# Humanity Can Understand Its Origin and Design Its Future by Robert L. Sinsheimer > “For the first time in all time a living creature understands its origin and can undertake to design its future.” > **— Robert L. Sinsheimer**, *1969, “The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change”* ## Sources and Context - **Authoritative publication records:** [Caltech Library record for the *American Scientist* article](https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/17a7j-rka34) and [Caltech's full-text *Engineering and Science* version](https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/2718/). The two editions use different prepositions in the title: *Prospect for* in *American Scientist* 57(1), pp. 134–142, and *Prospect of* in Caltech's April 1969 magazine. The quotation appears in both. - Sinsheimer was discussing the prospective ability to alter human inheritance. His formulation is a historical claim about newly imaginable agency, not evidence that reliable human genetic design was then possible or that its outcomes would be ethically settled. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|We Were Never Going to Make It]] - **Article:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Evolutionary Theory|Evolutionary Theory]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Robert L. Sinsheimer|Robert L. Sinsheimer]] - [[wiki/The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change|The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change]] - [[wiki/Evolutionary Theory|Evolutionary Theory]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “For the first time in all time a living creature understands its origin and can undertake to design its future.” — Robert L. Sinsheimer, 1969, The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-sinsheimer-understand-origin-design-future ```