0:00:02.760,0:00:04.280
Here's a question that matters.

0:00:04.880,0:00:06.856
[Is it ethical to evolve the human body?]

0:00:06.880,0:00:10.376
Because we're beginning to get all[br]the tools together to evolve ourselves.

0:00:10.400,0:00:12.816
And we can evolve bacteria[br]and we can evolve plants

0:00:12.840,0:00:14.256
and we can evolve animals,

0:00:14.280,0:00:17.096
and we're now reaching a point[br]where we really have to ask,

0:00:17.120,0:00:19.960
is it really ethical[br]and do we want to evolve human beings?

0:00:21.440,0:00:23.336
And as you're thinking about that,

0:00:23.360,0:00:27.096
let me talk about that[br]in the context of prosthetics,

0:00:27.120,0:00:29.800
prosthetics past, present, future.

0:00:30.920,0:00:32.496
So this is the iron hand

0:00:32.520,0:00:34.856
that belonged to one of the German counts.

0:00:34.880,0:00:39.296
Loved to fight, lost his arm[br]in one of these battles.

0:00:39.320,0:00:41.776
No problem, he just made a suit of armor,

0:00:41.800,0:00:43.136
put it on,

0:00:43.160,0:00:44.416
perfect prosthetic.

0:00:44.440,0:00:48.360
That's where the concept[br]of ruling with an iron fist comes from.

0:00:49.600,0:00:53.056
And of course these prosthetics[br]have been getting more and more useful,

0:00:53.080,0:00:54.336
more and more modern.

0:00:54.360,0:00:56.816
You can hold soft-boiled eggs.

0:00:56.840,0:01:00.336
You can have all types of controls,[br]and as you're thinking about that,

0:01:00.360,0:01:02.376
there are wonderful people like Hugh Herr

0:01:02.400,0:01:05.239
who have been building[br]absolutely extraordinary prosthetics.

0:01:05.720,0:01:08.536
So the wonderful Aimee Mullins[br]will go out and say,

0:01:08.560,0:01:10.240
how tall do I want to be tonight?

0:01:11.040,0:01:13.936
Or Hugh will say what type of cliff[br]do I want to climb?

0:01:13.960,0:01:18.456
Or does somebody want to run a marathon,[br]or does somebody want to ballroom dance?

0:01:18.480,0:01:20.456
And as you adapt these things,

0:01:20.480,0:01:24.616
the interesting thing about prosthetics[br]is they've been coming inside the body.

0:01:24.640,0:01:27.616
So these external prosthetics[br]have now become artificial knees.

0:01:27.640,0:01:29.696
They've become artificial hips.

0:01:29.720,0:01:31.936
And then they've evolved further

0:01:31.960,0:01:33.976
to become not just nice to have

0:01:34.000,0:01:35.200
but essential to have.

0:01:35.920,0:01:39.776
So when you're talking[br]about a heart pacemaker as a prosthetic,

0:01:39.800,0:01:43.496
you're talking about something[br]that isn't just, "I'm missing my leg,"

0:01:43.520,0:01:45.936
it's, "if I don't have this, I can die."

0:01:45.960,0:01:50.056
And at that point, a prosthetic[br]becomes a symbiotic relationship

0:01:50.080,0:01:51.280
with the human body.

0:01:52.560,0:01:55.096
And four of the smartest people[br]that I've ever met --

0:01:55.120,0:02:00.376
Ed Boyden, Hugh Herr,[br]Joe Jacobson, Bob Lander --

0:02:00.400,0:02:02.976
are working on a Center[br]for Extreme Bionics.

0:02:03.000,0:02:05.616
And the interesting thing[br]of what you're seeing here is

0:02:05.640,0:02:08.056
these prosthetics[br]now get integrated into the bone.

0:02:08.080,0:02:09.735
They get integrated into the skin.

0:02:09.759,0:02:11.475
They get integrated into the muscle.

0:02:12.360,0:02:15.336
And one of the other sides of Ed

0:02:15.360,0:02:18.256
is he's been thinking[br]about how to connect the brain

0:02:18.280,0:02:20.976
using light or other mechanisms

0:02:21.000,0:02:23.280
directly to things like these prosthetics.

0:02:24.520,0:02:25.776
And if you can do that,

0:02:25.800,0:02:29.000
then you can begin changing[br]fundamental aspects of humanity.

