[V-2]

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.