ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Juan Enriquez - Futurist
Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will bring in business, technology, politics and society.

Why you should listen

A broad thinker who studies the intersections of these fields, Enriquez has a talent for bridging disciplines to build a coherent look ahead. He is the managing director of Excel Venture Management, a life sciences VC firm. He recently published (with Steve Gullans) Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation Are Shaping Life on Earth. The book describes a world where humans increasingly shape their environment, themselves and other species.

Enriquez is a member of the board of Synthetic Genomics, which recently introduced the smallest synthetic living cell. Called “JCVI-syn 3.0,” it has 473 genes (about half the previous smallest cell). The organism would die if one of the genes is removed. In other words, this is the minimum genetic instruction set for a living organism.

More profile about the speaker
Juan Enriquez | Speaker | TED.com
TEDSummit

Juan Enriquez: What will humans look like in 100 years?

Filmed:
3,026,029 views

We can evolve bacteria, plants and animals -- futurist Juan Enriquez asks: Is it ethical to evolve the human body? In a visionary talk that ranges from medieval prosthetics to present day neuroengineering and genetics, Enriquez sorts out the ethics associated with evolving humans and imagines the ways we'll have to transform our own bodies if we hope to explore and live in places other than Earth.
- Futurist
Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will bring in business, technology, politics and society. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:14
Here's a question that matters.
0
2760
1520
00:16
[Is it ethical to evolve the human body?]
1
4880
1976
00:18
Because we're beginning to get all
the tools together to evolve ourselves.
2
6880
3496
00:22
And we can evolve bacteria
and we can evolve plants
3
10400
2416
00:24
and we can evolve animals,
4
12840
1416
00:26
and we're now reaching a point
where we really have to ask,
5
14280
2816
00:29
is it really ethical
and do we want to evolve human beings?
6
17120
2840
00:33
And as you're thinking about that,
7
21440
1896
00:35
let me talk about that
in the context of prosthetics,
8
23360
3736
00:39
prosthetics past, present, future.
9
27120
2680
00:42
So this is the iron hand
10
30920
1576
00:44
that belonged to one of the German counts.
11
32520
2336
00:46
Loved to fight, lost his arm
in one of these battles.
12
34880
4416
00:51
No problem, he just made a suit of armor,
13
39320
2456
00:53
put it on,
14
41800
1336
00:55
perfect prosthetic.
15
43160
1256
00:56
That's where the concept
of ruling with an iron fist comes from.
16
44440
3920
01:01
And of course these prosthetics
have been getting more and more useful,
17
49600
3456
01:05
more and more modern.
18
53080
1256
01:06
You can hold soft-boiled eggs.
19
54360
2456
01:08
You can have all types of controls,
and as you're thinking about that,
20
56840
3496
01:12
there are wonderful people like Hugh Herr
21
60360
2016
01:14
who have been building
absolutely extraordinary prosthetics.
22
62400
2839
01:17
So the wonderful Aimee Mullins
will go out and say,
23
65720
2816
01:20
how tall do I want to be tonight?
24
68560
1680
01:23
Or he will say what type of cliff
do I want to climb?
25
71040
2896
01:25
Or does somebody want to run a marathon,
or does somebody want to ballroom dance?
26
73960
4496
01:30
And as you adapt these things,
27
78480
1976
01:32
the interesting thing about prosthetics
is they've been coming inside the body.
28
80480
4136
01:36
So these external prosthetics
have now become artificial knees.
29
84640
2976
01:39
They've become artificial hips.
30
87640
2056
01:41
And then they've evolved further
31
89720
2216
01:43
to become not just nice to have
32
91960
2016
01:46
but essential to have.
33