0:02:29.840,0:02:33.840
So how quickly you react to something[br]depends on the diameter of a nerve.

0:02:34.920,0:02:38.800
And of course, if you have nerves[br]that are external or prosthetic,

0:02:39.600,0:02:41.480
say with light or liquid metal,

0:02:42.280,0:02:43.976
then you can increase that diameter

0:02:44.000,0:02:47.056
and you could even increase it[br]theoretically to the point where,

0:02:47.080,0:02:51.120
as long as you could see the muzzle flash,[br]you could step out of the way of a bullet.

0:02:51.840,0:02:54.960
Those are the order of magnitude[br]of changes you're talking about.

0:02:56.200,0:02:58.776
This is a fourth[br]sort of level of prosthetics.

0:02:58.800,0:03:01.336
These are Phonak hearing aids,

0:03:01.360,0:03:03.416
and the reason[br]why these are so interesting

0:03:03.440,0:03:06.856
is because they cross the threshold[br]from where prosthetics are something

0:03:06.880,0:03:08.309
for somebody who is "disabled"

0:03:09.560,0:03:13.616
and they become something[br]that somebody who is "normal"

0:03:13.640,0:03:15.536
might want to actually have,

0:03:15.560,0:03:18.536
because what this prosthetic does,[br]which is really interesting,

0:03:18.560,0:03:20.216
is not only does it help you hear,

0:03:20.240,0:03:21.576
you can focus your hearing,

0:03:21.600,0:03:24.056
so it can hear the conversation[br]going on over there.

0:03:24.080,0:03:25.336
You can have superhearing.

0:03:25.360,0:03:28.296
You can have hearing in 360 degrees.[br]You can have white noise.

0:03:28.320,0:03:31.520
You can record, and oh, by the way,[br]they also put a phone into this.

0:03:32.440,0:03:35.320
So this functions as your hearing aid[br]and also as your phone.

0:03:35.920,0:03:41.080
And at that point, somebody might actually[br]want to have a prosthetic voluntarily.

0:03:42.400,0:03:45.096
All of these thousands[br]of loosely connected little pieces

0:03:45.120,0:03:46.320
are coming together,

0:03:47.120,0:03:49.056
and it's about time we ask the question,

0:03:49.080,0:03:52.240
how do we want to evolve human beings[br]over the next century or two?

0:03:53.640,0:03:55.680
And for that we turn[br]to a great philosopher

0:03:56.920,0:03:59.976
who was a very smart man[br]despite being a Yankee fan.

0:04:00.000,0:04:01.880
(Laughter)

0:04:02.800,0:04:06.616
And Yogi Berra used to say, of course,[br]that it's very tough to make predictions,

0:04:06.640,0:04:08.016
especially about the future.

0:04:08.040,0:04:09.136
(Laughter)

0:04:09.160,0:04:12.216
So instead of making a prediction[br]about the future to begin with,

0:04:12.240,0:04:15.576
let's take what's happening in the present[br]with people like Tony Atala,

0:04:15.600,0:04:17.839
who is redesigning 30-some-odd organs.

0:04:19.200,0:04:22.776
And maybe the ultimate prosthetic[br]isn't having something external, titanium.

0:04:22.800,0:04:25.496
Maybe the ultimate prosthetic[br]is take your own gene code,

0:04:25.520,0:04:26.840
remake your own body parts,

0:04:27.920,0:04:31.520
because that's a whole lot more effective[br]than any kind of a prosthetic.

0:04:32.440,0:04:36.456
But while you're at it, then you can take[br]the work of Craig Venter and Ham Smith.

0:04:36.480,0:04:38.536
And one of the things[br]that we've been doing

0:04:38.560,0:04:41.120
is trying to figure out[br]how to reprogram cells.

0:04:42.280,0:04:43.856
And if you can reprogram a cell,

0:04:43.880,0:04:46.120
then you can change the cells[br]in those organs.

0:04:47.400,0:04:49.616
So if you can change[br]the cells in those organs,

0:04:49.640,0:04:52.136
maybe you make those organs[br]more radiation-resistant.

0:04:52.160,0:04:54.056
Maybe you make them absorb more oxygen.

