A recently unearthed collection of Prof. Stephen Hawking‘s essays revealed that the late physicist made a prediction that genetic editing of unborn fetus DNA would lead to a race of “superhumans.”
And that super race could ultimately destroy the rest of humanity, according to The Guardian, which viewed the essay.
“I am sure that during this century, people will discover how to modify both intelligence and instincts such as aggression,” Hawking wrote. “Laws will probably be passed against genetic engineering with humans. But some people won’t be able to resist the temptation to improve human characteristics, such as memory, resistance to disease and length of life.”
Hawking’s final musings are part of a larger text that will be released on Tuesday, titled Brief Answers to the Big Questions.
In the book, Hawking anticipates once superhumans — created with help from DNA-editing systems like Crispr-Cas9 — roam the Earth, lesser, unedited people won’t be able to compete and will eventually “die out, or become unimportant.”
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