Michael Ragland  wrote in message
news:b7knbi$1lu5$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
>
> Cute:)
>
> Michael Ragland
>
> Stephen Hawking quotes from Larry King LIve Weekend December 25, 1999,
> 9:00 ET
>
> "I think the biggest challenge we face is from our aggressive instincts.
> In caveman -- or caveperson days, these gave definite survival
> advantages and were imprinted in our genetic code by Darwinian natural
> selection. But with nuclear weapons, they threaten our destruction. We
> don't have time for Darwinian evolution to remove our aggression. We
> will have to use genetic engineering."
>
> "I think genetic engineering with humans is going to occur whether we
> like it or not. It will change our standard of what is human but it will
> be a gradual change because there's so much we don't know and because
> humans take time to grow up. We won't change much in the next 100 years
> but we might after that."
>

Yes. The gradual rate of development and implementation of GE
("gengineering") would make 1,000 to 10,000 year periods more
 reasonable spans for envisioning really significant resulting changes in
human society via GE (if humans survive that long--even
allowing for intersteller expansion.)

I would think on the time scale of 1k years, we will routinely gengineer
children for common genetic traits and diseases, and very
likely, allow
 clones and all forms of gene/gender pairings with surrogate mothers, oe
even including optional in-vitro and/or male "wombs."

On the scale of 10k years, we will have complete freedom in designing and
raising radically different kinds of "xenoformed"
quasi-human
 species. Morphology and internal structures of "humans" will be
specifically designed for living and functioning in the myriad
different ecosystems of different planets, including those with
ultrahigh/low gravities, atmospheric pressures, and those having
physically inimical ecosystems including commonly corrosive environments
(most all of these will require radical changes in
traditional human structure and function.)

Oh btw, on the scale of 10k to 100k years (or perhaps sooner), we will also
have achieved total biological immortality via GE.
.....tonyC
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