0:04:54.080,0:04:55.736
Maybe you make them more efficient

0:04:55.760,0:04:58.240
to filter out stuff[br]that you don't want in your body.

0:04:59.440,0:05:03.096
And over the last few weeks,[br]George Church has been in the news a lot

0:05:03.120,0:05:06.416
because he's been talking about taking[br]one of these programmable cells

0:05:06.440,0:05:08.176
and inserting an entire human genome

0:05:08.200,0:05:09.400
into that cell.

0:05:10.480,0:05:14.296
And once you can insert[br]an entire human genome into a cell,

0:05:14.320,0:05:16.456
then you begin to ask the question,

0:05:16.480,0:05:19.160
would you want[br]to enhance any of that genome?

0:05:21.440,0:05:23.776
Do you want to enhance a human body?

0:05:23.800,0:05:26.096
How would you want[br]to enhance a human body?

0:05:26.120,0:05:28.216
Where is it ethical[br]to enhance a human body

0:05:28.240,0:05:31.496
and where is it not ethical[br]to enhance a human body?

0:05:31.520,0:05:33.416
And all of a sudden, what we're doing

0:05:33.440,0:05:36.376
is we've got this[br]multidimensional chess board

0:05:36.400,0:05:39.656
where we can change[br]human genetics by using viruses

0:05:39.680,0:05:41.120
to attack things like AIDS,

0:05:42.120,0:05:44.536
or we can change the gene code[br]through gene therapy

0:05:44.560,0:05:47.496
to do away with some hereditary diseases,

0:05:47.520,0:05:49.136
or we can change the environment,

0:05:49.160,0:05:51.827
and change the expression[br]of those genes in the epigenome

0:05:51.851,0:05:53.811
and pass that on to the next generations.

0:05:55.320,0:05:58.456
And all of a sudden,[br]it's not just one little bit,

0:05:58.480,0:06:00.336
it's all these stacked little bits

0:06:00.360,0:06:02.440
that allow you[br]to take little portions of it

0:06:03.280,0:06:05.280
until all the portions coming together

0:06:06.160,0:06:08.240
lead you to something[br]that's very different.

0:06:09.600,0:06:12.336
And a lot of people[br]are very scared by this stuff.

0:06:12.360,0:06:15.280
And it does sound scary,[br]and there are risks to this stuff.

0:06:16.040,0:06:18.736
So why in the world would you[br]ever want to do this stuff?

0:06:18.760,0:06:21.776
Why would we really want[br]to alter the human body

0:06:21.800,0:06:23.000
in a fundamental way?

0:06:25.040,0:06:27.336
The answer lies in part

0:06:27.360,0:06:28.560
with Lord Rees,

0:06:29.240,0:06:30.920
astronomer royal of Great Britain.

0:06:32.560,0:06:36.376
And one of his favorite sayings[br]is the universe is 100 percent malevolent.

0:06:36.400,0:06:37.616
So what does that mean?

0:06:37.640,0:06:40.536
It means if you take[br]any one of your bodies at random,

0:06:40.560,0:06:42.456
drop it anywhere in the universe,

0:06:42.480,0:06:44.200
drop it in space, you die.

0:06:44.720,0:06:46.096
Drop it on the Sun, you die.

0:06:46.120,0:06:48.136
Drop it on the surface[br]of Mercury, you die.

0:06:48.160,0:06:49.800
Drop it near a supernova, you die.

0:06:50.240,0:06:53.360
But fortunately, it's only[br]about 80 percent effective.

0:06:54.640,0:06:56.680
So as a great physicist once said,

0:06:58.000,0:07:02.136
there's these little[br]upstream eddies of biology

0:07:02.160,0:07:06.800
that create order[br]in this rapid torrent of entropy.

0:07:08.080,0:07:11.056
So as the universe dissipates energy,

0:07:11.080,0:07:14.560
there's these upstream eddies[br]that create biological order.

0:07:15.960,0:07:18.376
Now, the problem with eddies is,

0:07:18.400,0:07:19.896
they tend to disappear.

0:07:19.920,0:07:21.800
They shift. They move in rivers.