94000
1200
01:47
So when you're talking
about a heart pacemaker as a prosthetic,
34
95920
3856
01:51
you're talking about something
that isn't just, "I'm missing my leg,"
35
99800
3696
01:55
it's, "if I don't have this, I can die."
36
103520
2416
01:57
And at that point, a prosthetic
becomes a symbiotic relationship
37
105960
4096
02:02
with the human body.
38
110080
1200
02:04
And four of the smartest people
that I've ever met --
39
112560
2536
02:07
Ed Boyden, Hugh Herr,
Joe Jacobson, Bob Lander --
40
115120
5256
02:12
are working on a Center
for Extreme Bionics.
41
120400
2576
02:15
And the interesting thing
of what you're seeing here is
42
123000
2616
02:17
these prosthetics
now get integrated into the bone.
43
125640
2416
02:20
They get integrated into the skin.
44
128080
1655
02:21
They get integrated into the muscle.
45
129759
1716
02:24
And one of the other sides of Ed
46
132360
2976
02:27
is he's been thinking
about how to connect the brain
47
135360
2896
02:30
using light or other mechanisms
48
138280
2696
02:33
directly to things like these prosthetics.
49
141000
2280
02:36
And if you can do that,
50
144520
1256
02:37
then you can begin changing
fundamental aspects of humanity.
51
145800
3200
02:41
So how quickly you react to something
depends on the diameter of a nerve.
52
149840
4000
02:46
And of course, if you have nerves
that are external or prosthetic,
53
154920
3880
02:51
say with light or liquid metal,
54
159600
1880
02:54
then you can increase that diameter
55
162280
1696
02:56
and you could even increase it
theoretically to the point where,
56
164000
3056
02:59
as long as you could see the muzzle flash,
you could step out of the way of a bullet.
57
167080
4040
03:03
Those are the order of magnitude
of changes you're talking about.
58
171840
3120
03:08
This is a fourth
sort of level of prosthetics.
59
176200
2576
03:10
These are Phonak hearing aids,
60
178800
2536
03:13
and the reason
why these are so interesting
61
181360
2056
03:15
is because they cross the threshold
from where prosthetics are something
62
183440
3416
03:18
for somebody who is "disabled"
63
186880
1429
03:21
and they become something
that somebody who is "normal"
64
189560
4056
03:25
might want to actually have,
65
193640
1896
03:27
because what this prosthetic does,
which is really interesting,
66
195560
2976
03:30
is not only does it help you hear,
67
198560
1656
03:32
you can focus your hearing,
68
200240
1336
03:33
so it can hear the conversation
going on over there.
69
201600
2456
03:36
You can have superhearing.
70
204080
1256
03:37
You can have hearing in 360 degrees.
You can have white noise.
71
205360
2936
03:40
You can record, and oh, by the way,
they also put a phone into this.
72
208320
3200
03:44
So this functions as your hearing aid
and also as your phone.
73
212440
2880
03:47
And at that point, somebody might actually
want to have a prosthetic voluntarily.
74
215920
5160
03:54
All of these thousands
of loosely connected little pieces
75
222400
2696
03:57
are coming together,
76
225120
1200
03:59
and it's about time we ask the question,
77
227120
1936
04:01
how do we want to evolve human beings
over the next century or two?
78
229080
3160
04:05
And for that we turn
to a great philosopher
79
233640
2040
04:08
who was a very smart man
despite being a Yankee fan.
80
236920
3056
04:12
(Laughter)
81
240000
1880
04:14
And Yogi Berra used to say, of course,
that it's very tough to make predictions,
82
242800
3816
04:18
especially about the future.
83
246640
1376
04:20
(Laughter)
84
248040
1096
04:21
So instead of making a prediction
about the future to begin with,
85
249160
3056
04:24
let's take what's happening in the present
with people like Tony Atala,
86
252240
3336
04:27
who is redesigning 30-some-odd organs.
87
255600
2239
04:31
And maybe the ultimate prosthetic
isn't having something external, titanium.
88
259200
3576
04:34
Maybe the ultimate prosthetic
is take your own gene code,
