在这篇文章中，Adrian Woolfson 认为 Charles Darwin 所描述的自然与人类能动性之间的等级关系正接近逆转。Darwin 区分了自然选择（随机发生并围绕生态位逐步适应）与人为育种这种更快但范围更窄的人工选择；他曾强调自然在 3.5×10^9 年演化中可实现的变异范围远超“feeble man”。Woolfson 认为，基因组工程与人工智能的结合可能突破 3.5×10^9 年遗传遗产中的生化边界，显著扩大物种可达形态的设计空间。
他并非局外观察者：这位分子生物学家兼企业家在美国加州共同创立了 Genyro，属于率先尝试从头写入基因的团队之一。Woolfson 将该领域比作“学会写字的儿童”；目前可合成的基因组主要集中在仅三个类别：病毒、细菌和酵母，并且研究已开始向蛋白质和基因中引入新的分子构件。英国一支团队去年启动了 Synthetic Human Genome 项目，目标不是制造“更优越的人”，而是构建含合成染色体的人体细胞；他预估未来几年可用于治疗，例如为受损或移植器官制备抗病毒细胞以减少排斥。
展望更远未来，Woolfson 将人工生物智能视为物种层面的“作者身份”：AI 能解码生命生成语法，化学“打印机”可直接“打印”基因组文本，使生命结构设计几乎不受自然框架限制。随后他还描绘了更激进的场景（如“living phones”“grown houses”“可对话且有观点的服装”）。他承认治理和伦理风险，但书末《A Manifesto for Life》虽提出公平分配、保护生物多样性和人类自由意志等原则，评论认为对全球监管的具体方案仍显薄弱；目前仍少有政策制定者正为商业竞争驱动下可重构生命的治理框架作充分准备。该书共 480 页，定价 £25 或 $34.95，并非颠覆性巨著，而是清晰且不安的技术预演。
In this article, Adrian Woolfson argues that the hierarchy between nature and human agency described by Charles Darwin is approaching reversal. Darwin distinguished random natural selection, which adapts organisms over time to ecological niches, from the faster but narrower process of artificial selection through breeding. He wrote that nature over 3.5×10^9 years allows a far broader range of forms than “feeble man” could achieve; Woolfson argues that genome engineering plus artificial intelligence could exceed that inherited biochemical envelope and greatly expand the space of possible species designs.
He is not a detached observer: the molecular biologist-entrepreneur co-founded Genyro in California and is among the first wave writing genes de novo. He likens the field to children learning to write; so far, assembled synthetic genomes are mainly in just three existing categories—viruses, bacteria, and yeast—while researchers are already adding new molecular building blocks to proteins and genes. A UK team began the Synthetic Human Genome project last year, aimed at synthetic chromosomes in human cells rather than creating a “better human,” and Woolfson predicts that within a few years such cells could support therapies, such as virus-resistant cells to repopulate damaged or transplanted organs with less rejection.
Woolfson sees artificial biological intelligence as a future species-level authorship: with AI decoding life’s grammar and chemical systems printing genome sequences, life design could become almost unconstrained by nature’s historical templates. He even sketches disruptive applications like “living smartphones,” houses that are grown rather than built, and garments that converse and express preferences. He acknowledges ethical and governance risks, yet despite the manifesto-like closing call for equitable benefit sharing and protection of biodiversity and human freedoms, the review finds concrete global regulation weakly developed. Only few policymakers appear to be preparing for governance of competitive, commercially driven life-redesign technologies, and the book’s 480 pages, priced at £25 or $34.95, are seen as clear, unsettling, but not epoch-making.