0:07:22.680,0:07:24.656
And because of that, when an eddy shifts,

0:07:24.680,0:07:28.216
when the Earth becomes a snowball,[br]when the Earth becomes very hot,

0:07:28.240,0:07:31.496
when the Earth gets hit by an asteroid,[br]when you have supervolcanoes,

0:07:31.520,0:07:33.376
when you have solar flares,

0:07:33.400,0:07:36.736
when you have potentially[br]extinction-level events

0:07:36.760,0:07:37.976
like the next election --

0:07:38.000,0:07:40.160
(Laughter)

0:07:41.440,0:07:44.680
then all of a sudden,[br]you can have periodic extinctions.

0:07:45.400,0:07:47.840
And by the way, that's happened[br]five times on Earth,

0:07:48.360,0:07:50.456
and therefore it is very likely

0:07:50.480,0:07:53.520
that the human species on Earth[br]is going to go extinct someday.

0:07:54.440,0:07:55.936
Not next week,

0:07:55.960,0:07:57.776
not next month,

0:07:57.800,0:08:00.680
maybe in November,[br]but maybe 10,000 years after that.

0:08:01.880,0:08:04.696
As you're thinking[br]of the consequence of that,

0:08:04.720,0:08:08.136
if you believe that extinctions[br]are common and natural

0:08:08.160,0:08:10.456
and normal and occur periodically,

0:08:10.480,0:08:13.360
it becomes a moral imperative[br]to diversify our species.

0:08:14.520,0:08:16.136
And it becomes a moral imperative

0:08:16.160,0:08:19.136
because it's going to be[br]really hard to live on Mars

0:08:19.160,0:08:21.880
if we don't fundamentally[br]modify the human body.

0:08:22.880,0:08:24.096
Right?

0:08:24.120,0:08:25.456
You go from one cell,

0:08:25.480,0:08:27.696
mom and dad coming together[br]to make one cell,

0:08:27.720,0:08:29.896
in a cascade to 10 trillion cells.

0:08:29.920,0:08:34.376
We don't know, if you change[br]the gravity substantially,

0:08:34.400,0:08:36.880
if the same thing will happen[br]to create your body.

0:08:38.159,0:08:41.216
We do know that if you expose[br]our bodies as they currently are

0:08:41.240,0:08:43.360
to a lot of radiation, we will die.

0:08:45.040,0:08:48.096
So as you're thinking of that,[br]you have to really redesign things

0:08:48.120,0:08:49.376
just to get to Mars.

0:08:49.400,0:08:52.320
Forget about the moons[br]of Neptune or Jupiter.

0:08:53.000,0:08:55.456
And to borrow from Nikolai Kardashev,

0:08:55.480,0:08:57.656
let's think about life[br]in a series of scales.

0:08:57.680,0:09:00.176
So Life One civilization

0:09:00.200,0:09:03.200
is a civilization that begins[br]to alter his or her looks.

0:09:04.080,0:09:06.376
And we've been doing that[br]for thousands of years.

0:09:06.400,0:09:09.560
You've got tummy tucks[br]and you've got this and you've got that.

0:09:10.280,0:09:12.696
You alter your looks, and I'm told

0:09:12.720,0:09:16.040
that not all of those alterations[br]take place for medical reasons.

0:09:16.680,0:09:18.736
(Laughter)

0:09:18.760,0:09:19.960
Seems odd.

0:09:20.360,0:09:22.880
A Life Two civilization[br]is a different civilization.

0:09:24.320,0:09:28.880
A Life Two civilization alters[br]fundamental aspects of the body.

0:09:29.840,0:09:32.696
So you put human growth hormone in,[br]the person grows taller,

0:09:32.720,0:09:36.656
or you put x in and the person[br]gets fatter or loses metabolism

0:09:36.680,0:09:38.296
or does a whole series of things,

0:09:38.320,0:09:41.016
but you're altering the functions[br]in a fundamental way.

0:09:41.040,0:09:43.656
To become an intrasolar civilization,

0:09:43.680,0:09:46.400
we're going to have to create[br]a Life Three civilization,

0:09:47.720,0:09:50.320
and that looks very different[br]from what we've got here.

0:09:50.840,0:09:53.056
Maybe you splice in[br]Deinococcus radiodurans

0:09:53.080,0:09:57.200
so that the cells can resplice[br]after a lot of exposure to radiation.

0:09:58.320,0:10:01.336
Maybe you breathe by having oxygen[br]flow through your blood

0:10:01.360,0:10:02.800
instead of through your lungs.

