1 - Three Stages in Human Evolution

2 - Stone Age Humans

3 - Greece & Rome

4 - The 17th and 18th Centuries

5 - The Social Reforms of the 19th and 20 Centuries

6 - 1950 to 2000 - The Coming Gerontocracy

7 - The Problem

8 -The Solution

Human evolution can be characterized by three stages.

First, we (our earliest ancestors) survived like the other animals, wild and naked, adapting ourselves into Nature. From the archaeological record, we know that our specie was initiated some 125,000 years ago; and in fact, there are still vestiges of such people which remain in remote places on the planet.

Then, about 20,000 years ago, we began adapting Nature to ourselves by means of animal husbandry and agriculture and, more recently, by industrialization and advanced technologies.

We are now entering the third stage in which we have the capability (indeed, the necessity) to modify ourselves to our own design.

That third stage in our evolution (i.e., designing ourselves) sounds like science fiction; but it is already on its way. It takes various directions - for example: controlling birth and preventing birth defects (a practice that became technically possible about 40 years ago and is now in wide-spread distribution); genetic screening so that particular individuals may avoid certain environmental conditions that might evoke disease (something that is technically possible but is not yet in wide practice); and the increase of intelligence in order to enhance the neurological capacity for advanced learning and adaptation to increasing complexity (still on the drafting board). Of all the potential applications, life-extension science is the hall-mark of this third stage in our evolution because therein lies the conquest of biological ageing - an intrinsic, genetic defect which imposed on the individual a relatively short life-span and the condition of gradual senility. It has been said that "if we want to improve the human condition then we must first improve human nature". This is absolutely true; and the control of ageing is the single most important application in that respect.