Shortly before his death on March 14, renowned British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking predicted the possible emergence of a new race of "superhumans" with altered DNA, according to The Times. The writings will be published in Hawking's book, titled Brief Answers to the Big Questions, which is due to be released on October 16.
"I am sure that during this century people will discover how to modify both intelligence and instincts such as aggression. 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 wrote.
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He also predicted the emergence of a sub-class of "unimproved humans who won’t be able to compete with "the superhumans."
"Once such superhumans appear, there will be significant political problems with unimproved humans. Presumably, they will die out, or become unimportant," Hawking pointed out.
The new theory challenges ideas earlier proposed by Hawking himself, including his previous view that the history of the universe has no boundary and that space existed without time before the Big Bang and therefore the universe has no beginning.