Just a thought I had the other day: Do you believe that technology is putting a "halt" on the natural physical aspect of human evolution? In other words, do you believe the human species will eventually suffer from technology....in the sense that we will cease to evolve from a natural physical standpoint?
I would say that the process is well underway. medical science has brought about greatly increased life spans, which has driven up our fecundity rate through the roof, while not increasing the fitness of the species. You could call it de-evolution, or the early stages of trans humanism. It depends on how you define natural also.
No. I think that we will come to a point where natural evolution will stop. We're already the supereor species on this planet. What is going to happen is that technology will become evolution.
I disagree, we have never stopped evolving, it may be elusive to most. We continue to evolve as a species intellectually, psychologically, and socially.
So through the evolution of science & technology, are we witnessing the end of the human species (within a thousand years) and beginning stages of a bionic human species?
yea but im talking about the natural physical evolution of a species. We rely on technology to do most of the "leg work" it seems. Wouldnt that suggest that humans will have less of a need to evolve physically?
yes, I agree we are not really evolving physically any more, though, I wouldn't call the ways that we are evolving unnatural. we have pretty much mastered our environment. I just hope we can save it in time from the green house gasses we produce. Peace
Isn't the average height increasing? I remember in grade school teachers always made a big deal that Abe Lincoln was 6 feet tall, which was very tall for his time. Now, being 6 foot tall is nothing to get excited about. But on another note, "technology" I feel is just a byproduct of our continued evolution. Our brains are becoming the primary subject to evolution, at least at this point in time. Humans are becoming smarter & smarter. We ARE becoming fitter, fitter in the mind. Intelligence is proving to be a much more desirable trait than speed or strength. So actually, natural selection is still very much at work. Think about it. If you aren't smart, it's hard to get a decent job and support yourself. Without money you're chance of survival goes down. Natural selection!
Scary thought, isnt it? Considering the fact that technology is moving faster than our own ability to use it wisely. The Dinosaurs died from the impact of an asteriod, humans will almost certainly die from the "push of a button", so to speak.
Yep. This is due to a certain unbalance of intelligence. But as I was saying, natural selection helps us keep that in check.
Smarter people are more likely to become middle class because they are more likely to go to college and get a job that would pay well enough. But the middle class rarely have more than 3 kids, while lower middle class and poor people have a much higher birth rate. Especially when you go to a world perspective. If more dumb or uneducated are having kids, wouldn't that mean the species as a whole is getting dumber?
If you believe that we have gotten smarter as a whole over the last 100 years, then your last statement is pretty illogical. middle class has been having fewer kids than the poor class for a long time, and we are moving forward faster than ever... so id say, no, we arent getting dumber ive thought about this alot, and ya our 'brain' evolution has allowed humans to evolve in a less physical way.. this includes not only our present tech, but even the use of tools and fire before homo sapiens. The use of tools and fire gave us slight edges over our environment. Now we have cars, homes, to 'make up' for being a relatively 'weak' species.
QFT bro. I'm 6'1, my mom is 5'3 and my dad is FIVE FREAKING SEVEN. He's 48 years old and he's a half freakin' foot shorter than me. I don't understand it... But he's a stocky bastard, he can pick me up, at 6'1, roughly 300lbs. Only man I know who can physically restrain me that isn't quite a bit bigger than me.
We are still evolving as have been pointed out. But there are some limitations. Many evolutionary biologists believe mankind have pretty much reached the intellectual limit. We do get smarter by some 4 IQ points per decade, but how much of that is actual intelligence, and how much is better education and nurishment, is hard to tell. Much the same story with people getting taller. Mostly this can be ascribed to better nutrition and better general health. Especially with regards to chilhood diseases that are now pretty much wiped out by modern medicine. Again, there is a genetic influence (women, I'm told, find tall men attractive), but it is relatively speaking not as significant as the sociological factors. So we already know we change with regards to how well we're doing in our niche. In our case, niche isn't the proper word really. But how might we change with regards to future environmental challenges. No, not talking about the weather as such, but integration of man and computers. Not to mention space, and varying degrees of gravity on the moon and other planets like say Mars or Titan (yes, technically a moon, but it is planet size). We'll keep on evolving, maybe even branch out to different species as we make our home out there amongst the stars
Throughout the history of our planet it has taken hundreds thousands of years for a species to evolve the slightest bit, but in the past let's say 100 years there has been an explosion of intelligence and technology. We invent things in 2007 that were mere science fiction in the 80's and 90's. You ask are we evolving as a species, well my answer would be yes and no. Our minds are evolving but are bodies are not. Whether you look at over population, malnutrition and starvation in the third world, or obesity in America we are not doing that great physically. If all of our technology were taken away there wouldn't be very many that could actually survive. That's beside the point tho. Mentally we are evolving and at an extremely fast rate. I believe that our technology is evolving too quickly and might get out of our control. Everyday some scientist or doctor comes up with a way to save a life while another comes up with a way to kill millions. I believe that technology will either eventually be the fall of man or computers will be integrated into humans which will be the next step in our evolution, but at what cost? It's a shot in the dark pretty much but humanity won't be around for ever and neither will this planet it is just the natural course of things.
