So I will put it here... My question to open debate is at the end....

10,000 years ago humans existed in small family tribes, wore animal skins and while they were humans they lived little better than animals... they lived in caves...very much the same as their ancestors for tens of thousands years before them. Then- slowly- things began to change- maybe it was a gentler climate, maybe it was some invention that let them have more time to improve their short brutish lives... whatever it was it took a species that had been stagnant for eons to become something more...10,000 YEARS IS ROUGHLY 400 GENERATIONS

fast forward to a thousand years ago, people lived their lives with little or no change- but they lived far better than their distant ancestors- it was a vast improvement but it was still a brutal life- They were at the whim of whatever disease appeared- their lives were ruled by gods and the desperate struggle to survive...

fast forward to 100 years ago... about that time my grandfather was born.... he rode a horse to school he saw the first car come into town... before he died he saw disease become something that had a face and could be fought, he saw nucular weapons, he saw TV, he saw the moon landing and the shuttle...

in my 32 years I have seen a lot... I remember sitting in my dads office and looking at stacks of computer punch cards - touring the university computer center and marvelling at the huge tape reels spinning... I now have a computer that is superior to that used by an entire university then...

17 years ago I had to go to a library and spend hours getting info I can get with a few google searches today....

6 years ago when I did journal searches I still had to go to a library... now he major journals are online and have and are keyword searchable..
Today we talk about nanomachines and the possibility of virtual immortality as if it is destined- it probably is...

My question is this... We have evolved to the point that we can create rapid change in tech in our life times, but have we evolved enough to handle it?

We have DNA kits for kids, small universities can make new viruses and bacteria...

As this power becomes more and more accessible can we hope to control it?
Do NOT get me wrong- I am as far from as a luddite as you can find...

we have gone from maybe an individual being able to kill someone they didnt like, to maybe killing a few dozen... to killing a few thousand, to killing millions... (ok it may take a small team to kill millions-today)

at this rate a small team could kill everyone in a decade or two... our culture is growing in its abilities exponentially, is our ability to use it wisely growing at the same rate?

I have no answer, I have no solution... I am just raising the question... Just pointing out that in 400 generations the last 20 have seen more change than the previous 380 had seen in total... hell, more than the last 10,000 have seen....and the last two have seen more change than the last 20...

DAMN this was a long musing....