Article: Are human beings still evolving?

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-07-21 11:44pm

Really, for my opinion on the matter, read Asimov's "The End of Eternity"

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-07-22 01:13am

Seems accurate enough.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-07-22 01:29am

Pretty good article. This isn't the guy who told us the story of Fahrenheit and how he made a scale that made no sense but that got butchered later anyway because a spelling mistake or something?

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2003-07-22 01:55am

In a sense. In the US and most other developed nations, there aren't very many pressures on the gene pool to adapt quickly or die out. However, if something in our environment were to change significantly over time, then yes, people would probably evolve and adapt to their new environment.

Right now, only very slight changes are occurring in the human gene pool.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2003-07-22 01:12pm

All organisms are constantly evolving. We may be making great strides in medical technology, but some people DO reproduce more than others. Thats all evolution needs to work.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-07-22 03:24pm

I dont think any evolution is coming from external pressures like climate change or predation.

There might be some internal mechanisms in effect. Preferences for certain body types, hair color etc, but they are pretty minor in my opinion.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2003-07-22 04:55pm

To my knowledge, i thought every new generation is an evolution on the last, even if there's no noticable change beyond people being a different set of genes.

GREAHSIAM · Post by **GREAHSIAM** » 2003-07-22 05:30pm

My favorite bumper sticker was just three words long:
"Evolve, Damn It".
I hope that we humans will someday grow-up.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-07-22 05:42pm

Some humans are still evolving,others are de-evolving.

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2003-07-22 06:32pm

TrailerParkJawa wrote: There might be some internal mechanisms in effect. Preferences for certain body types, hair color etc, but they are pretty minor in my opinion.

It's called sexual selection, and it irritates me how often people overlook it. Natural selection isn't the be all-end all people!

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-07-22 07:55pm

XaLEv wrote:
TrailerParkJawa wrote: There might be some internal mechanisms in effect. Preferences for certain body types, hair color etc, but they are pretty minor in my opinion.
It's called sexual selection, and it irritates me how often people overlook it. Natural selection isn't the be all-end all people!

Ah, thank you. I could not remember the right term. I dont know how much of a role sexual selection would play in modern society. I think the best looking and smartest people, get the best looking and smartest mates. They enjoy the higher rungs of society, but ugly and poor people seem to produce more babies.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2003-07-23 12:37pm

TrailerParkJawa wrote:Ah, thank you. I could not remember the right term. I dont know how much of a role sexual selection would play in modern society. I think the best looking and smartest people, get the best looking and smartest mates. They enjoy the higher rungs of society, but ugly and poor people seem to produce more babies.

And so the total human population will gradually get dumber and uglier.

The rich ones usually don't want to have many kids because that means more people to share their wealth with. Poor people tend to think that more bodies means more people who can bring in income (they seem to forget that it takes several years before the kid can do this).

An attractive woman has a lot more leverage when it comes to getting the guy to wear a condom than an unattractive one has.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-07-23 02:53pm

TrailerParkJawa wrote:I dont think any evolution is coming from external pressures like climate change or predation.

Don't forget microbes are technically predatory, parasitical if you want to be precise, but they do kill people and force the pop to evolve. But because of rapid transportation, the human species will evolve all together or not at all.
If we make a colony that does not have rapid transit between there and earth, well we might come out with a new species.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-23 03:25pm

I would have to say that for all intents and purposes humans have ceased evolving, atleast significantly. we evolve immunities, and things like that, but modern medicine and technology makes it nigh impossible to evolve. humans no longer die if were genetically blind, or if we have disabilities, or if we have some horrible reaction to normal chemicals that would normally kill us. Humans no longer freeze to death or burn up in the heat because we tailor our environment to suit us, we no longer evolve to suit out environment. So in the sense of adaption to our environment and weeding out negative medical issues, then no we cannot be evolving because we're no longer dying to remove negative genes, we only have the random mutations.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-07-23 03:56pm

We are retarding our evolution, koji, yes... but short of making perfect clones of ourselves and never reproducing naturally, human beings will still evolve, however slightly.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-23 05:34pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:We are retarding our evolution, koji, yes... but short of making perfect clones of ourselves and never reproducing naturally, human beings will still evolve, however slightly.

Yes but for all intents anr purposes, we're not. Atleast not speciating. 100,000 years from now I suspect humans will be interbreedable with us now. Even a million years from now.

htg · Post by **htg** » 2003-07-23 06:07pm

Highly ironically, in the West it's currently the religious right (Muslim and Christian) that is evolutionarily much more succesful than the non or a-religious majority. In the community I come from, I with my four siblings are a small family. Six kids is 'bout average, and 13 is not unheard of.

I guess that means society is trending towards less intelligent, more easily manipulated individuals.

Back on topic, evolutionarily the human race is currently regressing. Far too many preemies (many of whom have less than ideal genes) are living, and passing their potentially harmful gene combinations to their own children, plus the excellent health care system is keeping people alive whose mental and physical fitness would otherwise have been weeded out of the population. What a sad, sad world.

Henk G.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-07-23 09:09pm

htg wrote:Back on topic, evolutionarily the human race is currently regressing. Far too many preemies (many of whom have less than ideal genes) are living, and passing their potentially harmful gene combinations to their own children, plus the excellent health care system is keeping people alive whose mental and physical fitness would otherwise have been weeded out of the population. What a sad, sad world.

Henk G.

Faulty logic. Precisely because of high medical care and a modern diet, etc, those genetic characteristics are no longer flaws. Genetic flaws would be things are predisposed toward preventing individuals from reproducing. Such as being ugly, stupid, or infertile.

David · Post by **David** » 2003-07-23 09:37pm

ugly, stupid, or infertile.

plastic surgery, computers, viagra

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-07-23 09:45pm

That makes it a class matter then doesn't it, because eventually all the rich white people will be all ugly dumb genes and all the poorer classes, mostly nonwhite, will have to adapt, be cleverer, and better looking.
Then comes jungle fever.

Eventually Geno-Fixing with be employed and certain imperfections can be done away with.

SoX · Post by **SoX** » 2003-07-23 09:49pm

Eventually Geno-Fixing with be employed and certain imperfections can be done away with.

like "monty python's flying circus",,eh rye?,,<sorry, in-joke there> or maybe the Pope.

David · Post by **David** » 2003-07-23 09:54pm

SyntaxVorlon wrote:rich white people

I live close to a neighborhood of rich white people. Of course, most of them got rich either by creating successful businesses or becoming doctors, so I can't agree with the dumb part.

And most of those people got the hot wives ( MILFs every one of them) and there children tend to reflect the mother more than the father more often than not, so I can't go with the ugly.

But they are most definitely rich and white.

Edit: SoX u is 1 ugly mofo.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-23 09:55pm

htg, thats a good example of memetic evolution, memes taking place of genes as the driving force for evolution. interesting concept, orions arm uses it lots.