The evolution of humanity is still a theological problem. Even the Catholic Church accepts evolution, but excludes the human soul from it. So, says Daedalus, presumably there was an advanced ape without a soul who gave birth to a baby that had one. Some mutation had created the human soul, our spiritual nature.

All the standard queries of evolution then cry out to be asked. If the soul is recessive, a creature with a soul mating with one with no soul would give soulless offspring. If it is dominant, the soul would spread rapidly, and (as claimed) all humanity would soon have souls. Furthermore, the argument implies that the soul is represented on the genome. One or more of the tens of thousands of genes in the human genome codes not for a protein, but for the soul.

Now that the human genome has been roughly described in its entirety, DREADCO biochemists are scanning it for a set of unusual bases conspicuously absent from the genomes of the higher animals. With luck they will identify such a set, associated with the soul. The way will then be open for several experiments, all highly controversial. First, this set of bases could be inserted in plasmid form into organisms too primitive to have much use for a soul, such as bacteria of the species Escherichia coli. Would they behave any differently from normal organisms of these species? Probably not; Daedalus reckons that a brain of some complexity is needed to support a soul. Either the transplant would fail, or the bases could not be switched on.

Alan Turing once suggested that a creature with a brain arguably capable of supporting a soul, such as an elephant, might be given one. In this case, new behaviour (such as praying) should certainly occur. Second, human beings deprived of the crucial bases, or perhaps with them 'switched off' by some binding ligand, should react in an inhumanly 'soulless' or destructive manner. But if the Lord objected to interference with His creation, the attempt to deprive humans of their souls would somehow fail.

And, of course, the genome occurs in every cell of the body. So transplant operations, in which organs are transferred from one person to another, would produce a chimaera with two souls, at least in theory. This suggests that the ultimate surgical operation, a brain transplant, will never work. It also suggests that no computer, however clever, can have a soul.