Humanity's Next Evolution?

[Deathsane]

its actually gonna be a de-evolution and we shall start slouching over and turn back into monkeys.

 

[mrhappyface]

We'll lose all our hair, and become a bit taller.

That's probably it.

So we'll become helghansThe bad guys from Killzone.?

Will we all gain British accents and have to wear gasmasks?

 

[RanD00M]

Will we all gain British accents and have to wear gasmasks?

I certainly hope so.It would be so bad ass.

 

[Kinguendo]

Do I have to place some kind of order for my evolution? I'll take the wings, with a side order of increased cognitive functions.

But seriously, it will probably be cognitive functions... at least for our own sake I hope it is... we appear to be in an incredibly dangerous area, intellectually speaking, at the moment.

 

[laststandman]

with the creation of society comes the creation of conformity as a method of survival. if we conform, it is easier to survive in the hostile world of society.
nonconformity is met with hatred from other members of society, and therefore those who do not conform do not survive. imagine if there was a person who could breathe underwater, but looked like Voldemort from Harry Potter. even though he may be more adept for survival than other humans, society would look down upon him for being ugly and not want to mate with him, and he would die without passing on his beneficial survival trait.
therefore, society itself will prohibit human evolution

But our environment changes us. For example, people who's ancestors have lived in Tibet or similar high evalation areas have larger hearts and larger lungs than say, people living on low evalation like in the Pacific Islands.

However, our bodies just dont decide to change because of the environment, they change due to genetic mutations. we are, essentially an ultramutated species that is more capable of surviving than the last. thats why Neanderthals died out, because they needed more calories to survive than we did. with that in mind, a genetic mutation that altered somebody's appearance would be negatively received even though their capabilities may exceed that of other humans, society will deem them to be unattractive and their genetics will stand a much lower chance of being passed on. therefore society stunts evolution on a grand scheme

Ah, but wasn't dark skin considered repulsive and second class until about 30 or so years ago?

Only for a brief time in certain countries. 1950's America does not accurately represent all of Earth's societies throughout the ages, racism took time to develop and decline. More to the point, dark skins evolved, over time, to combat the cancerous rays of the sun; it wasn't like one person was jet black in a land of chalkies, it took many generations of gradually darker people to produce that paragon of evolutionary achievement we know today.

That goes back to the concept of society blocking human evolution. In ancient times it was considered repulsive and ridiculous to have a large penis. therefore people with smaller penises were chosen as mates more often. in that same respect, there are certain traits that we find repulsive and attractive today. however there are so many different social values all over the world that make it impossible for one trait to gain such a superiority in the world that it creates an evolutionary change. not everybody mates based on genetic superiority, and those who do are few in numbers. the introduction of logic and passion to the human mind is what stops us from universally mating for genetic superiority.

 

[Shapsters]

Evolution smevolution, we'll advance ourselves with technology and never find out what evolution would have done.

I agree, the time it would take for evolution to happen, our technology will be so advanced it wont matter because we are already enhanced.

 

[Veylon]

Only for a brief time in certain countries. 1950's America does not accurately represent all of Earth's societies throughout the ages, racism took time to develop and decline. More to the point, dark skins evolved, over time, to combat the cancerous rays of the sun; it wasn't like one person was jet black in a land of chalkies, it took many generations of gradually darker people to produce that paragon of evolutionary achievement we know today.

That goes back to the concept of society blocking human evolution. In ancient times it was considered repulsive and ridiculous to have a large penis. therefore people with smaller penises were chosen as mates more often. in that same respect, there are certain traits that we find repulsive and attractive today. however there are so many different social values all over the world that make it impossible for one trait to gain such a superiority in the world that it creates an evolutionary change. not everybody mates based on genetic superiority, and those who do are few in numbers. the introduction of logic and passion to the human mind is what stops us from universally mating for genetic superiority.

I'm not claiming that people choose they're mating partners based on genetic qualities, rather that genetic qualities determine what's available. People with darker skins in tropical climates are more likely to survive to the age of reproduction, thus the available pool of mating partners is biased towards darker skins. It's not a choice between white and black, as everyone at each stage will have pretty much the same hue, but a series of slightly darker people each generation, the differences are negligible over a human lifespan, but add up over thousands of years. No one is "choosing" a darker skin.

Penis size doesn't matter much for survival, and thus is susceptible to the social selection you point out, but skin color preempts that selection, as lighter hues are weeded out by nature before selection occurs.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

You can say that again.
I'm more inclined to think that humanity is starting to de-evolve.

 

[blindthrall]

Devolution can't happen. The only way humans evolve now is breeding selection. Not what we find attractive, just who has more kids. Some study came out and said future women will be shorter and fatter, with the most prominent characteristic being a huge ass. And I'm inclined to believe Idiocracy, so the future will be a bunch of stupid dwarves...preyed on by nocturnal subterranean trolls, which of course are my descendants. HG Wells was the man.

 

[Blanks]

Well i'm hoping for either gills for when the world floods or wings ... uh ...for when the world floods

 

[Skeleon]

We'll lose all our hair, and become a bit taller.

That's probably it.

Probably even bigger heads, too, making natural birth impossible at one point.
Not that this will affect our survival in any way.