two and nature's way of testing out a mutation over hundreds or thousands of generations before it sticks. The risks are enormous -- who's going to manage that risk over time? Our culture has accelerated so fast that a single human generation is an eternity to a corporation or government.
Furthermore, who do we trust to decide which alterations are worth making? The past century's horrors of Nazism and eugenics should be lesson enough on what happens when groups try to improve the species. That kind of power simply shouldn't be in human hands.