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Juan Enriquez, The Future of Humankind

Published on17 NOV 2017
Topic:
Science

Futurist Juan Enriquez, co-founder and managing director of Excel Venture Management, argues that humans are reshaping the path of evolution through “unnatural selection,” in the form of genetic science and various human actions. In this discussion at the 2017 Goldman Sachs EMEA CEO Forum in London, Enriquez discusses some of the positive outcomes of this shift and why “there’s no better time to be alive than today, except in two generations, because that’s going to be cooler.”

On the power of “unnatural selection:” “One of my greatest heroes is Charles Darwin. He did everything in a coherent way and he explained how life on earth is created and I say this with the greatest respect, we are now changing his theory… Deciding half of what lives and dies on earth and what the gene code of that stuff is going to do, that’s a superpower. And we’re just getting used to this idea and that’s going to have consequences. It’s going to be the single biggest drive of the global economy over the next century. And it also might have a couple of ethical, moral and political implications.”

On the prospects of curing cancer: “Almost all cancers I think will be solved, but I also want you to understand the consequence of cancer being solved, is our grandkids are going to look at us like absolute savages.… We think we’re really smart. We’re really technologically advanced. No. This adventure’s just starting and it’s a spectacular adventure. Right? There’s no better time to be alive than today, except in two generations, because that’s going to be cooler.”

 

 


 

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