This article is about the futurist ideology and movement. For the biochemical technique, seeDirected evolution.
Gustave Moreau'sPrometheus (1868)
The termdirected evolution is used within thetranshumanist community to refer to the idea of applying the principles ofdirected evolution andexperimental evolution to the control of human evolution.[1] Law professor Maxwell Mehlman has said that "for transhumanists, directed evolution is likened to the Holy Grail".[1]
Riccardo Campa of theIEET wrote that "self-directed evolution" can be coupled with many different political, philosophical, and religious views within the transhumanist movement.[2]
UCLA biophysicist and entrepreneurGregory Stock has defended the concept, saying in 1999 that "the human species is moving out of its childhood. It is time to acknowledge our growing powers and begin to take responsibility for them."[4]
Participant evolution is an alternative term that refers to the process of deliberately redesigning thehuman body andbrain usingtechnological means, rather than through the natural processes ofmutation andnatural selection, with the goal of removing "biological limitations" and human enhancement.[5][6][7][8][9][10][excessive citations] The idea was first put forward byManfred Clynes andNathan S. Kline in the 1960s in their articleCyborgs and Space, where they argued that the human species was already on a path of participant evolution.[11]
^"Manfred Clynes and the Cyborg".by Chris Hables Gray. Archived fromthe original on April 19, 2005. RetrievedJune 12, 2005. which in turn cites an interview with Manfred E. Clynes in Gray, Mentor, and Figueroa-Sarriera (1995).The Cyborg Handbook. New York:Routledge.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) pages 29–34, which in turn cites Clynes, Manfred E. & Nathan S. Kline (1960)."Cyborgs and Space"(PDF).Astronautics. September: 26–27 and 74–75.