89
262800
2696
04:37
remake your own body parts,
90
265520
1320
04:39
because that's a whole lot more effective
than any kind of a prosthetic.
91
267920
3600
04:44
But while you're at it, then you can take
the work of Craig Venter and Ham Smith.
92
272440
4016
04:48
And one of the things
that we've been doing
93
276480
2056
04:50
is trying to figure out
how to reprogram cells.
94
278560
2560
04:54
And if you can reprogram a cell,
95
282280
1576
04:55
then you can change the cells
in those organs.
96
283880
2240
04:59
So if you can change
the cells in those organs,
97
287400
2216
05:01
maybe you make those organs
more radiation-resistant.
98
289640
2496
05:04
Maybe you make them absorb more oxygen.
99
292160
1896
05:06
Maybe you make them more efficient
100
294080
1656
05:07
to filter out stuff
that you don't want in your body.
101
295760
2480
05:11
And over the last few weeks,
George Church has been in the news a lot
102
299440
3656
05:15
because he's been talking about taking
one of these programmable cells
103
303120
3296
05:18
and inserting an entire human genome
104
306440
1736
05:20
into that cell.
105
308200
1200
05:22
And once you can insert
an entire human genome into a cell,
106
310480
3816
05:26
then you begin to ask the question,
107
314320
2136
05:28
would you want
to enhance any of that genome?
108
316480
2680
05:33
Do you want to enhance a human body?
109
321440
2336
05:35
How would you want
to enhance a human body?
110
323800
2296
05:38
Where is it ethical
to enhance a human body
111
326120
2096
05:40
and where is it not ethical
to enhance a human body?
112
328240
3256
05:43
And all of a sudden, what we're doing
113
331520
1896
05:45
is we've got this
multidimensional chess board
114
333440
2936
05:48
where we can change
human genetics by using viruses
115
336400
3256
05:51
to attack things like AIDS,
116
339680
1440
05:54
or we can change the gene code
through gene therapy
117
342120
2416
05:56
to do away with some hereditary diseases,
118
344560
2936
05:59
or we can change the environment,
119
347520
1616
06:01
and change the expression
of those genes in the epigenome
120
349160
2667
06:03
and pass that on to the next generations.
121
351851
1960
06:07
And all of a sudden,
it's not just one little bit,
122
355320
3136
06:10
it's all these stacked little bits
123
358480
1856
06:12
that allow you
to take little portions of it
124
360360
2080
06:15
until all the portions coming together
125
363280
2000
06:18
lead you to something
that's very different.
126
366160
2080
06:21
And a lot of people
are very scared by this stuff.
127
369600
2736
06:24
And it does sound scary,
and there are risks to this stuff.
128
372360
2920
06:28
So why in the world would you
ever want to do this stuff?
129
376040
2696
06:30
Why would we really want
to alter the human body
130
378760
3016
06:33
in a fundamental way?
131
381800
1200
06:37
The answer lies in part
132
385040
2296
06:39
with Lord Rees,
133
387360
1200
06:41
astronomer royal of Great Britain.
134
389240
1680
06:44
And one of his favorite sayings
is the universe is 100 percent malevolent.
135
392560
3816
06:48
So what does that mean?
136
396400
1216
06:49
It means if you take
any one of your bodies at random,
137
397640
2896
06:52
drop it anywhere in the universe,
138
400560
1896
06:54
drop it in space, you die.
139
402480
1720
06:56
Drop it on the Sun, you die.
140
404720
1376
06:58
Drop it on the surface
of Mercury, you die.
141
406120
2016
07:00
Drop it near a supernova, you die.
142
408160
1640
07:02
But fortunately, it's only
about 80 percent effective.
143
410240
3120
07:06
So as a great physicist once said,
144
414640
2040
07:10
there's these little
upstream eddies of biology
145
418000
4136
07:14
that create order
in this rapid torrent of entropy.
146
422160
4640
07:20
So as the universe dissipates energy,
147
428080
2976
07:23
there's these upstream eddies
that create biological order.
148
431080
3480