We will bind with technology as we learn better implants to insert into our brains to increase our abilities. This is evolution. We already have metal arms that are controlled by impulses your brain sends to a microchip implanted in your brain. We have artificial organs. In the future it is possible we will trade as many biological parts as possible for artificial ones. Thus creating a new species of human, I forget what some scientists call it, but they have already come up with the name.
In a way I would be for these implants because I could increase my physical abilities, strength, speed, etc. but as far as implanting something in my brain to make me smarter or have a different personality or something I would be totally against that because it would take away all that was left that made me truly human...my soul. As for what it would be called it could be cyber-organism(cyborg) or Bionicman. I've heard others but I can't think of any off the top of my head.
I think it would be impossible for machines to replace humans or merge with humans. Obviously at this point it seems more than just possible, but inevitable. However I believe that science is on the verge of discovering new fundamental laws, that will cause the path that we are currently on to change completely. I believe that the cause of this change is a direct result of the power that is currently being stripped out of the human race, and given to machines. As the machine grows, more and more people are tricking themselves into believing that they are completely dependant on the machine, and for this reason they are already a part of the machine. This is precisely the reason why an evil man like George bush is able to control the supposed land of the brave and home of the free. The country essentially believes that even though he is extremely stupid and almost a direct reprentation of the anti-christ, his wars are nessisary to further the life style that they have become accustom to. The result of this, is that as the human race gives into the machine, there will be a select few that will oppose this; similar to the ninja which opposed the forces that were in action in their country; they became stronger faster and smarter than the other forces, in order to allow a few people to ballance out many. This analogy is what will happen again, except in a different way. Because now the battle isn't for land, but for your mind. And therefor the new rebels, will be gifted with the energy from all of mankind, because they then become the focal point of the energy that is not being used by anyone else; in order to balance the force of the machine.
Interesting point, slightly far fetched, but far from impossible. I believe that humans might have once had the ability to contol their minds and body in a way that we have now forgotten. Take the monks in Shanghai for example, they could turn their body into pretty much a slab of concrete and break almost anything across their body without flinching. How many of you could break a brick over your head without flinching or let another man beat you with a bamboo cane and never move a muscle. I believe in the life force known as Chi that runs through every living thing and can be focused to do amazing things. Maybe our next step in evolution will be that we learn to use our entire brains, since we only use a small percentage now, making the possibilities endless. We already have people who are far more than normal in our midst such as REAL psychics and people with autisim who are genius's or whom can remember anything they read, see or hear. Small steps in the advance towards new human abilities but definately worth noting. You could also look at the hyper arousal stress response, also call the Fight or Flight response where people perform amazing feats of strength in a moment of extreme stress or danger. In one story a child lifted a full sized car off of his father to save his life after the jack slipped out from under the car. Humans are capable of more than we believe. Who knows what will happen in the future. Check this out it has a couple of good theories. http://www.hermes-press.com/evolution_next.htm
It would be very unlikely for us to stop evolving altogether, but yes I think the process of natural selection no longer applies to the human race the same way it does to other animals. We are living longer and longer... there was a time when humans rarely lived past 40, now many are living well past 100. Fertility drugs are allowing children to be born who never would have had the chance before, and would have never been incorporated into the gene pool had it not been for science. People with birth defects are surviving longer... people who normally would have died in infancy are now living normal lives and reproducing. So the "survival of the fittest" concept doesn't apply to us, because by far the fittest are not the only ones surviving. It would be interesting to see how humans will evolve in the distant future, that is if we don't end up killing ourselves and destroying our planet before we even get there.