As part of the annual Edge Question, Richard Dawkins suggests that Human-Chimp Hybrids will change everything. It’s an interesting article, check it out. It certainly builds upon what I said before about human-chimp combinations.

I’d like to point out that a Human-Chimp ancestor derived from sequence data would not be a human-chimp hybrid in the same sense as a mere mixture of chromosomes, or cells in one organism. But one of the most fascinating points that Dawkins illustrates is that if all human ancestors existed in an afterlife, there would be a chain of possible interbreeding stretching from us to them. Ewww.

If you were to replace human genes with chimpanzee genes, one gene at a time, where will the resulting organism cease to be human? Dawkins echoes thoughts of mine about the pro-life crowd, that their beliefs are inconsistent with knowledge of evolutionary biology.

Our ethics and our politics assume, largely without question or serious discussion, that the division between human and ‘animal’ is absolute. ‘Pro-life’, to take just one example, is a potent political badge, associated with a gamut of ethical issues such as opposition to abortion and euthanasia.

What it really means is pro-human-life. Abortion clinic bombers are not known for their veganism, nor do Roman Catholics show any particular reluctance to have their suffering pets ‘put to sleep’. In the minds of many confused people, a single-celled human zygote, which has no nerves and cannot suffer, is infinitely sacred, simply because it is ‘human’. No other cells enjoy this exalted status.

And he also suggests that a human-chimp hybrid would not only change the way we see ourselves, but will occur. Do you think so? Would synthesizing such a being be immoral, indecent, or instead highly useful?

What do I think will change everything?

I agree with Alun Anderson that Biofuels will reshape international politics, although I do not agree that it will transform power from resource owners to innovators. Yes it will rob the money and power from oil-based economies (and dictatorships), but if you do not have the land to grow these biofuels, you will not be able to keep up like those that have the land to do so. It will be better in many ways, and certainly different.

But the innovation that I think will be a huge, exceedingly important innovation that will change the world, is the development of plants that fix their own nitrogen, eliminating the need for nitrogen fertilizers. Energy use will plummet, productivity will increase, and the negative environmental impacts of farming will go way down. It’s not a matter of if, because it is possible and it will happen. The issue is when, how, and whether we as a species will adopt it. The answers, I believe, are in my lifetime, with genetic engineering, and finally, yes.