Evolving Tomorrow Genetic Engineering and the Evolutionary Future of the Anthropocene

About this book

The Anthropocene defines the here-and-now time period on Earth of indelible (and possibly irreversible) human disturbance to the natural world, from habitat destruction and mass extinction to global climate change. To ameliorate and repair the damage that threatens the world's dwindling resources and our very existence, humanity is enacting massive interventions to fuse modern technologies with long-established natural processes. Advances in genetic engineering have put us on the cusp of directly shaping the DNA of every living organism (including ourselves), as well as determining the evolution of completely novel species. The author invites the reader to explore how humans have manipulated the ancient forces of evolution and the future possibilities of genetic engineering for conservation and rewilding, de-extinction, and even the creation of viable populations of entirely new species. To entertain such possibilities of synthetic biology, he forces us to wrestle with the threats and ethical conundrums that surround the unintended consequences, as well as the values that humanity places on authenticity in nature. In so doing, this accessible and thought-provoking book explores the potential future of life on planet Earth.

Contents

Preface

Part 1: The Hearts of Nature
1. Nature in the raw, and cooked
2. Selection, naturally and otherwise
3. Ancient forces
4. Evolution's racetracks
5. Evolutionary accelerants and speed bumps
6. Carjacking genetics
7. Genetic welding
8. On the origin of species
9. Do-it-yourself speciation
10. Ongoing evolutionary outcomes

Part 2: Evolutionary Futures
11. How to evolve a dragon
12. Evolutionary engineering in the flesh
13. Nature, rewilded
14. When nature comes to call
15. Inspection by the department of health, safety, and ethics
16. When we become dragons
17. A midnight coterie of transcendent fauna

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Biography

Asher D. Cutter is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto, Canada. A former Fulbright Scholar, Cutter trained at Tufts University, USA, James Cook University, Australia, the University of Arizona, USA, and the University of Edinburgh, UK. He authored the textbook A Primer of Molecular Population Genetics (2019) as well as nearly 100 scientific articles on the topics of genome evolution, population genetics, speciation, and the biology of Caenorhabditis nematode roundworms.