07:27
Now, the problem with eddies is,
149
435960
2416
07:30
they tend to disappear.
150
438400
1496
07:31
They shift. They move in rivers.
151
439920
1880
07:34
And because of that, when an eddy shifts,
152
442680
1976
07:36
when the Earth becomes a snowball,
when the Earth becomes very hot,
153
444680
3536
07:40
when the Earth gets hit by an asteroid,
when you have supervolcanoes,
154
448240
3256
07:43
when you have solar flares,
155
451520
1856
07:45
when you have potentially
extinction-level events
156
453400
3336
07:48
like the next election --
157
456760
1216
07:50
(Laughter)
158
458000
2160
07:53
then all of a sudden,
you can have periodic extinctions.
159
461440
3240
07:57
And by the way, that's happened
five times on Earth,
160
465400
2440
08:00
and therefore it is very likely
161
468360
2096
08:02
that the human species on Earth
is going to go extinct someday.
162
470480
3040
08:06
Not next week,
163
474440
1496
08:07
not next month,
164
475960
1816
08:09
maybe in November,
but maybe 10,000 years after that.
165
477800
2880
08:13
As you're thinking
of the consequence of that,
166
481880
2816
08:16
if you believe that extinctions
are common and natural
167
484720
3416
08:20
and normal and occur periodically,
168
488160
2296
08:22
it becomes a moral imperative
to diversify our species.
169
490480
2880
08:26
And it becomes a moral imperative
170
494520
1616
08:28
because it's going to be
really hard to live on Mars
171
496160
2976
08:31
if we don't fundamentally
modify the human body.
172
499160
2720
08:34
Right?
173
502880
1216
08:36
You go from one cell,
174
504120
1336
08:37
mom and dad coming together
to make one cell,
175
505480
2216
08:39
in a cascade to 10 trillion cells.
176
507720
2176
08:41
We don't know, if you change
the gravity substantially,
177
509920
4456
08:46
if the same thing will happen
to create your body.
178
514400
2480
08:50
We do know that if you expose
our bodies as they currently are
179
518159
3057
08:53
to a lot of radiation, we will die.
180
521240
2120
08:57
So as you're thinking of that,
you have to really redesign things
181
525040
3056
09:00
just to get to Mars.
182
528120
1256
09:01
Forget about the moons
of Neptune or Jupiter.
183
529400
2920
09:05
And to borrow from Nikolai Kardashev,
184
533000
2456
09:07
let's think about life
in a series of scales.
185
535480
2176
09:09
So Life One civilization
186
537680
2496
09:12
is a civilization that begins
to alter his or her looks.
187
540200
3000
09:16
And we've been doing that
for thousands of years.
188
544080
2296
09:18
You've got tummy tucks
and you've got this and you've got that.
189
546400
3160
09:22
You alter your looks, and I'm told
190
550280
2416
09:24
that not all of those alterations
take place for medical reasons.
191
552720
3320
09:28
(Laughter)
192
556680
2056
09:30
Seems odd.
193
558760
1200
09:32
A Life Two civilization
is a different civilization.
194
560360
2520
09:36
A Life Two civilization alters
fundamental aspects of the body.
195
564320
4560
09:41
So you put human growth hormone in,
the person grows taller,
196
569840
2856
09:44
or you put x in and the person
gets fatter or loses metabolism
197
572720
3936
09:48
or does a whole series of things,
198
576680
1616
09:50
but you're altering the functions
in a fundamental way.
199
578320
2696
09:53
To become an intrasolar civilization,
200
581040
2616
09:55
we're going to have to create
a Life Three civilization,
201
583680
2720
09:59
and that looks very different
from what we've got here.
202
587720
2600
10:02
Maybe you splice in
Deinococcus radiodurans
203
590840
2216
10:05
so that the cells can resplice
after a lot of exposure to radiation.
204
593080
4120
10:10
Maybe you breathe by having oxygen
flow through your blood
205
598320
3016
10:13
instead of through your lungs.
206
601360
1440
10:15
But you're talking about
really radical redesigns,
207
603600
2720
10:19
and one of the interesting things
that's happened in the last decade
