Welcome back, I am Adeline Atlas, 11 times published author. 

There’s a phrase that will define our place in history—legacy human. A term borrowed from computing, where “legacy systems” refer to outdated but still-functioning technology. Systems that were once state-of-the-art but are now incompatible with the new environment. That’s us.

We are the last unedited generation. The final biological cohort to live and die without genetic modification, without neural implants, without synthetic augmentation. Born without upgrades. Aging without enhancement. Remembered, perhaps, as the last version of humanity to exist in its organic form.

Until very recently, every human being was the result of random genetics and environmental conditioning. Our traits, flaws, instincts, and limitations were inherited, not selected. But that reality has already changed. In 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced the birth of the world’s first gene-edited babies—Lulu and Nana. Their DNA had been altered with CRISPR to resist HIV. He was imprisoned, publicly condemned—but the scientific milestone was achieved. And once something becomes possible, it doesn’t stay isolated.

In the years since, countries including Russia, the United States, and China have all pushed into the territory of heritable gene editing. Private fertility clinics are beginning to offer embryo screening not just for disease—but for cosmetic traits, intelligence markers, and even personality predispositions. While still marketed as medical, the boundary between healing and enhancement is eroding fast.

We are also witnessing the normalization of neurotechnology. Companies like Neuralink, Kernel, and Synchron are developing brain-computer interfaces with the stated purpose of helping patients with neurological disorders. But the vision extends far beyond that. The real goal is integrated cognition—humans whose brains can connect directly to the internet, share data with each other, and eventually merge with artificial intelligence systems.

Children born in the 2030s will likely have options we can’t fathom: AI-tutor implants that accelerate learning by 1,000%, genetic sequences that reduce aging by half, hormone regulation devices that prevent mental illness, real-time cognitive enhancements that make them virtually indistinguishable from machines in performance.

The toddler playing with sticks in the dirt will seem prehistoric next to the child interfacing with an adaptive AI tutor through a wireless neural link. One is building imagination. The other is optimizing performance.

This is not just a shift in capability. It is a shift in classification.

We will become the last version of humans whose intelligence, appearance, and behavior were shaped entirely by nature and experience. Future humans will be edited—either before birth or after—with programmable traits, upgradeable cognition, and biologically embedded software. And once those enhancements become available, they will not remain optional for long.

Society rewards efficiency. It will not tolerate unenhanced individuals in competitive environments. We are already seeing this happen in subtler ways. Schools reward children who use AI study tools. Employers are adopting cognitive analytics for hiring. Even online dating apps are beginning to integrate genetic and biometric compatibility metrics. The unaugmented will be left behind—not because they’re unwelcome, but because they can’t keep up.

Legacy humans will be remembered the way we now look at rotary phones—functional, nostalgic, and completely incompatible with the system to come.

We must be honest: this transition is not being driven by malice. It’s being driven by design logic. Better performance. Better health. Better compliance. And in that equation, legacy biology is the problem to be solved.

For those of us born before these enhancements became available, this is a uniquely disorienting position. We are not just aging—we are aging into obsolescence. Our memory, emotions, and identities were shaped by limitations that will soon no longer exist. How do you teach wisdom to someone who’s never had to forget? How do you explain failure to someone who can optimize every decision in real time?

More importantly, how do you compete in a world where humans are being engineered for compliance, productivity, and perpetual upgrade?

We are the last humans born into mystery. The last to be surprised by our own minds. The last to experience consciousness without artificial scaffolding. Our children—or their children—will be modified by design, trained by AI, and embedded in systems we can’t even conceptualize.

We are not just watching a new species emerge. We are watching our own version of humanity become obsolete—quietly, gradually, without a single shot fired.

And once this version of humanity is gone, it will not come back. There will be no demand for unenhanced bodies, uneditable genes, or fully private thoughts. Biology, once sacred, will be seen as a limitation.

Legacy humans will not be eliminated by violence. We will be phased out by optimization.

This is our historical position. The final models.