I hate to sound unimpressed, but does biological evolution strike anyone else as rather irrelevant, now? I doubt we will be held hostage by these mortal coils for much longer.
Also I am not sure you understand what "mortal coil" means:
You don't think that, say, genetic engineering will change the genome? I'm betting we'll be primarily artificially designed by the end of the century.
I did not know that - I really thought "mortal coil" meant the human body. Now that I know I'm wrong, nevertheless I must point out that qualifying "coil" with the word "mortal" is not only misleading but empty of meaning.
The Wikipedia article says that "mortal coil" = "the bustle and turmoil of this mortal life" but I do not believe that "mortal" fits well as an adjective for "coil" just because it refers to a "mortal life".
It seems like a very tenuous connection. Not one of Shakespeare's best poetic terms by far.
EDIT: Thanks for teaching me something interesting today, hnriot.
I'd like to think it is a poetic reference to our DNA.
To stay on topic, I agree with the parent. I think we have reached a point where our genetic makeup is no longer the primary factor determining our destiny as a species.
One could say that intelligent design now trumps evolution, as it were.
Depends. I can envision a lot of scenarios where infectious disease wreaks havoc on our species. Random mutation might have a significant impact on who would survive such a scenario and I don't think we (as a species) are anywhere near being able to circumvent natural selection of a sufficiently dire infectious disease. jmho
It's not only our own biological evolution that deeply affects us.