208
607480
3216
10:22
is we've discovered
a whole lot of planets out there.
209
610720
2736
10:25
And some of them may be Earth-like.
210
613480
1680
10:29
The problem is, if we ever
want to get to these planets,
211
617440
3616
10:33
the fastest human objects --
212
621080
1656
10:34
Juno and Voyager
and the rest of this stuff --
213
622760
2576
10:37
take tens of thousands of years
214
625360
2496
10:39
to get from here
to the nearest solar system.
215
627880
2120
10:42
So if you want to start exploring
beaches somewhere else,
216
630720
2960
10:46
or you want to see two-sun sunsets,
217
634400
2400
10:49
then you're talking
about something that is very different,
218
637840
3136
10:53
because you have to change
the timescale and the body of humans
219
641000
5056
10:58
in ways which may be
absolutely unrecognizable.
220
646080
2920
11:02
And that's a Life Four civilization.
221
650000
1840
11:05
Now, we can't even begin
to imagine what that might look like,
222
653720
2936
11:08
but we're beginning to get glimpses
223
656680
2336
11:11
of instruments that might
take us even that far.
224
659040
3360
11:14
And let me give you two examples.
225
662960
1616
11:16
So this is the wonderful Floyd Romesberg,
226
664600
1953
11:19
and one of the things
that Floyd's been doing
227
667200
2136
11:21
is he's been playing
with the basic chemistry of life.
228
669360
2536
11:23
So all life on this planet
is made in ATCGs, the four letters of DNA.
229
671920
4856
11:28
All bacteria, all plants,
all animals, all humans, all cows,
230
676800
3136
11:31
everything else.
231
679960
1200
11:34
And what Floyd did is he changed out
two of those base pairs,
232
682440
4176
11:38
so it's ATXY.
233
686640
1520
11:41
And that means that you now have
a parallel system to make life,
234
689760
5696
11:47
to make babies, to reproduce, to evolve,
235
695480
4296
11:51
that doesn't mate
with most things on Earth
236
699800
2176
11:54
or in fact maybe with nothing on Earth.
237
702000
1880
11:56
Maybe you make plants
that are immune to all bacteria.
238
704880
2536
11:59
Maybe you make plants
that are immune to all viruses.
239
707440
2496
12:01
But why is that so interesting?
240
709960
1536
12:03
It means that we
are not a unique solution.
241
711520
3160
12:07
It means you can create
alternate chemistries to us
242
715400
3736
12:11
that could be chemistries
adaptable to a very different planet
243
719160
4816
12:16
that could create life and heredity.
244
724000
2360
12:20
The second experiment,
245
728120
1240
12:22
or the other implication
of this experiment,
246
730480
2080
12:25
is that all of you, all life
is based on 20 amino acids.
247
733360
4216
12:29
If you don't substitute two amino acids,
248
737600
2456
12:32
if you don't say ATXY,
if you say ATCG + XY,
249
740080
5576
12:37
then you go from
20 building blocks to 172,
250
745680
2760
12:41
and all of a sudden you've got
172 building blocks of amino acids
251
749520
3136
12:44
to build life-forms
in very different shapes.
252
752680
2800
12:49
The second experiment to think about
is a really weird experiment
253
757480
3056
12:52
that's been taking place in China.
254
760560
2080
12:55
So this guy has been transplanting
hundreds of mouse heads.
255
763920
4040
13:00
Right?
256
768920
1376
13:02
And why is that an interesting experiment?
257
770320
2080
13:05
Well, think of the first
heart transplants.
258
773440
2056
13:07
One of the things they used to do
259
775520
1616
13:09
is they used to bring in
the wife or the daughter of the donor
260
777160
3536
13:12
so the donee could tell the doctors,
261
780720
3896
13:16
"Do you recognize this person?
Do you love this person?
262
784640
2616
13:19
Do you feel anything for this person?"
263
787280
1856
13:21
We laugh about that today.
264
789160
1480
13:23
We laugh because we know
the heart is a muscle,
265
791560
2216
13:25
but for hundreds of thousands of years,