0:10:03.600,0:10:06.320
But you're talking about[br]really radical redesigns,

0:10:07.480,0:10:10.696
and one of the interesting things[br]that's happened in the last decade

0:10:10.720,0:10:13.456
is we've discovered[br]a whole lot of planets out there.

0:10:13.480,0:10:15.160
And some of them may be Earth-like.

0:10:17.440,0:10:21.056
The problem is, if we ever[br]want to get to these planets,

0:10:21.080,0:10:22.736
the fastest human objects --

0:10:22.760,0:10:25.336
Juno and Voyager[br]and the rest of this stuff --

0:10:25.360,0:10:27.856
take tens of thousands of years

0:10:27.880,0:10:30.000
to get from here[br]to the nearest solar system.

0:10:30.720,0:10:33.680
So if you want to start exploring[br]beaches somewhere else,

0:10:34.400,0:10:36.800
or you want to see two-sun sunsets,

0:10:37.840,0:10:40.976
then you're talking[br]about something that is very different,

0:10:41.000,0:10:46.056
because you have to change[br]the timescale and the body of humans

0:10:46.080,0:10:49.000
in ways which may be[br]absolutely unrecognizable.

0:10:50.000,0:10:51.840
And that's a Life Four civilization.

0:10:53.720,0:10:56.656
Now, we can't even begin[br]to imagine what that might look like,

0:10:56.680,0:10:59.016
but we're beginning to get glimpses

0:10:59.040,0:11:02.400
of instruments that might[br]take us even that far.

0:11:02.960,0:11:04.576
And let me give you two examples.

0:11:04.600,0:11:06.553
So this is the wonderful Floyd Romesberg,

0:11:07.200,0:11:09.336
and one of the things[br]that Floyd's been doing

0:11:09.360,0:11:11.896
is he's been playing[br]with the basic chemistry of life.

0:11:11.920,0:11:16.776
So all life on this planet[br]is made in ATCGs, the four letters of DNA.

0:11:16.800,0:11:19.936
All bacteria, all plants,[br]all animals, all humans, all cows,

0:11:19.960,0:11:21.160
everything else.

0:11:22.440,0:11:26.616
And what Floyd did is he changed out[br]two of those base pairs,

0:11:26.640,0:11:28.160
so it's ATXY.

0:11:29.760,0:11:35.456
And that means that you now have[br]a parallel system to make life,

0:11:35.480,0:11:39.776
to make babies, to reproduce, to evolve,

0:11:39.800,0:11:41.976
that doesn't mate[br]with most things on Earth

0:11:42.000,0:11:43.880
or in fact maybe with nothing on Earth.

0:11:44.880,0:11:47.416
Maybe you make plants[br]that are immune to all bacteria.

0:11:47.440,0:11:49.936
Maybe you make plants[br]that are immune to all viruses.

0:11:49.960,0:11:51.496
But why is that so interesting?

0:11:51.520,0:11:54.680
It means that we[br]are not a unique solution.

0:11:55.400,0:11:59.136
It means you can create[br]alternate chemistries to us

0:11:59.160,0:12:03.976
that could be chemistries[br]adaptable to a very different planet

0:12:04.000,0:12:06.360
that could create life and heredity.

0:12:08.120,0:12:09.360
The second experiment,

0:12:10.480,0:12:12.560
or the other implication[br]of this experiment,

0:12:13.360,0:12:17.576
is that all of you, all life[br]is based on 20 amino acids.

0:12:17.600,0:12:20.056
If you don't substitute two amino acids,

0:12:20.080,0:12:25.656
if you don't say ATXY,[br]if you say ATCG + XY,

0:12:25.680,0:12:28.440
then you go from[br]20 building blocks to 172,

0:12:29.520,0:12:32.656
and all of a sudden you've got[br]172 building blocks of amino acids

0:12:32.680,0:12:35.480
to build life-forms[br]in very different shapes.

0:12:37.480,0:12:40.536
The second experiment to think about[br]is a really weird experiment

0:12:40.560,0:12:42.640
that's been taking place in China.

0:12:43.920,0:12:47.960
So this guy has been transplanting[br]hundreds of mouse heads.

0:12:48.920,0:12:50.296
Right?

0:12:50.320,0:12:52.400
And why is that an interesting experiment?

