Genetic Engineering and the Speciation of Superions from Humans

Abstract

Using ideas from evolution and postformal stages of hierarchical complexity, a hypothetical scenario, premised on genetic engineering advances, portrays the development of a new humanoid species, Superions. How would Superions impact and treat current humans? If the Superion scenario came to pass, it would be the ultimate genocidal terrorism of eliminating an entire species, Homo Sapiens. We speculate about defenses Homo Sapiens might mount. The tasks to relate two species (systems) constitutes a postformal, Metasystematic task. Developing a system of discourse to prevent destruction requires postformal Paradigmaticstage tasks. Implications are twofold: species survival and sufficient evolution to survive.This article presents a hypothetical scenario in which a new humanoid species, which we will call Superions, is created, and eventually current human species, Homo Sapiens, dies out. Because the extinction would be caused by the creation and repercussions of Superions' existence, it could not be considered "natural" per se, but closer to species cleansing. Our purpose is to examine the processes and impacts that may come into play if a new species were genetically created from current humans. Creating life forms with particular characteristics is already taking place. As a result it seems likely in the near future that some scientists will begin to genetically engineer human beings with much more superior capacities than have yet been attempted. The scenario uses ideas from evolutionary psychology (Buss, 1999) and the Model of Hierarchical Complexity to project into the future these interesting challenges.