or tens of thousands of years,
266
793800
3496
13:29
"I gave her my heart.
She took my heart. She broke my heart."
267
797320
2896
13:32
We thought this was emotion
268
800240
1376
13:33
and we thought maybe emotions
were transplanted with the heart. Nope.
269
801640
3240
13:38
So how about the brain?
270
806000
1480
13:41
Two possible outcomes to this experiment.
271
809040
2080
13:43
If you can get a mouse
272
811880
2416
13:46
that is functional,
273
814320
1616
13:47
then you can see,
274
815960
1200
13:50
is the new brain a blank slate?
275
818040
1600
13:53
And boy, does that have implications.
276
821280
2040
13:57
Second option:
277
825120
1200
13:58
the new mouse recognizes Minnie Mouse.
278
826800
2120
14:01
The new mouse
remembers what it's afraid of,
279
829760
2096
14:03
remembers how to navigate the maze,
280
831880
1696
14:05
and if that is true,
281
833600
1200
14:08
then you can transplant
memory and consciousness.
282
836040
3320
14:13
And then the really
interesting question is,
283
841080
2416
14:15
if you can transplant this,
is the only input-output mechanism
284
843520
3936
14:19
this down here?
285
847480
1200
14:21
Or could you transplant
that consciousness into something
286
849440
2696
14:24
that would be very different,
287
852160
1976
14:26
that would last in space,
288
854160
1256
14:27
that would last
tens of thousands of years,
289
855440
2056
14:29
that would be a completely redesigned body
290
857520
2000
14:31
that could hold consciousness
for a long, long period of time?
291
859544
3680
14:38
And let's come back to the first question:
292
866040
2040
14:40
Why would you ever want to do that?
293
868560
1880
14:44
Well, I'll tell you why.
294
872320
1256
14:45
Because this is the ultimate selfie.
295
873600
1720
14:48
(Laughter)
296
876000
1800
14:50
This is taken from six billion miles away,
297
878440
2560
14:54
and that's Earth.
298
882040
1200
14:56
And that's all of us.
299
884800
1200
14:59
And if that little thing goes,
all of humanity goes.
300
887240
3520
15:04
And the reason you want
to alter the human body
301
892320
2216
15:06
is because you eventually
want a picture that says,
302
894560
2776
15:09
that's us, and that's us,
303
897360
1936
15:11
and that's us,
304
899320
1416
15:12
because that's the way humanity
survives long-term extinction.
305
900760
3120
15:17
And that's the reason why it turns out
306
905440
2256
15:19
it's actually unethical
not to evolve the human body
307
907720
3936
15:23
even though it can be scary,
even though it can be challenging,
308
911680
3336
15:27
but it's what's going
to allow us to explore, live
309
915040
3376
15:30
and get to places
we can't even dream of today,
310
918440
2520
15:33
but which our great-great-great-great-
grandchildren might someday.
311
921760
3736
15:37
Thank you very much.
312
925520
1216
15:38
(Applause)
313
926760
5520

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Juan Enriquez - Futurist
Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will bring in business, technology, politics and society.

Why you should listen

A broad thinker who studies the intersections of these fields, Enriquez has a talent for bridging disciplines to build a coherent look ahead. He is the managing director of Excel Venture Management, a life sciences VC firm. He recently published (with Steve Gullans) Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation Are Shaping Life on Earth. The book describes a world where humans increasingly shape their environment, themselves and other species.

Enriquez is a member of the board of Synthetic Genomics, which recently introduced the smallest synthetic living cell. Called “JCVI-syn 3.0,” it has 473 genes (about half the previous smallest cell). The organism would die if one of the genes is removed. In other words, this is the minimum genetic instruction set for a living organism.

More profile about the speaker
Juan Enriquez | Speaker | TED.com