Human evolution.

[tovaris]

First thing is first, if your one of those who dont believe in evolutin just because it is true, dont post (to put it miledly)
ok so to the mather at hand
what do you think is in our society under most evolutionary presure? What will we evolve? Will we loose/gain any body fetures?

[ImCoolBeans]

Our next feature to lose will probably be the pinky toe or tail bone. I would say the appendix, but it's believed that the appendix does serve a purpose as it harbors white blood cells.

Maybe our thumbs will also develop differently with the way technology is moving forward. We'll have "texting thumbs."
I also think over a long period of time our spines may develop slightly differently, as people sit far more often now than they did ~50 years ago. It does take hundreds, and thousands of years to evolve/adapt, but if society keeps going at this rate for that amount of time, that's my guess for what we'll adapt to.

[sqishy]

Personally I think our evolutionary rate has almost reached a standstill because almost all the genes made are being let to live, much less death in our world than before and because of that there's just more living, not survival of the most adapted

[Vlerchan]

I believe that human's will be in control of their own evolution before major differences, such as tail-bone adoption, etc., occurs.

[Gamma Male]

I believe that human's will be in control of their own evolution before major differences, such as tail-bone adoption, etc., occurs.

Yeah, this. By the year 300,000 we'll either all be dead, or be so technologically advanced we'll be like the Q from Star Trek.

[Miserabilia]

basicly what coolbeans said, but will we be long around to notice and save the data of the changes, or will society be gone by then?
I think the main question is if we are getting more intelligent.

The thing is, that we are so intelligent that we can determine whether we will evolve to be more intelligent or not.
Sounds weird, how?
Well, by sexual selection which probably also contributed to our current intelligence;
if intelligent people can have more children, and those children have a good life and get kids themselves (If they are as intelligent as their parents)

Sadly it's not really happening,
because even though alot of intelligent people lead healthier and longer lives, they have fewer kids,
which may eventualy result in a less inteligent population.

There is a GREAT movie about this ("Idiocracy"). It's comedy but there's a lot of truth to it, I REALLY reccomend it, 10/10

[tovaris]

Personally I think our evolutionary rate has almost reached a standstill because almost all the genes made are being let to live, much less death in our world than before and because of that there's just more living, not survival of the most adapted

i agre, but what about sexual selection?

[sqishy]

i agre, but what about sexual selection?
Could be different there

[Camazotz]

We don't lose vestigial organs, that's a common misconception. We're going to be keeping our appendixes, pinky toes, and wisdom teeth. I guess it's possible to artificially select against them with future technology, but I'm assuming that we're talking about natural selection here. Another misconception is that evolution has stopped due to the emergence of culture. Humans (and all life forms) will always continue to evolve.

basicly what coolbeans said, but will we be long around to notice and save the data of the changes, or will society be gone by then?
I think the main question is if we are getting more intelligent.

Homo sapiens are intelligent beings. How much smarter are we than humans 40,000 ears ago? Not very much. It seems like we know a lot more because we've learned as a societal population many things through culture, but we've had the potential to learn these things for thousands of years. So no, we're not going to get super-intelligent because it's not selectively advantageous to our species. That idea ("what kinds of things will we learn in the future?") is completely unrelated to evolution.

To be honest, I'm kind of surprised at the number of responses containing misconceptions of how evolution works. In 2014, there's nothing selectively advantageous for not having a pinky toe or wisdom teeth because they don't affect reproductive strategies. There's no specific trend that evolution follows either: bigger, stronger, smarter won't happen if it's not advantageous to reproduction, which it's not.

[Miserabilia]

Homo sapiens are intelligent beings. How much smarter are we than humans 40,000 ears ago? Not very much. It seems like we know a lot more because we've learned as a societal population many things through culture, but we've had the potential to learn these things for thousands of years. So no, we're not going to get super-intelligent because it's not selectively advantageous to our species. That idea ("what kinds of things will we learn in the future?") is completely unrelated to evolution.

To be honest, I'm kind of surprised at the number of responses containing misconceptions of how evolution works. In 2014, there's nothing selectively advantageous for not having a pinky toe or wisdom teeth because they don't affect reproductive strategies. There's no specific trend that evolution follows either: bigger, stronger, smarter won't happen if it's not advantageous to reproduction, which it's not.

I know I wasn't refering to that.
I was pondering if we are still slowly developing bigger brains or if that part of our evolution is really completely finished; or maybe we are selectively getting less inteligent (as in less developed brains).

[Hudor]

We don't lose vestigial organs, that's a common misconception. We're going to be keeping our appendixes, pinky toes, and wisdom teeth. I guess it's possible to artificially select against them with future technology, but I'm assuming that we're talking about natural selection here. Another misconception is that evolution has stopped due to the emergence of culture. Humans (and all life forms) will always continue to evolve.



