Evolution: Where are we headed?

[scoobydooby67]

g0pher's thread got me thinking about this....

is no one else scared as shit as to what we are honestly evolving into?

we are becoming a society that depends on being spoon-fed everything,

becoming so lazy as to suggest a step back in evolution.

we are a society that has no regard for physical ability,

we destroy all our future generations' chances of independent thought by using television as a babysitter - sacrificing our mental potential,

and for the great majority, we have no sense of spirituality except for one day of the week where we go and get told how, when, where, and what you will worship -

again, a lack of independent thought.

whats the point of technological and ergonomic advancements to make life easier for a bunch of dumbass waterhead spawn who dont develop properly because they are never challenged?

meanwhile, we are destroying and consuming so much of our earth that soon we wont have any "nature" to discuss.

so...discuss.

[AlphaQ]

Hard to tell.

Evolution is a difficult science to gauge accurately. It takes millions of years for noticeable changes and sudden shifts in climate can drastically change the outcome of an entire biosphere.

Multi-cellular life has existed, as far as we know, for roughly 570 million years.
The earth is expected to be cosmically stable for several billion years.

Perhaps we are the "single-celled lifeforms" of this epoch and will be comparable primitive in a billion years.

[Ugyatag]

i have a feeling we will be extinct before we can undergo any major evolutionary event. just think about it, what do we have to evolve to right now, there's no selection pressure from disease or anything really...its all leading up to a big outbreak of somesort

i'm rambling...back to my evolution paper

[bandit420]

I believe that humankind has stopped their own evolution. Think about it, modern medicine prevents natural selection from allowing the weakest of our species to die off. It is a mystery as to what will happen next. In reality the time scale required for evolution is a very long time--so assuming that the human race does not self terminate (I think it will) It will still be thousands of years before any significant physical evolution would take place.

It seems that we are progressively getting smarter and more technologically advanced. I believe this could form into something either bad or good. Bad: We yearn to drive, build, and populate more. This in turn can start destroying our surroundings: trees get cut down, atmosphere gets destroyed, we start overpopulating and no longer can have the resources to keep up with all the people. This can result in like, famine, disease, and violence. But of course, you know this.
The good? People will start coming to their senses. They will realize that money is less important than keeping our roots that our ancestors worked so hard to establish in a pure and healthy planet. This new wave of ideas will spark us getting rid of gas-guzzling cars, people putting their ego behind them and using their money for the good of others (not just so they can write it off on their tax forms), and everyone ( i mean EVERYONE) will do everything they can to make things better. this includes stop having so many damn babies.
Is this gonna happen? I have no idea. But all I can see is filth and greed in this world...and sometimes I actually wish something will happen where people will have to be knocked into their primitive way of thinking and doing things. We're anatomically ideal for what we do, and if seems as if our minds are the things evolving. Let's just hope it starts evolving for the better.

Or...

As a result of this whole plastic surgery craze, all the babies people have will be ugly because plastic surgery is only skin deep... and no one "mates" because a woman's body is able to hold children better than another's, or because a man has faster swimmers than the other.

Just my .02.

[bosendorfer]

It's a scary time indeed! As you know there are millions of Muslims just wating to sacrifice themselves for "the cause". As soon as technology permits, they will have the capacity to do a lot more destruction than we've already seen. This will become our sole focus, and will eventually decide the outcome of the human race. They aren't going away, and they have nothing to lose. It's the greatest honor to be chosen for a suicide mission like this! Scary times indeed!

Originally Posted by bosendorfer

It's a scary time indeed! As you know there are millions of Muslims just wating to sacrifice themselves for "the cause". As soon as technology permits, they will have the capacity to do a lot more destruction than we've already seen. This will become our sole focus, and will eventually decide the outcome of the human race. They aren't going away, and they have nothing to lose. It's the greatest honor to be chosen for a suicide mission like this! Scary times indeed!

What? You can't but the blame of a dying world on one group of people/race/religion. Yes, there's people out there willing to die for their cause, even if that means taking others out with them, but they aren't the only one that are slowly killing this planet. If anything a wipe out of the human race might be the best thing for this world.
Your statement, although it is your own and everyone is entitled to their own precious opinion, is kind of close minded and brain-washed even. Do you know the Muslim religion? Do you understand their mindset and beliefs? Or do you know what the news or other people tell you?

[scoobydooby67]

Originally Posted by bandit420

It will still be thousands of years before any significant physical evolution would take place.

who said it had to be a physical evolution?

Originally Posted by Pink Oddity

We're anatomically ideal for what we do, and if seems as if our minds are the things evolving.

how?

an observation of average america would suggest we are de-evolving mentally.

Originally Posted by scoobydooby67

an observation of average america would suggest we are de-evolving mentally.

Several ways. With our inventions, finding new ways to mass produce, whatever. We're learning new ways to do different things. People are finding more styles of art and music. We're also breaking free from the norm. I know there are still a whole bunch of people out there that are still in the flow of being "brain washed" but surprisingly there is a good bit of freedom. I know it might not seem like it, and I'm not telling life is perfect by all means but I'm glad I'm living now as opposed to in the past.

Eh, I'm all over the place. Sum it up: new inventions, new technology, people breaking free, less punishment for not following everyone else, and ability to realize things aren't perfect.

[scoobydooby67]

all these new inventions are made to make life easier.

there comes a point when people need to be challenged.

im glad youre so optimistic about our couch-potato society,

im sure as hell scared to death.

[i<3chrondo]

Originally Posted by scoobydooby67

all these new inventions are made to make life easier.

there comes a point when people need to be challenged.

im glad youre so optimistic about our couch-potato society,

im sure as hell scared to death.

as a species, humans cannot really evolve much more physically

the development of new technology is modern day evolution. we're not just going to stop developing new technology so that we can be challenged and evolve as a result. look at the internet, THATS evolution.

what are we supposed to do? why are you scared?

humans are smarter and more physically elite than ever, there is no way that anyone should be able to say that we have taken a step back in evolution because thats just ridiculous.

humans are being challenged and we are developing new technology to meet the new requirements.

[Zylark]

There are some easily recognizable trends in human evolution. Our jaws keep getting smaller. Many now even don't get wisdom teeth for this reason. Our brain grows more effective, as represented by increasing IQ of about 3 points per decade (the Flynn effect). And we generally grow taller.

Some of these trends might just be the result of better nutrition. But enviromental habitat changes over time do lead to genetic adaptation, aka evolution.

But one very significant change have emerged recently. Genetic research. Giving us the unique oppurtunity to select the genes for ourselves via artificial means, not natural processes. Mostly in the interest of reducing or eliminating genetic disease (downs, cancers, alzheimers etc), but knowing humans, we'll also select for more, shall we say, vanity driven criteria.

Coupled with emerging interfaces between machines and our brain, it won't be long until we control and design the evolution of ourselves to our own sense of necessity and vanity. Bypassing natural selection alltogether.

So the question isn't so much what evolution will make us into in the next thousands of years of natural selection, but what we make ourselves into within the next decades or centuries of technology.