Mutant Minds Want To Know
So, Gilding is pondering…
Olivia Judson for the New York Times wrote on performing an impossible experiment in Stop the Mutants!. Experimental ponderance of stopping mutation aside, it was this statement that brought to forefront this question. Judson wrote:
“Since there’s so much pre-existing variation, getting rid of mutation wouldn’t cause evolution to grind to a halt until all the meaningful genetic variation ran out, leaving everyone in a population with the same sets of genes.”
So Gilding wonders, is it possible for humans to breed themselves into a state of non-evolution, a state at which evolution can no longer occur? Seriously, ponder it. If mutation occurs because of “accidental changes to DNA” which “provide the raw material for evolution”, could the human race through procreation of interracially mixed offspring at some point cause all meainingful genetic variation to run out, therefore, putting a halt to evolution?
Certainly its probably improbable, but is it impossible?
Above Image: part of an installation sculpture entitled We Are Family by Australian artist Patricia Piccinini