Homo sapiens are intelligent beings. How much smarter are we than humans 40,000 ears ago? Not very much. It seems like we know a lot more because we've learned as a societal population many things through culture, but we've had the potential to learn these things for thousands of years. So no, we're not going to get super-intelligent because it's not selectively advantageous to our species. That idea ("what kinds of things will we learn in the future?") is completely unrelated to evolution.

To be honest, I'm kind of surprised at the number of responses containing misconceptions of how evolution works. In 2014, there's nothing selectively advantageous for not having a pinky toe or wisdom teeth because they don't affect reproductive strategies. There's no specific trend that evolution follows either: bigger, stronger, smarter won't happen if it's not advantageous to reproduction, which it's not.

Plus I would like to add a new tangent- genetic engineering. Over the years the number of GMOs being cultivated have increased steadily. It wouldn't be wrong to say that DNA modification is not that far.
However would it be for the better or worse is a question that requires much pondering upon. After all who can limit our future but ourselves?

[Camazotz]

I know I wasn't refering to that.
I was pondering if we are still slowly developing bigger brains or if that part of our evolution is really completely finished; or maybe we are selectively getting less inteligent (as in less developed brains).

Our brains are smaller now than they were 10,000 years ago before the adoption of agriculture. Now that we are better nourished, they're getting back to that size, but it's not like we're actually more intelligent, it's just that we have more energy and nutrients available to us.

I guess it depends on your definition of intelligence, but I don't think intelligence will change very much. The poverty in less developed countries leads to malnutrition and less education, but I don't think that'll affect the species as a whole. I think the species will be fine in terms of intelligence; we should, however, be worried about other factors that threaten our species.

[Miserabilia]

Our brains are smaller now than they were 10,000 years ago before the adoption of agriculture. Now that we are better nourished, they're getting back to that size, but it's not like we're actually more intelligent, it's just that we have more energy and nutrients available to us.

I guess it depends on your definition of intelligence, but I don't think intelligence will change very much. The poverty in less developed countries leads to malnutrition and less education, but I don't think that'll affect the species as a whole. I think the species will be fine in terms of intelligence; we should, however, be worried about other factors that threaten our species.

Yup it's just a difference in the definition of intelligence.
I should have said something like brain capacity, or whatever; I can't find the right term for it.

Anyway, I aggree that we should worry about other factors, but intelligence (the type I said earlier) is definetly one of those things;
it's undeniable that if more intelligent people have less to no children and less intelligent people have many that there is a slow downward curve in the intelligence of the country of region where this is happening.

I think it's hard to explain,
but it might be a problem soon.

[Left Now]

This may answer your question : :yeah:

Evolution (http://vimeo.com/63473414)

But seriously I think human evolution has reached its maximum range for now until about 7,000,000,000 years later....

[Miserabilia]

This may answer your question : :yeah:

Evolution (http://vimeo.com/63473414)

But seriously I think human evolution has reached its maximum range for now until about 7,000,000,000 years later....

Why?
Evolution doesn't just stop, unless we consciously try to not evolve with sexual selection or maniuplation or something???

[Left Now]

Why?
Evolution doesn't just stop, unless we consciously try to not evolve with sexual selection or maniuplation or something???

Well,generally I meant evolution doesn't just happen at a pace.Your body will be evolved little by little,and this little by little evolution may take millions of years until gets completely done,do not you agree?

[Camazotz]

Well,generally I meant evolution doesn't just happen at a pace.Your body will be evolved little by little,and this little by little evolution may take millions of years until gets completely done,do not you agree?

Sometimes evolution is slow and sometimes it is quick (usually it's slow and gradual change though). And it doesn't take millions of years either, gradual evolution can take less than a million years. Fast evolution can take less than 100,000 years. Microorganisms evolve much quicker, and bacteria can evolve in just a few days.

Humans probably won't evolve biologically much over the next few centuries, but if there's a cataclysmic change in the environment, it can definitely speed up.

[Left Now]

Sometimes evolution is slow and sometimes it is quick (usually it's slow and gradual change though). And it doesn't take millions of years either, gradual evolution can take less than a million years. Fast evolution can take less than 100,000 years. Microorganisms evolve much quicker, and bacteria can evolve in just a few days.

Humans probably won't evolve biologically much over the next few centuries, but if there's a cataclysmic change in the environment, it can definitely speed up.

Of course we were talking about Human Evolution.Anyway thanks for explaining.

[Miserabilia]

Well,generally I meant evolution doesn't just happen at a pace.Your body will be evolved little by little,and this little by little evolution may take millions of years until gets completely done,do not you agree?

I aggree; but this counts mainly for non sexualy reproducing orgnanisms.
We on the other hand have sexual selection,
so in theory, we can evolve or adapt much faster than other species.
For example, if people with abnormaly long legs are concidered more attractive for some reason, and keep being found more attractive, they get more mates and therefore more children and voila,
after only hunderds of years the average human leg length will be much longer.