We are effectively screwing the human genome.

Now, I’m not saying that I don’t have respect for human life or anything, just keep that in mind through this article. But our new advancements as a race has now all but stopped the process of evolution.

Point 1: What’s Supposed to Happen

The Darwinian process of evolution is supposed to proceed something like as follows:

1. Mutations occur naturally during the process of meiosis or early on in mitotic cell division of a newly formed zygote. The newly formed genes cause new traits to appear in the organism or the offspring created with the cells. These traits are either beneficial, and cause something that may advance the species, or they are harmful, and they cause a disorder within the organism. Mutations are also often harmless.

2. The process of natural selection begins. With the factors of climate and terrain of the area in which the organism lives, along with the factor of predation, natural elimination occurs. Organisms with genetic disorder die either through being unable to withstand the conditions in which it lives, by being an easier target for predators, or by being a worse hunter. Organisms whose mutations are beneficial usually have a better chance of survival due to any of the following:

• Superior camouflage
• Better adapted to environmental conditions
• Able to better escape predators (ex. faster)
• Able to better pursue or capture prey (ex. abnormal appendages, stealth)
• Able to survive in a different type of nearby environment

3. The process continues, and from it new types of species are formed, and particularly ineffective species become extinct. THIS IS NOT ALWAYS HOW IT WORKS. Species may occasionally be killed off or reduced in numbers by a natural disaster, which includes disease and bad weather, or climate change.

Point 2: Medicine

There are abnormally large quantities of genetic disorders, STD’s, and other inherited problems present in today’s world. There’s a reason for that, and it’s called medicine.

Like I mentioned before, I am in no way against the preservation of human life, but it is a fact that many of the inherited disorders around today exist because we so well keep people alive, and allow them to have sex. Hell, I’m not for the deprivation of that either, but I mean really. Many of the disorders that people are born with these days can be fixed through either medication or surgery, and these people would otherwise die.

The disorders don’t affect personality or looks, and even then you never know the kind of sexual partner some look for. As a result, these disorders get passed on to the next generation, which wouldn’t have happened had nature solved the problem with its common cure: Death. We are defying nature.

We complain so much about AIDS and STD rates in all sorts of places. Herpes is Herpes, it does what it will, but HIV could have been killed off like many other diseases if only it had appeared in africa a thousand years earlier. Anyone who got it would die. Anyone who managed to get through it would likely have their offspring killed by it shortly after birth. Mind you, this is strictly expository and much less opinionative, but these are common and they shouldn’t be.

Point 3: Predation Elimination

One of the most common disorders in the world right now is impaired vision. People are born with abnormalities in the cornea, which result in myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatisms. These people have impaired vision, which is corrected by modern day technology through glasses.

HOWEVER. Back before humans were the dominant race, one who could not properly see would either be taken out during hunting or in an accident. They would have died, and the gene would not have been passed on. We’ve all heard the joke “ever seen a rabbit wearing glasses?” There’s a reason you don’t. It’s because the ones that would need them are the easiest to eat.

Another common disorder: asthma. It occurs quite frequently in people today. We have issues with breathing, and medicine can solve them. But back in the day, an asthmatic would have easily been picked off by predators when they tried to run and found themselves short of breath. Asthma would be discontinued.

As humans we have now asserted ourselves so high in the food chain that animals can rarely ever compete. The only things that regularly kill us now are ourselves. We kill each other, and we don’t kill based on ease. In fact, we do just the opposite. We feel bad about preying on the weak, and as a result, the STRONGER die. We lose the best of our genome to murder with few of these men ever reproducing prior to their death.

We are decaying as a people because we let disorder slide and kill most of the perfect. So what are we gonna do?