The forces of nature are truly remarkable in that, they have given rise to hundreds of millions of species on this planet we call home. Among those, we humans are one, whose journey began tens of millions of years ago.

We hold a special status among our fellow inhabitants though, in that we are the only intelligent species on the planet. Yeah, philosophically one might question that statement especially given our actions, but our curiosity and need for expansion might be proof enough.

Anyways, thanks to our intelligence, for the first time in the history of life, nature's monopoly on the process of evolution is being threatened and given enough time, might be completely taken away.

Increasingly we are building and developing tools and techniques that will allow us to enhance or maintain several parts of our bodies, giving us the power to evolve ourselves the way we see fit.

A Great Divide?

The time frame involved is that of many decades but I think it is inevitable that we begin to tinker with our biological bodies to enhance our capabilities in any way imaginable, to sustain our bodies, to fight off any diseases, with the help of a plethora of biotechnologies that will be available in the future.

Picture having implants to connect to the internet, nanobots to prevent and treat any disease, mechanical body parts far superior to the real ones, artificial organs when the natural ones fail, the ability to alter genes of our offsprings before they are born to give them any desired traits, and so on.

To me, that sounds like a completely different human being and so I like to call it Human 2.0 and it may happen within this century. The idea is really crazy but somehow, I get this feeling that this is the direction we are headed.

As with any technological progress, this will have its pros and cons as well but in my opinion, the cons could really outweigh the pros on this one. I mean, the whole thing could have really grave consequences, maybe even something as big as splitting the species into two.

It sounds like something straight out of a movie about a dystopian future but really think about it. Any such technology would not be cheap and so it would be only the elites who would have access to it. The number of people who could afford it would be a small percentage and thanks to the enhancements, they would only soar further in every way imaginable.

The rest of the people would either have no access or access to only the lower grade "upgrades" that would ensure that they would always be beneath the ones at the top. If such a thing happens, we will have a great divide on our hands where one portion of the species would live like superhumans while the other would live like 'normal humans'.

Today, the latter may sound more attractive but we just can't tell if it would be seen the same way in the future. Maybe it will be seen as a limitation in society that makes you subpar than the superior counterparts.

What would such a world look like? Things are already dire with how the world is today. Imagine a literal split of species!