How much further can humans evolve?

[imnot]

Fuck evolution if Video games have taught me anything its that by 2027 we can shoot swords out our sweet sweet robotic arms.

 

[KiruTheMant]

We evolve beyond the person we were a minute before! Little by little we advance a bit further with each turn! That's how a drill works!!

On a more serious note, I do believe so, yes, but most will go unoticed for a long time, due to the insignifigant changes.

 

[Zipa]

How is having blue eyes a genetic defect

Realisticaly it isn't, an argument could be made in terms of sexual selection that it could be an advantage or disadvantage, or a non factor. All on how you wanna define it, that is where the arguments come in evolution, the fact evolution happens isn't, it is all the little why's that are.

As I say, allelic frequency in a population over time.

The thing is the change doesn't need to be an advantage or disadvantage, there are many that do basicaly nothing.

defect is the wrong word really, its a genetic mutation, a accident if you will.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3323607/Blue-eyes-result-of-ancient-genetic-mutation.html

Indeed. Blue eyes in mammals, other than humans, is actualy quite rare if I recall correctly.

Mutation is a word that people confuse a lot too, often drives me mad when people hear mutation then think of say x-men type stuff, or that it'd be something "bad".

I love the subject of evolution.

I generally have a love of science, and it really amazes me sometimes how little people seemed to pay to it in school. I did this stuff nearly 10 years ago and still remember a good amount of it.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

This is just a thought which came to me the other day. I was looking out the window of the bus and realised how far humanity has come since the early days. Scientific and technological advancements have compensated for nearly all our shortcomings. Cars, heavy machinery, computers, medical achievements, have allowed us to become lords of the planet.
Then a thought struck me; have we taken ourselves outside of evolution? Wild animals have predation, harsh weather conditions, foraging or hunting for food, sickness, and a myriad other worries, but for humans, dangerous animals can be repelled or destroyed, houses (and in extreme cases, bunkers) protect us from the weather, or food is easier to access than ever, and we have a greater understanding of diseases and inherent frailties and how to compensate for them than ever before. So I wonder, do humans have ANY remaining evolutionary pressures, in the First World climate at least, and if so what traits would they select for?

As long as our environment changes, and new factors are added to those environments, we will never stop evolving. Evolution does not stop with technology, technology simply makes the process of Evolution around us daily seem more irrelevant than it really is - it distracts us from a far more subtle process than most people realize it is (as in, the most noticeable effects of Evolution do not work in decades, but rather in centuries - or even thousands/hundreds of thousands of years, or even millions to billions of years). It's an unthinking, inhuman force of nature that has no "concern" for anything or anyone. We could no sooner stop Evolution than we could stop the inevitable rebound of our Universe into another Big Bang in billions of years time.

So, no. We have not.

The human evolution is done, I think, at least the significant parts of it. Evolution (as I understand it) happens out of need (and can, as such, not be a selective process), and since we've firmly established ourselves at the very top of the food chain and developed technology to help us overcome our inbuilt limitations, the need has ceased, and therefore so has the evolutionary process.
Who knows, maybe in a few thousand years our bodies will wise up and ditch unnecessary components like the little toe or the appendix, but other than that, yeah, no more change.

That said, if we could select the direction of further (hypothetical) evolutionary process, I'd opt for an extra set of arms and the ability to levitate. (Too bad it wouldn't do me any good, since the fruits of evolution are only yielded to subsequent generations.)

Then you really need to take another science class, sir, as your interpretation of Evolution is rather naive. The Common Cold, Cancer and Modern Medicine (Germ Theory) alone refute your theory that Evolution only works during human times of necessity - heck, it even works against us at times. Evolution does not care about the conditions humans, animals, or any other living being in the universe. It's simply a process that occurs because it does, not unlike gravity. It's always there, but it's not always going to be noticeable to you. In-fact, very rarely so.

 

[RobCoxxy]

Humans have.....evolved? Not from what I've just seen in the crowd lurking outside of McDonalds.

I see us splitting off into two evolutionary groups, the preferable traits for partners now (tall, smart, good looking) and your Jeremy Kyle/Jerry Springer evolutionary backwash (thick, fuck ugly, Daily Mail readers)

I don't know what each will come to, but I think this idea is hilarious.

 

[JochemDude]

Our society is based around making life as easy as possible, so... Will probably become weaker and weaker because we don't have to overcome as much physical challenges, dumber and dumber now we don't need our brains to hunt/survive anymore.

