Editing Life: Homo sapiens as Evolutionary Drive

The chapter presents the main technical characteristics of the new biotechnology known as gene editing, as well as the serendipitous story of its discovery. Its multiple and versatile applications are analysed, in conjunction with AI and deep learning, some of which have clearly “dual-use” bioethical profiles. In particular, a philosophical and bioethical analysis of the application of gene editing on human embryos and the application of gene drive for the programmed extinction of biological populations in nature is proposed. The bioethical paradoxes of manipulation and ignorance are an interesting key to interpreting these research cases. In the final part, the approach is applied to the frontiers of research in the field of individual and reproductive cloning. Our main goal is to frame the interpretation of these research cases also from an unusual evolutionary perspective.