Science & Technology
We could be heroes?
Could a genetic mutation ever cause humanity to develop super powers? Anthropologist Agustín Fuentes joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about human evolution. Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►► Listen to the Uncanny Valley podcast ►► Want more WIRED? Get the magazine ►► Follow WIRED: Instagram ►► Twitter ►► Facebook ►►…
@chuckebbs7541
September 15, 2026 at 5:01 pm
superhumans exist lol
@AntonioTylerDraws
September 15, 2026 at 5:13 pm
Like what
@DDAngel1
September 15, 2026 at 5:07 pm
Глупый вопрос!! 😂
@AntonioTylerDraws
September 15, 2026 at 5:12 pm
Also, every mutation that seems to be cool has a horrible side effect. I think about the people that can’t feel pain or have photographic memory. These sound cool but you can’t tell when your bone has broken or your appendix has burst. And true photographic memory means you remember and experience *_everything_* like it just happened, including trauma.
@samw161
September 15, 2026 at 5:52 pm
yeah i was thinking of the closest thing we have to a superpower was the condition where you can’t feel pain
@justafan5269
September 15, 2026 at 6:03 pm
exactly. The systems we have in place are there for a reason.
@lunchbox1553
September 15, 2026 at 6:11 pm
@justafan5269 And the reason was: because
@alexbosse8528
September 15, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Yeah, the condition where you feel no pain is actually horrifying and those poor folks usually die very young.
@bryanterrill7674
September 15, 2026 at 6:58 pm
@lunchbox1553it’s because that’s why
@jasonbaldwin4580
September 15, 2026 at 5:15 pm
A mutation can duplicate an existing structure. 6 fingers is a dominant trait and thus would appear within 1 generation. Or degrade an existing gene. Blue eye is a recessive trait and would take several generations (without direct inbreeding) to appear.
@CatoAlpharius
September 15, 2026 at 5:18 pm
Congenital Insensitivity to Pain is a genetic disorder? Myostatin-related Muscle Hypertrophy? Tetrachromy?
These are all genetic disorders that allow a small subset of humans to do extraordinary feats. We’re certainly aren’t comic books, but we are amazing.
@SusanMorgan-k5p
September 15, 2026 at 5:24 pm
This feels unique in a good way, I like it ……
@Starmadien2019
September 15, 2026 at 5:25 pm
I have a superpower! I’m allergic to gluten! I get the power of being stupidly sick if I eat bread.
@JasonW1220
September 15, 2026 at 5:36 pm
I do absolutely believe that in this world of governments fight governments, and cabals fighting cabals, that there ARE genetic experiments going on. I’m sure they’ve been going on for a long time. There HAS to be. We cloned a sheep in the early 90s ffs. I’m sure that the same people that belong to the same institution that were torturing their own prisoners, prostitutes, and the mentally ill, on psychedelics, would be willing to.
I don’t believe in some dude with claws and super healing, but I’m SURE that someone, somewhere, is at least TRYING to make super soldiers and super thinkers.
@VincentMcmanus.
September 15, 2026 at 5:37 pm
I think it would be more accurate for him to put an asterisk next to everything he’s saying. All of this is based on our CURRENT understanding of genetic modification and replication or mutated traits.
He cannot say what might be possible in the future.
I mean, think about this, it was only around 105 years ago that insulin was discovered to help diabetics. Prior to that, diabetes was basically a death sentence, particularly with type 1.
Sure, that’s not at all the same as genetic modification by any means – that’s a fair thing to say. But it does demonstrate how quickly we’re developing our understanding and new techniques of medical care.
I mean, around 80 years ago, lobotomies were being performed to treat schizophrenia – these days? We have medications, pills.
@Belladonna-x2c
September 15, 2026 at 5:41 pm
That covers X-Men style mutants. But Spider-Man is not a mutant (born that way, per Lady Gaga) but a mutate (a normative human who underwent some specific alteration). Mutates are not comparable to natural mutation and evolution, so much as intentional retroviral modification of the genome.
@MrFateorfaith
September 15, 2026 at 5:41 pm
But it could be engineered
@Magicbubbles2000
September 15, 2026 at 5:44 pm
Oddly enough there are human mutants we’ve documented that are also XMen, such as the woman with toxic blood or the man who’s stomach could consume metal.
@rega5950
September 15, 2026 at 5:45 pm
what about the water ape theory?
@AFLoneWolf
September 15, 2026 at 5:52 pm
So truncated equilibrium was wrong?
@Broken9Arrow
September 15, 2026 at 5:57 pm
So that guy that sold me glowing goo out of his van lied to me. That explains the loss of taste ……
@ChrisM-st1pw
September 15, 2026 at 6:09 pm
I used crispr to give me false teeth
@austinwilburn1772
September 15, 2026 at 6:14 pm
I don’t think he asked if it was going to happen, just no matter the odds, is it at least on the table?
@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410
September 15, 2026 at 7:02 pm
No
@Setting_Sunn
September 15, 2026 at 6:30 pm
… just for one day! Bowie forever ❤️👩🎤
@celo7carvalho
September 15, 2026 at 6:35 pm
Wait. That’s why they asked about mutations, not long term evolution
@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410
September 15, 2026 at 6:59 pm
what do you think evolution is? Accumulated mutations
If you mean fantastical mutations like in comic books and movies, then obviously the answer is a hard no. That’s _fantastical_ for a reason, it doesn’t exist.
Actual mutations occur like he just described
@celo7carvalho
September 15, 2026 at 7:02 pm
@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410I know the definitions. I’m saying that they asked X and he answered Y. As many people pointed out there have been some documented cases of mutations that closely resemble some effects of comic book mutations
@The-Amazin-Nath
September 15, 2026 at 6:48 pm
This Is exactly what a Mutant trying to hide their Superpowers would say 🤔
@mz-pd5hw
September 15, 2026 at 7:03 pm
big sudden genetic mutations produce nothing or cancer, not wings or x-ray vision
@chainsawkarate
September 15, 2026 at 7:13 pm
Well not with THAT attitude
@KcFinex
September 15, 2026 at 8:21 pm
I have 5 superhuman abilities:
● I’ve regrown teeth after the 2nd set came in.
● I can easily mentally control my heart rates.
● I can change the focus of each eye individually (though it is uncomfortable).
● I can hear conversations across the park, and even electricity in the walls and appliances.
● I can imagine so fiercely that I can “see” the image and overlay it onto the paper I am drawing on and trace my imagination.
2 were practiced, 3 were genetic.
Not an X-man, but still pretty cool.
@24Ippo
September 15, 2026 at 9:05 pm
X-Men mutants are basically anomalies not evolution.
@notavailable5216
September 15, 2026 at 9:21 pm
It depends on your definition of “superhuman abilities”. Some people naturally have a 4th cone type that allows them to see colors indistinguishable to everyone else