 

[mateushac]

The human evolution is done, I think, at least the significant parts of it. Evolution (as I understand it) happens out of need (and can, as such, not be a selective process), and since we've firmly established ourselves at the very top of the food chain and developed technology to help us overcome our inbuilt limitations, the need has ceased, and therefore so has the evolutionary process.
)

I'm pretty sure you've never played an RTS...

YOU-NEVER-CEASE-EXPANSION!
NEVER!!!!


(or else them aliens will be comming with palladins and gunmen while we only have men-at-arms and scouts)

 

[Commodore Lorenzo The Third]

Humans are no longer evolving as other animals on this earth do, animals can evolve through gaining mutations in their DNA which then may serve to help them survive in a changing environment. These newly acquired characteristics produced during gamete (sperm / egg) creation can aid the animal to survive and make it more likely to reproduce and pass on this new DNA. This process repeats itself and a new species with this characteristic may come about. This is survival of the fittest and is generally quite a solid way of sorting the advantageous mutations from the problem causing mutations.

Humans are now through technology correcting the symptoms of normally debilitating mutations, allowing people carrying DNA that would usually be a huge disadvantage to reproduce and spread the DNA. This is by no means a terrible thing in the short term, but it does mean that in the long term we are getting far higher incidences of hereditary diseases and traits. For example Cystic Fibrosis patients now live a lot longer due to treatment and can now reach ages where they can have kids, the CTFR gene can then be passed on to offspring and these offspring may be affected. Cystic Fibrosis would probably have a far lower incidence if it wasn't for treatment as sufferers would usually not go on to reproduce and the DNA would disappear with them. This is by no means an excuse to not treat Cystic Fibrosis patients and not to allow them a normal life.

Humans are no longer evolving for the better, there are many different aspects but we are evolving into reliance on our technology and medicines. Its a very complicated question that cannot be answered in one post

 

[Terminate421]

We are getting taller. Why do you think I am hitting my head against everything in public places?

 

[Sonicron]

The human evolution is done, I think, at least the significant parts of it. Evolution (as I understand it) happens out of need (and can, as such, not be a selective process), and since we've firmly established ourselves at the very top of the food chain and developed technology to help us overcome our inbuilt limitations, the need has ceased, and therefore so has the evolutionary process.
)

I'm pretty sure you've never played an RTS...

YOU-NEVER-CEASE-EXPANSION!
NEVER!!!!


(or else them aliens will be comming with palladins and gunmen while we only have men-at-arms and scouts)

Yes. How could I forget.
Too bad our genome doesn't react to future threats.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

I figured i was gonna post a picture of Wolverine here as a joke, but then i figured that even as a joke, the thought of Hugh Jackman as the final evolutionary stage is pretty scary.

In all seriousness i really don't think you should bother giving this much thought unless you're in this field of research as a profession.

My thoughts are that we stand where we stand and evolution will naturally moveus along in due time. Genetic engineering might speed this process, but since i'm not part of any top secret research project i don't see the technological advances spreading to my decendants in still a few more generations.

 

[Dumbfish1]

Evolution isn't a linear process, there isn't some ultimate state humans can exist in. We adapt to out surroundings, so if, say, the world sea levels rise, all the animals that can adapt to rising sea levels will survive, killing off those unable to adapt. But luckily we have progressed far enough to be able to adapt our environment to us, as opposed to adapting ourselves to the environment. Think about all your air-conditioning, medicine, lack of predators, ect. that pose a real threat to the species. So if there was some environmental effect we couldn't control, say a particularly virulent apocalypse, then it would be to fast effecting for evolution to have any effect.

 

[babinro]

I'd imagine the greatest evidence of human evolution would be found in the tribal groups that are mostly devoid of technological conveniences. That said, as far as I know there is no significant difference between those groups and anyone else.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

apparently we are getting taller. Thats evolution right?

yes it is.

selective through sexual preference.


we are getting taller, smarter (by 3% every decade), the dominant digit on the hand has changed in just the last 20 years (from forefinger to thumb, because of the "tools" we use) blonds are likely to go extinct and i suppose eventually someone will be born without an appendix.

its not standing still

in fact recent developments have shown that changes are happening far faster than they previously though possible (the dominant finger thing really shocked evolutionary scientists)

what in the hell is this "dominant digit" on the hand thing? i have never heard it nor do i quite get what you are saying..

really curious actually.

and the blond thing? blonds are what i see 50-60% of the time, and most of them aren't dyed, so i don't know where your getting that source from..

