THE HUMAN MIND
Enhance/evolve
Genetic research holds the keys to heightened human intelligence
By Ronald Kotulak
Tribune science reporter
Published March 13, 2005
As scientists discover more of the genes that make the human brain the biggest and smartest on Earth, they also are handing the human race the keys for upgrading the organ of intelligence to daring new heights, possibly even super-IQ babies.
But they are also the keys to a Pandora’s box filled with an unprecedented assortment of potentially good and bad things, some things likely to shake the foundations of cherished beliefs and hopefully something good.
Among the sticky questions: Do great apes, our nearest genetic relatives, deserve some sort of secondary citizenship?
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As these genes fall into our hands, society will be faced with ethical and moral questions that will dwarf the controversy over human cloning.
“It’s where the most challenging social questions will arise of the `Do we want to go there?’ type,” said Maynard Olson, professor of medicine and genome sciences at the University of Washington.
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…they (the genes) can be used to genetically engineer supersmart children, or dogs or cats, for that matter, a possibility that, admittedly, is still far off.
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Can we resist the temptation to manipulate these genes to speed up the slow evolutionary movement toward a better brain?
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Humans have long used breeding to induce genetic changes in animals and plants to dramatically alter their behavior, appearance or nutritional content.
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“Humans evolved their cognitive abilities not due to a few accidental mutations, but rather, from an enormous number of mutations acquired through exceptionally intense selection favoring more complex abilities,” Lahn said.
The big brain, in a sense, shifted evolution from the survival of the fittest to the survival of the brightest, enabling early humans to advance from an endangered species category to No. 1. The brains of the great apes–gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo and orangutan–benefited from some of this genetic exuberance, but to a far lesser degree.
Nevertheless, their cognitive skills are impressive. They can recognize themselves in a mirror. Their social and cultural activities are more complex than those of other animals. Some can use rudimentary tools.
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Great apes have many cognitive abilities that are humanlike, said Varki. “They are deserving of some different kind of attention. They’re not humans. They should not be treated like humans. But they need to be treated considerably differently than other animals.”
Lahn’s discovery of some of the genes that make the human brain so much better than that of the great apes provides a tool for changing the brain that was not available before.
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The scenario that raises the greatest concern is the possibility of making apes and other animals smarter by genetically engineering them with human brain genes. Their brains can then be studied for new clues to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and other brain disorders.
Putting human brain genes in animals could also help scientists learn more about the great mystery of consciousness.
But what about the animals? Will a more sentient brain give an ape human-like consciousness trapped in an animal body? Or would you have a thoughtful, clever and linguistically able primate?
“You’d have to do some serious thinking about the harm that would be done if you went in this direction,” said Northwestern’s Zoloth. “It’s harmful to do meaningless research that doesn’t have an immediate health benefit. You need a very strong reason for creating a more sentient brain in a nonhuman primate.”
