WGS 2018: Juan Enriquez Explores Post-Humanism And Being Human In The Next Century

At the sixth World Government Summit (WGS 2018), Juan Enriquez, eminent futurist and author of Evolving Ourselves, a paradigm-shifting account of how evolution is no longer driven just by nature but also by human choices, explored the possibilities of what the future could hold for humanity.

In his session titled “The Evolution of Humans in the Next Century”, Enriquez told a riveted audience about a new world order where humans would be able to shape not only their environments, but also themselves and other species. “Half of life on earth is not a result of natural selection. We designed it that way – it is not nature choosing,” he explained. “For example, we have been engineering crop and breeding animals for a very long time, and we are now at a point in time where we will be starting to engineer our own bodies.”

Pointing to the speed of progress and innovation in bio-sciences in particular, he observed that “our ability to edit genomics and life forms is becoming very sophisticated, very quickly.”

He also examined where the next stage of evolution for humanity will come from, identifying computer sciences, artificial intelligence and biosciences as sectors set to drive this change as well as undergo drastic change as a result.

In addition, he forecast the direction in which post-humanism should take humanity, and said: “At heart, we are explorers. We are not adapted to life in space, and there was no evolutionary pressure for us to adapt to it. We have to take control of evolution to become space travelers and ensure we are fit to leave the solar system if we want our species to survive.”