… you’ve got bits of bug in your DNA, and some of it is missing*.
These facts help appreciate the diversity of look and behaviour of humans, but looking deeper, it is the similarities in looks and behaviour, a.k.a. culture, which show that nurture is such a powerful influence on each of us.
Research published in Genome Biology suggest human beings have at least 145 genes picked up from other species – that’s why it’s fair to say we have a bit of bug and fungus in our constitution.
Now some might say that this evidence supports the rationale of genetic engineering. But those would be people making money from GM. A scientist without conflict knows that breeding is a hugely different, and natural, process compared to genetic modification.
The more relevant perspective offered by this data is that people’s behaviour is not so influenced by genes as by nurture. The community and culture in which we mature is far more influential to our behaviour – how we dress, what we eat, how we treat one another, how we live.
The future that is now slipping from homo sapiens’ grasp is the diverse and stimulating, in spirit as well as body, culture that enlightenment offers. The understanding of everything (you’ve heard of the theory of everything) is available and the resources to share the benefit of that understanding are present, BUT we all have to choose to move on.
It seems to be common sense, but somehow we continue to avoid the truths of our decadent modern age:- that civilisation is consuming nature.
Also see: The Economist: Genetically modified people.
* According to research that deduced the genetic code of the population of Iceland. BBC: DNA of ‘an entire nation’ assessed
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