 

[Kopikatsu]

Humans can't evolve any further. Evolution happens to further the survival of a species by passing down genes that assist in survival. (There are some evolutionary changes that don't matter much like eye color, but most of it is for survival.)

Because of the medical field and the refusal to 'cull' those with mental/physical deficiencies from the gene pool, humans have hit a plateau where ALL genes are getting passed down instead of just the good ones. It's too bad people were so against Eugenics.

 

[spartandude]

Evelution is a slow ongoing process. caused by small mutations that happen every new generation regardless whether the need for it is there or not, over time these mutations all add up to create something new whether for good or for worse, we WILL evolve simple as that

 

[Funky Flump]

I think we are constantly evolving but, I doubt we will see any noticeable changes any time soon, as really I don't thing there is any need to evolve further. We have no natural predators or anything to adapt to.

 

[azukar]

I'd like to evolve a second set of arms. Too many times I seem to get into situations where having an extra hand or two is just what I need.

(Had to sit there for a minute trying not to finish that sentence with "...would be handy.)

 

[Spineyguy]

How we evolve is dependent entirely on the trials we face as a species in the distant future. So it is unlikely that what we worry about now (finances, cancer, nuclear war, etc) will have much of an impact. The management of finances, for example, has only been an issue in general human society for about two-hundred years, which is an unfathomably tiny period on the scale of evolution.

It is therefore necessarily impossible to forecast what direction evolution will take humanity as a whole in, based simply on what we experience now. We are currently at a blip in our existence, where technology and society are progressing at a massively accelerated rate compared with the rest of human history, this is because of things like the discovery of electricity, or the splitting of the atom. It is unreasonable to expect this rate of progression to happen for a period of more than about 500 years, so what follows this rapid advancement will have more of an effect on human evolution than the foreseeable future.

A good place to look at for this sort of thing is somewhere like Africa which, because of the harsh climate and constantly shifting balance of power, naturally progresses at a very slow rate. So people in the third world will probably develop slower and more sophisticated metabolisms to cope with long periods of famine, they will become better at storing water in their bodies, become resistant to some common diseases and the such-like. Evolution will be quite pronounced in these societies because of the dire situations they're in. As long as the west remains dominant, affluent and comfortable, we won't evolve much at all.

Like I say, this is wild speculation and my inexpert opinion is, in all likelihood, horribly incorrect.

 

[floppylobster]

This is just a thought which came to me the other day. I was looking out the window of the bus and realised how far humanity has come since the early days. Scientific and technological advancements have compensated for nearly all our shortcomings. Cars, heavy machinery, computers, medical achievements, have allowed us to become lords of the planet.
Then a thought struck me; have we taken ourselves outside of evolution? Wild animals have predation, harsh weather conditions, foraging or hunting for food, sickness, and a myriad other worries, but for humans, dangerous animals can be repelled or destroyed, houses (and in extreme cases, bunkers) protect us from the weather, or food is easier to access than ever, and we have a greater understanding of diseases and inherent frailties and how to compensate for them than ever before. So I wonder, do humans have ANY remaining evolutionary pressures, in the First World climate at least, and if so what traits would they select for?

I think the biggest mistake most people make when considering humans and evolution is to see humans and evolution as separate; to see humans as somehow outside of evolutionary processes. Yes we made houses and access food easily but how is that any different from a bird's nest, or a bird's ability to fly to various food sources across the world? It's slightly more complex, that's all.

We are not beyond evolution. Everything we do is part of evolution, yet somehow we continually seem to see ourselves as somehow above it and master of our fate. What we do is complex and impressive - to ourselves - but of course it seems that way, we're using human brains to comprehend it.

I applaud anyone who questions human evolution, but I urge you not to see ourselves as above or separated from it. If we were masters of our own fate then there would be a billion things that would be different in the world today. Make no mistake, we are in a constant struggle for survival. Whether we are aware of it or not. And not just against the environment, against each other as well.

Think of it in terms of the millions of years evolution can take place over. What you do for a living versus that person up the road who works harder, tries harder to find a mate, raises their children differently. A thousand years from now their family tree could outnumber yours 1000 to 1. Or maybe your family line will be extinct altogether? What traits are being selected? Those that survive and flourish.