Are Humans done evolving?

not sure if this is the right place to put this. but i was thinking.

since evolution is caused by mutating genes and survival of the fittest. one horse happens to have a tiny bit longer of a neck so he can reach leaves to eat better. he passes on his genes and his kids have an advantage. eventually all the regular horses cant compete and die. then one of the new, longer necked horse has an even longer neck. over millions of years it happens to stretch out till you got a girraffe. i know that evolution is much much more complicated than that but i tried to simplify it.

but my point is that even if humans are getting those tiny mutations which would theoretically help us survive, they arent being put to use since we dont let the ill-equiped die off. the sick, mentally handicapped, physically deformed, etc.

so does that mean that we wont ever evolve significantly as whole species?

 

But what does "evolving" mean to you? Evolution as sold by Darwin is merely a theory that is simply accepted as fact, and really it goes along with an elitist view of humanity, where those at the top have the natural right to rule over those they see as lesser. This is the belief system that has been used to justify the slaughter of countless millions in wars throughout history.

The public is sold the dialectic of creationism vs. evolution, and I am more apt to believe in creationism, but not as it is sold by the bible or the mainstream definition. In other words, I believe in a creator, but I don't believe in the organized religions that are associated with creationism. I simply believe there is something higher than this material world and that the complexity of human emotions and intellect cannot be explained by science alone.

As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as evolution unless it's being guided by the people behind the scenes, who give us our culture through the media and tell us what to think and believe.

 

We're All Devo.

 

Evolution has done its job, now it’s up to us to take up the fight and through recombinant DNA, the human genome, and epigenetics, we can make great leaps and bounds in our human development, in what would ordinarily take evolution millions of years to create.



h

 

Gee, I am sure the powers that be have GREAT things in store for us.

 

The last thing we have to do is merge our
light with the Big Light

 

These days when we see someone weaker then us, our humanity kicks in and we try to help them through this world. When weaker humans breed then aren’t they breeding down? There is more disease and sickness in this world now than there was 100 years ago. Typically evolution in animals tends to make them stronger because they mostly pick strong healthy partners to breed with. :1eye: I am sure most humans pick strong partners also and its not like you can tell a sickly person they can't have a kid.

 

When every human being in the world is born with
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 memorized, as a new
form of conciousness, THEN will I say, we are done
evolving.

 

HAHAHA
man, i love you so much!

 

Im going to have to chime in and say that I belive that nothing ever stops evolving, including "laws" of science.

 

The increase in infertility suggests that human genetics still effects human reproduction. Evolution continues!!

True, not all humans have equal access to infertilty treatments. But, ANY genetic differetial reproduction advantage is sufficiant for evolution to have its effect.

 

nothing is ever "done evolving"! it doesn't work that way. it is however so slow a proccess, or our lives so short, whichever way you want to look at it, that even the timefraime of all of recorded history is too short to observe it signifigantly, other then in organisms whoes life spans are orders of magnatude even more effemeral then our own.

=^^=
.../\...

 

If we would stop evolving we would be doomed to die with our little minds.

 

Sums up my thoughts perfectly.

 

I agree with Mr Morrison, that the engine that drives evolution is the situation where some individuals live long enough to breed, and others don't. Or if parents have to do significant work to make sure their children survive, that becomes part of the process too--you have to produce the kids and get them to adulthood.

So we'd have to say that in western society the evolution engine has stopped, because essentially everyone gets to survive. But maybe rich people are going to breed their characteristics out of the population because they're choosing to have few or no children! On the other hand, there are places where evolution ought to be running full speed. Think of children in some third-world shantytown. The big killers there are infectious diseases combined with poor nutrition. An ability to withstand childhood diarrhea would be something that ought to be strongly selected for. And now there's AIDS in a lot of poor countries. A natural immunity to that would definitely help some people to live while their neighbors are dying. It's grim stuff, but that's how the process works.

 

Err the goal of natural selection is all about successfully producing surviving, capable young. Traits that helped organisms produce more surviving young were selectively passed down. But the thing is, today most humans have no problem reproducing and keeping their young alive due to modern technology and medicine.

MM evolution. haha okay so my statement above didn't really answer your question...But I gess humans are still evolving. For example, scientists believe that in a couple thousand years or so, humans may not even have pinky fingers or pinky toes, as they are proving to be unnecessary appendages. Studies show that pinky fingers are getting smaller and smaller.

Just felt like posting something D:

 

We will never stop evolving and changing. Weather it is for the better or worse is another story.


However in today's modern society many very bad traits are being kept alive and well, such as mental illnesses, obesity, etc etc. I remember when I was in school kids were stupid. Today when I see kids they are retarded, and so caught up in this whole "gangsta" culture. It's so depressing when I hear the Ebonics spoken by most kids and their baggy clothes thinking they are so badass, it makes me sick. I think as our evolution continues people will get very stupid, as it seems that is the popular and prevalent thing in our society.

 

While mental illnesses are terrible in the suffering they cause, I don't know that they could be considered bad traits. For one thing, very few of these illnesses are organic; in the outdated nature v. nurture question, nurturing (or its lack) contributes to a heck of a lot of MI. Also, many brilliant, creative people have suffered from mood disorders, personality disorders, OCDs, and schizophrenia.

Most obesity comes from too much food and too little activity. The tendency to hold onto excess weight is not a defect, it is a survival trait to protect the species in times of famine ... sort of like saying only the fat survive.

Mental retardation is quite different from bad taste in clothes and choice of role models. Until you have tried to teach someone with an IQ below 68 how to write an essay, it might be best to refrain from throwing the word "retarded" around so much.

HOWEVER, there is a theory about which I read several years ago. I don't know who proposed it but it was in an essay found in a science fiction magazine. The writer referred to it as the "marching morons" theory; intelligent people, concerned about world resources and overpopulation, limit the sizes of their families. Since intelligent people tend to breed with other intelligent people, the number of brainy offspring is being reduced. On the other hand, less intelligent people also tend to breed together and, being less intelligent, tend to have a greater number of children. These doubly unendowed children will breed with like people and the collective intellectual potential in the world will slowly fall.

 

Haha have you seen a movie called Idiocracy? It's a fucken stupid movie, but it's based on this marching morons" theory.