The prophecy of cryptography's founding father: two fates of humanity — machines of transistors and our bioengineered successors
Machines will do everything for humans, CRISPR will rewrite DNA, and modern humans will disappear. Whitfield Diffie, the creator of public key cryptography, sees not an AI takeover — he sees two paths: silicon and genetics. And we have already taken the first step.
As reported by CCTV+, according to Whitfield Diffie, a Turing Award laureate and pioneer of public key cryptography, machines will take over most tasks currently performed by humans, and humanity itself will be transformed into bioengineered successors. In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Diffie said that even if machines eventually do virtually everything for humans, that does not necessarily mean artificial intelligence will "take over." Instead, he envisions the emergence of two dominant forms of intelligence over time: advanced machines and genetically "engineered" humans, created using tools such as CRISPR.
"Will the world be taken over by artificial intelligence or by myself? I think there is no doubt about that. I think machines are offering to do things for people. People like that; people say yes. And at some point we will look around and see machines doing everything, and we won't be able to do anything about it. I think humanity as we know it today will not last long. And its two successors will be things we call machines — things that are essentially built out of transistors; and things we call bioengineered. Now we'll start with manufacturing, I think in motorsport there is a concept of a 'drawing car,'" Diffie said.
"So I think we will get perfectly engineered humans using whatever mechanisms of genetic manipulation, including the well known CRISPR. But much more sophisticated systems are being developed, and so there is no reason why the same person couldn't have a fine heart, good lungs, very sensitive taste and smell, good touch, endurance for long distance running, high intelligence and so on, simply by combining all of this in one person. So now we have a population of people, each of whom surpasses us today in virtually every way," he added.
Diffie, now in his eighties, has spent his life protecting information, but his gaze is fixed much further — to a point where information and biology merge.
CRISPR is not just a tool for treating diseases; it is a key to redesigning the very concept of "human." Scientists already use it to edit embryos, and tomorrow it will allow us to create people with predetermined traits. In motorsport, as Diffie noted, there is a concept of a "drawing car" — a machine designed from the ground up for maximum performance. The same, he believes, will happen to us.
We will not wait for natural selection — we will become our own designers. Yet the central question Diffie leaves open is not technological but ethical.
Are we ready to voluntarily abandon our imperfect but unique nature for the sake of perfection? And who will decide what the "ideal human" should be? The machines we create already offer us convenience and efficiency, and we say "yes" — every time we use a navigator or a voice assistant. But when that "yes" becomes consent to edit our own genome, the boundary between choice and fate will be erased forever.
Whitfield Diffie is one of the founding fathers of modern cryptography, a Turing Award laureate (2015) for inventing public key cryptography. CRISPR is a gene editing technology that allows precise changes to DNA. Diffie is known for his futuristic views on the future of technology and humanity. His prediction of "two successors" — machines and bioengineered humans — continues his long standing reflections on where civilisation is heading.
When one of the creators of digital security says that humanity in its current form is doomed, it sounds not like science fiction but a diagnosis. Machines already do much of our work — and we like it. We voluntarily hand over routine, and tomorrow we will hand over creativity. But Diffie goes further: he does not fear AI dictatorship; he foresees evolution. Two forms of intelligence — silicon and biological — will coexist, and humans will become perfect constructions without weaknesses. CRISPR is just the beginning. And if we can already edit genes today, then within a generation we will be able to engineer people like cars. The question is not whether it will happen, but whether we will want to remain who we are. Or whether we will put on the ring of evolution and step into the unknown — together with the machines we have created.