0:12:53.440,0:12:55.496
Well, think of the first[br]heart transplants.

0:12:55.520,0:12:57.136
One of the things they used to do

0:12:57.160,0:13:00.696
is they used to bring in[br]the wife or the daughter of the donor

0:13:00.720,0:13:04.616
so the donee could tell the doctors,

0:13:04.640,0:13:07.256
"Do you recognize this person?[br]Do you love this person?

0:13:07.280,0:13:09.136
Do you feel anything for this person?"

0:13:09.160,0:13:10.640
We laugh about that today.

0:13:11.560,0:13:13.776
We laugh because we know[br]the heart is a muscle,

0:13:13.800,0:13:17.296
but for hundreds of thousands of years,[br]or tens of thousands of years,

0:13:17.320,0:13:20.216
"I gave her my heart.[br]She took my heart. She broke my heart."

0:13:20.240,0:13:21.616
We thought this was emotion

0:13:21.640,0:13:24.880
and we thought maybe emotions[br]were transplanted with the heart. Nope.

0:13:26.000,0:13:27.480
So how about the brain?

0:13:29.040,0:13:31.120
Two possible outcomes to this experiment.

0:13:31.880,0:13:34.296
If you can get a mouse

0:13:34.320,0:13:35.936
that is functional,

0:13:35.960,0:13:37.160
then you can see,

0:13:38.040,0:13:39.640
is the new brain a blank slate?

0:13:41.280,0:13:43.320
And boy, does that have implications.

0:13:45.120,0:13:46.320
Second option:

0:13:46.800,0:13:48.920
the new mouse recognizes Minnie Mouse.

0:13:49.760,0:13:51.856
The new mouse[br]remembers what it's afraid of,

0:13:51.880,0:13:53.576
remembers how to navigate the maze,

0:13:53.600,0:13:54.800
and if that is true,

0:13:56.040,0:13:59.360
then you can transplant[br]memory and consciousness.

0:14:01.080,0:14:03.496
And then the really[br]interesting question is,

0:14:03.520,0:14:07.456
if you can transplant this,[br]is the only input-output mechanism

0:14:07.480,0:14:08.680
this down here?

0:14:09.440,0:14:12.136
Or could you transplant[br]that consciousness into something

0:14:12.160,0:14:14.136
that would be very different,

0:14:14.160,0:14:15.416
that would last in space,

0:14:15.440,0:14:17.496
that would last[br]tens of thousands of years,

0:14:17.520,0:14:19.520
that would be a completely redesigned body

0:14:19.544,0:14:23.224
that could hold consciousness[br]for a long, long period of time?

0:14:26.040,0:14:28.080
And let's come back to the first question:

0:14:28.560,0:14:30.440
Why would you ever want to do that?

0:14:32.320,0:14:33.576
Well, I'll tell you why.

0:14:33.600,0:14:35.320
Because this is the ultimate selfie.

0:14:36.000,0:14:37.800
(Laughter)

0:14:38.440,0:14:41.000
This is taken from six billion miles away,

0:14:42.040,0:14:43.240
and that's Earth.

0:14:44.800,0:14:46.000
And that's all of us.

0:14:47.240,0:14:50.760
And if that little thing goes,[br]all of humanity goes.

0:14:52.320,0:14:54.536
And the reason you want[br]to alter the human body

0:14:54.560,0:14:57.336
is because you eventually[br]want a picture that says,

0:14:57.360,0:14:59.296
that's us, and that's us,

0:14:59.320,0:15:00.736
and that's us,

0:15:00.760,0:15:03.880
because that's the way humanity[br]survives long-term extinction.

0:15:05.440,0:15:07.696
And that's the reason why it turns out

0:15:07.720,0:15:11.656
it's actually unethical[br]not to evolve the human body

0:15:11.680,0:15:15.016
even though it can be scary,[br]even though it can be challenging,

0:15:15.040,0:15:18.416
but it's what's going[br]to allow us to explore, live

0:15:18.440,0:15:20.960
and get to places[br]we can't even dream of today,

0:15:21.760,0:15:25.496
but which our great-great-great-great-[br]grandchildren might someday.

0:15:25.520,0:15:26.736
Thank you very much.

0:15:26.760,0:15:32.280
(Applause)