Are Humans done evolving?

Im not ignorant, it's just no one ever has told me that before so i was unaware. But im not gonnah believe one guy on the internet either so i will keep an open mind. More stuff is true on the news than on these forums i bet.

 

I think we need to separate evolution into two streams - genetic and cultural.

In a way, humans have interrupted the natural process of genetic evolution. Evolution is actually quite random, in that genes of offspring mutate according to minute nuances in specific parent individuals. If the mutation turns out to be advantageous to survival - that is, it aids the individual in navigating and succeeding in their environment - then the gene is passed on and eventually becomes a dominant trait.

But because humans manipulate their environment, any human mutation is made null and void, at least on a natural level. It then becomes cultural, as our idea of humanity is based on the standard. Kids with six fingers might have one finger removed for the sake of aesthetics. Our immune system has stopped evolving naturally due to medicine. Man now engineers his own genetic evolution.

As for cultural evolution, you need to consider what "evolution" actually entails. Does it merely mean "change", or "progress"? Ethically, some humans have progressed and others haven't. But if you understand evolution as change, then yes, culture is constantly transforming itself (despite our conservatism).

 

Let us not forget what I consider the fourt dimention. Time passage. Who knows what events our futerholds. And what ecological events may spark a genetic change.

Just something to think about.

 

try reading "Richard dawkins - the selfish gene" might give you some answers to some of your questions. all i'l say is that evolution is a much more complex thing than you may think.

 

Or perhaps take a course in Biological evolution (if you are in college, are planning on going to college, or want to learn something). It's required for my major and I understand evolution a lot better than I did before (from high school biology class). It really is quite complex and makes a lot more sense than creationists claim.

Peace and love

 

It's impossible to be 'done evolving'. Evolution does not stop. It continues to ...you guessed it...evolve.

 

try reading "Richard dawkins - the selfish gene" might give you some answers to some of your questions. all i'l say is that evolution is a much more complex thing than you may think.

One of the more mind-bending books out there, from one of the greatest minds of our time (and perhaps the great genius of our time). Dawkins kicks ass. I loved his "Unweaving The Rainbow" as well.

 

This is the predicted future of human evolution

 

Try looking at the bigger picture. Most of the examples tabled here suggest we have stopped evolving because we have it so good. Wake the hell up! We are just the lucky minority. Human evolution is ongoing in those places where 50% or more never reach adulthood - take a look at world news rather than what is on CNN.


Just a thought, who is better prepared for a huge natural disaster, maybe global warming is it. Most 'developed' people will seriously struggle with no power, no fresh water, no fuel. Anarchy will prvail as the strong steal the food & fuel of those less fortunate. Hell we all have the right to bear arms.

Those starving Africans we think of as undeveloped & those millions of Chinese for whom a world lacking tv, internet, electricity, cars,the mall, etc. would be no different from today. They are the ones who will survive. Not us soft bellied, north americans. Evolution needs disaster. The dinosaurs found that out. When you look at time on the universal scale. the last 100 years are irrelevant, so will be the next thousands. Sure we are well on the way of buggering the earth but long term it will all correct itself. It just may not look like it does today. Nor will we as humans.

Are we evolved because we think we can send people to Mars, or would we be better feeding those who are hungry.

Just my $.02

 

From the research I've seen, humans are evolving faster now then in the past. Differentiation of genetics in seperate groups of people has been shown to be increasing.

 

In the news recently...

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1210/1

"Plentiful food has made it easier than ever before to survive and reproduce in many parts of the world, so it's tempting to think that our species has stopped evolving. But a controversial new study says that isn't so. Far from slowing down, human evolution has sped up in the past 40,000 years and has become 100 times faster in the past 5000 years alone, according to the analysis. This means that even though some people have been globe-trotters who interbreed, most humans on different continents are becoming more different, rather than blending together into one genetically homogenous race...

"...As populations expand, the number of mutations increases, boosting the chances for a beneficial genetic variant that can improve survival and sweep through a population (in the same way that a large population of insects develops a gene for resistance to a pesticide faster than a small population)."

 

SunLion, I saw that article too. It is very interesting. But the evolution that they are talking about is not during the last hundred or so years. It's over the last several thousand years. Things are different now. We have medicine. Someone with a severe spinal deformity can get it fixed, and appear to be a suitable mate when they grow up now. Then, instead of being naturally unselected, they will pass their deformity on to their offspring.

There is also globalization, which will become more and more a factor in the future. There will be more cross breeding between different parts of the world. So adapting to suit your environment will happen less and less. On the other hand, the planet as a whole is warming up and will continue to warm. The effects of this will be too much for technology to keep up with, and mankind will have to adapt to it. (Too bad the result of industrialization isn't cooling - I hate the heat).

I think that the biggest driver of evolution in the future will be when we begin to settle on the moon or other planets. Then you once again have our species living in radically different environments and adaptations will come fast.

 

Well, human specie WILL HAVE to evolve in order to escape extinction, but we will mainly evolve culturally, not genetically.

 

^ Unless our culture is dramatically changed by let's say half the population of the earth being mowed down...our lifestyles would change and we may have to evolve to survive. I think in the unlikely event that humans keep on living until a million years from now, we will have changed genetically. Unless we all end up like in the matrix

 

nah, humans are gonna become biomechanical robots. lol

 

I dont know, I read somewhere couple months back and I dont remember where, where they had seen evidence of the human brain still growing. Somehow it would be possible, I mean, where would all the information that we learn go to?

 

Evolution is adaptation, that's it. It's the theory that living things change with their environment-- it's not about one animal trying to one-up another animal in their great race to the top. The whole 'survival of the fittest' thing sounds like Rambo or something.

Heaps of creatures are changing with their environment, but at any time there could be an earthquake or solar flare or an asteroid collision that could change the world much faster than they can adapt to it.

Everything is an environment-- even if it's manmade. No living thing will ever stop evolving ever. We are right now adjusting and adapting to the technologies and the environments we have created, so actually, I'd say evolution is happening much faster than ever, if only because our world is changing much faster as well.

 

we are evoving to a more diverse population. Due to our medicine and domination over lifeforms on this planet we have bad DNA being passed on wich normily die out

 

Yes it's true, the human population will still evolve, but it will be at a slower pace (and evolution itself is veeeeeeeeery slow, i'm talking 10000 years for organisms with our complexity). The fact that the so-called 'genetically inferiour' are being kept alive whilst they would have died in earlier days will only slow this down, but as a human, I believe that it is unethical not to help those people, and in that way, isn't that some form of evolutionary 'superiority'? The fact that we want the weakest of our species to survive? Maybe THAT should be our strenght...

 

No we are not evolving slower, not at all. Look even as short as 60 years ago, thoughs kids didn't have the mental speed or ability as a whole compared to todays kids. Physicaly we arn't evolving very much. However mental we are, kids are learning more, able to learn faster, and over all can take in more faster. Example there are kids and lots of them that can trouble shoot and fix a computer just as well or better than someone who as been at it for years and is in there 30's-40's. We are evolving, to fit the world today.

J.C