May 01, 2004
Of course, none of these treatments will be passed along to offspring. You will have to leave money in your will for your children's hair-follicle implants and other improvements. If you had your DNA altered, however, it would be a different story. Scientists are currently looking at ways to manipulate genes to cure or prevent inherited diseases like sickle cell anemia and diabetes. Once the technology is refined, what is to prevent the eternally vain from finding cures for such traits as weak chins and lumpy noses? Could we then be on our way toward evolving into a race of supermodels?
The kind of evolution that took man from knuckle-walker to biped is over, according to Peter D. Ward, a paleontologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and author of ''Future Evolution.'' ''Evolution only works through survival of the fittest, and today everyone survives,'' he explains. The only natural change he sees occurring is in skin color. As more and more people mate across geographical and cultural lines, ''melanin will be mixed more -- man will be a nice light-chocolate brown.''
Ward can imagine, however, an evolutionary change coming from ''a genetically managed person,'' someone who has, through gene tampering, increased his productive span as much as 200 years. It would take a wealthy person in the first place to be able to afford this process, who then, instead of having three decades of productive earning, could have ''100 years of earning capital.'' He could produce and support 30 children, who would inherit his longevity if he mated with a similarly genetically-enhanced female, and presumably he would choose to mate with only another of his kind. Since a species becomes distinct when it can no longer breed with those outside the species, Ward says, the big question is, ''Will we remain one species?''
Suddenly F. Scott Fitzgerald's observation about the very rich -- ''They are different from you and me'' -- takes on a new and chilling dimension.