Are we still human in the future?

Question

If humans are 99.5% identical to chimpanzees, and we start genetically engineering ourselves for, strengh, speed, intellegence, beauty, etc... and end up 80% identical to our starting point. arn't chimps more human then we are? since they are 99.5%?

Answer 1

Depends...

Biologically, if one group of humans become so reproductively isolated that they form a new species, then I don't think they can be called human (Homo saipien) at least on the biological level.

But on the psychological scale - they are just evolved humans, shouldn't they be classed as human anyway if they can still converse, and cooperate with normal humans?

Perhaps the umbrella term of biological humanoid will be more appropriate - this caters for all primates and future evolved humans (unless they look radically different in body shape)...

But nice question...very interesting.

Answer 2

That's assuming a static defintion of humanity. Most likely, the definition of what genetically makes someone human will evolve with us, as people would like to keep calling themselves more human than animals.

Answer 3

You bet. If we swapped out 20% of our genes, we would not look even remotely human. To engineer for all the best HUMAN qualities would requires changes to only a tiny, tiny fraction of 1 percent of our genes.

Answer 4

Generally, the evolution of traits will want to accentuate those aspects of being human that identify us as human which we value as advantages over other species. For example, our brains will become more powerful than now, The changes required for you to say that the new humans are so significantly different from the old humans compared to the present difference between humans and monkeys would have to be phenomenal, a step change.

For example, a new human (a transhuman) would have to not be able to mate with a human of today. That would be an important precondition for the affirmative answer to your question, so that there would need to be a species difference. Then the transhuman would need to have some new trait such as "reading the future" or "telepathy" and it would have to be demonstrated that this confers such advantage as to be much more significant than the current difference between human and monkey in terms of our ability to speak for example..
The mathematical abilities or computational abilities of these new evolved transhumans would have to be fantastic to dwarf in comparison the huge difference that already exists today in the brain of a human and an ape (we discovered most of the laws of physics, relativity and invented all sorts of things).

The business of percentages you bring distracts from these arguments because such percentages mean very little. First they relate to building blocks of genes not to the expression of the genes or phenotype. Next, differences are all relative to the measure, the norm one uses to measure them. That norm is a "value system". For example, my wife thinks that Beckam is better looking than me but to another woman that "difference" means less or she may see me as better looking. Differences are relative. We are talking about differences in phenotype. The genotype similarities and differences may not go as you say. It is quite possible to accentuate features a lot without significant changes to genes. For example the difference between 2 and 3 may be "small" relative to the number 6 but if the execution of genes, means that 2 and 3 are cubed but 6 is not then there is more significance to the difference between 2 and 3 than between any of those numbers and 6. Let me explain, so small key differences between genes can alter the execution of these genes (genes make proteins and enzymes). Although it is observed that the differences between genes of humans and apes is essentially zero (the percentage you brought up), some differences are crucially more important and critical making the phenotype or expression of these genes radically different between development of monkey and human. You see lots of things such as longer development resulting in more compartamentalised brain cortex, brain area, and all of the key differences that means I can pass a Latin exam and the monkey does not know what to do, or I can invent some new thing in a flash and the monkey is stuck in some solution for years, or I can speak and the monkey cannot. The genes are like subroutines but their order of execution is the key differentiator that is controlled by small but key differences between the genomes of monkey and human. You have to discuss where are these key differences to learn how to define "genetic similarity" how these differences are to be affect the resulting phenotype, this process is non-linear.

Answer 5

Interesting question. Let me think about it.

It is feasible if genes doubled, then changed in informational content and started to fill the genome.

Let us see what others think.

Answer 6

I don't know for sure, but I have a fake hip as well as missing (amputated) fingers and toes. So I guess I'm missing some of the "parts" that constitute a complete HomoSapiens. I wonder what that makes me, then . . .

Answer 7

well im a toatal christian so that puts things in way different perspective and i say that we are angels wen we die if we go to heavan

Answer 8

chimps aren't humans, they aren't as smart as humans, they're animals, and they don't have souls like humans. humans will always be humans, because that's how God created us! evolution is WRONG!!!!!