Self-Evolution Is the Next Gold Rush

In today’s Money Morning…self-knowledge…the applications…what to invest in…and more…

We don’t live forever.

Yet.

But that may be about to change. Or, at the very least, our lives may be about to get a whole lot longer.

You see, there are three big forces on an unavoidable collision course that will change the way we’re born, repair ourselves, and even how we die. This collision is set to change the very concept of humanity.

It’s going to change who we are physically, socially, and of course, financially. Because behind every dramatic social change, there’s a mammoth investing opportunity to be found.

Last week I wrote about how the human body is going to be the platform for the next wave of the tech revolution.

We’re seeing the early stages now with several brain chip implant trials taking place.

This technology integration with our physical bodies is just one of the forces that are colliding to allow us to live vastly longer lives.

Well today, I want to discuss more exciting investment opportunities, but first, I need to talk about the second part of this whole collision and how we really messed up wild wolves.

Self-knowledge

The second force on this collision course is the huge advances we’ve made in self-knowledge.

And I’m not talking about just getting in touch with our feelings.

I’m talking about understanding what it means to be human at the most basic structural level. Our understanding of our DNA and our genetics is advancing rapidly.

We’re quickly creating a huge amount of information on how all of our genetics and DNA interact with each other, and the environment around us.

One of the most obvious recent developments on this front was the creation of mRNA vaccines. These vaccines work by delivering a set of instructions that our cells use to produce certain defensive proteins.

In this case, it’s our understanding of the relationship between DNA, mRNA, and how our cells work that has allowed this advancement to occur.

But that’s not all.

Ever heard of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats?

A bit of mouthful, isn’t it?

The abbreviation is a bit more recognisable…

CRISPR.

To put it simply, CRISPR is a relatively recent technology that allows us to edit genes or turn off or on their expression.

This means we’ve just recently discovered how to edit the basic building blocks of what makes us…well, us!

An obvious implication for this is parents who want to screen their unborn babies for genetic defects, or to alter their genes to achieve the healthiest, smartest possible child.

This might sound crazy right now.

But just think about how we currently use vaccines to change our bodies’ response to viruses. That’s just one step away from changing the basic structure of our bodies themselves.

Imagine if we could change a piece of DNA right now so that we couldn’t get diabetes, heart disease, or cancer! Who wouldn’t want that?

The applications

But all of this self-knowledge is only as good as how we put it to use. Think humans are too morally upright and superior to go playing God with creation?

Let’s ponder the following cartoon for a moment:

Like most good jokes, there’s an uncomfortable truth here. We took a wild animal and altered its genes through breeding until we have the plethora of dog breeds we currently know. Many of which wouldn’t last too long in the wild.

Well, how long is it until we start altering our own DNA? Both before and after we’re born?

We all want our kids to be smart, attractive, and successful. We want our own nation’s army to be better in combat than our enemies’.

We want our best athletes to beat New Zealand in cricket, South Africa in Rugby Union, and hopefully, one day, the third division under 10s from Samoa in soccer.

It would actually be kind of weird if we didn’t modify our DNA given the opportunity. We go to the gym. We take supplements. We tattoo symbols and artwork on our skin.

Sometimes, we also have dangerous medical procedures to fix how our bodies operate, or sometimes just because we think it’ll make us look better.

Of course, we’re going to mess with our own DNA. We’ve done it to everything else already, including the food we eat and the animals we’ve co-evolved with.

Check out the following timeline of human-led genetic modification:

It comes from an article published in 2015, so it’s not exactly up to date, but I thought it was a good example, nonetheless.

Doesn’t it just look inevitable that we’re the next step in this process? That’ll we’ll start altering ourselves and our children?

To me that looks like a strong possibility. And with these kinds of evolving trends, there’s always a heap of good investments to be found. The trick is to see it coming and get in early.

What to invest in

We can already invest in genetic modification. There are food companies like Bayer AG in Germany.

US company Regeneron were behind the first pig-to-human heart transplant. You may have heard about it earlier this year. Well, the pig was genetically modified to contain human genes.

That’s the secret sauce behind the success of the operation — genetic modification.

But it doesn’t end there.

In fact, our buy recommendation for Exponential Stock Investor this month is a company who’ve genetically modified plants to produce human body parts.

Sounds too crazy to be true?

I assure you, it’s not.

That’s how quickly this whole space is evolving. I for one don’t want to be left behind. That’s why I’m spending every minute I can squeeze out of my day looking for the best investment ideas that will change what the word ‘human’ means.

I’m doing the same thing with other emerging trends as well. If you’re interested to find out more, you can check out our Exponential Stock Investor service.

Until next week,

Izaac Ronay,
Editor, Money Morning

PS: If you haven’t gotten around to it yet, don’t forget to check out ‘Metaverse Mania DECONSTRUCTED: A Sceptic’s Guide to Becoming an Early Stakeholder in Web 3.0’.