Once you have the technology to freeze evolution, you also have the technology to accelerate it and steer it, and given the level of incentive (to gain competit

Once you have the technology to freeze evolution, you also have the technology to accelerate it and steer it, and given the level of incentive (to gain competitive advantage), I don't imagine it would be a balanced sword-and-shield race in the long run. The "conservatives" couldn't keep up with the "modernists", unless it's some sort of a totalitarian system. There's been this great (relatively) short story, both humorous and profound, by Stanisław Lem; "The Twenty-first Voyage" in "The Star Diaries". It's based on that exact premise.