Has Human Evolution Stopped?

[Colmc54]

In fact, having reached our pinnacle of scientific discovery are we now on a regressive path leading to our eventual extinction as a species ?

[Peter Pedant]

No,

all sorts of things wrong with this question - for a start we dont know if we have reached a pinnacle, it is certainly by no means clear that extinction follows that ( think dodo, or whales )

darwin and the ascent of man is soooo nineteenth century - well Darwin has been suitable re written for a new age but the idea of evolutionary ascent is erm extinct.

the idea that evolution gives rise to the best is the biological equiv of the Whig view of History ( it always get better - the recent hx of Iran spectacularly refutes that one )

[bibblebub]

the age of human transgenics hasn't yet begun

[Old_Geezer]

Evolution never truly stops. Even if a species manages to reach best fit to their present environment, environments tend to change.

Granted culture reduces risk and opts to find solutions intentionally but at most that is a temporary slow down of natural change.

[Peter Pedant]

oops yeah good point that is what I wanted to say too

ya cant stop evolution - it kinda marches on


If you have a strong stomach Colm try reading S J Gould's Structure of Evolutionary Theory - it is a thousand page suck but ma golly you know a lot about evolution when you read the end !

[Colmc54]

We're too primative.

[Peter Pedant]

um yeah OK ...... good point
I think I was answering another question

[Colmc54]

Like we have time to re-invent everybody!

[Hypognosis]

@Colmc54

There is currently no pressure to evolve - no selection process which is resulting in reproductive failure (not en masse, anyway). We can survive anywhere between the poles and the equator.

There is no pressure for any of the millions of 'less advanced' species to evolve: fish will continue to be fish; frogs will continue to be frogs. Likewise we will remain as we are.

Loss of habitat or global environmental change (eg high oxygen concentration supported bird-sized insects in the distant past) is what can trigger extinctions but even past global extinction events had survivors and the freeing up of habitat niches is what enables natural diversity to lead to speciation and thus evolution.

I cannot claim that human evolution has stopped. It would be hard to gather supporting evidence if it was indeed so.

Comparison with archaeological remains reveals that we have less robust facial features, more cases of impacted wisdom teeth; there are more caesarian births due to women having narrower hips, effectively removing the selection pressure which, in the past, probably killed women in their first attempt at childbirth.

Likewise, there is no selection pressure against having wonky teeth any more. Everyone gets a brace, ends up with a film-star smile and better odds of getting their choice of good-looking partner, instead of having to settle for the best they can get.

Which is why you now need a small mortgage for dental work. They have us over a barrell. (The future of our NHS, I fear).

[Togo]

//Has Human Evolution Stopped?//

Only on Ab.

[EDDIE51]

We are rapidly approaching the point where there will simply be more people than the Earth can support. There are currently 7 billion people on Earth, the maximum number of people that the planet can support is about 10 billion.
Some estimates say that we will reach 10 billion by 2050 ! Just 35 years from now. We may not become extinct but we will certainly have adapt / evolve and cut down the population.

[Colmc54]

We're too primative to get to Mars. We're too primative to make it to the stars.

[ToraToraTora]

In the physical sense, yes, thousands of years ago, too many faults now survive, so I'd say it has stopped. However it could be argued that we have entered a sort of evolution overdrive in that we are sufficiently advanced to have negated the factors that apply to most of the animal kingdom and moved beyond mere natural selection.

[Colmc54]

I disagree. All we should consider now is our legacy. What will we leave behind that will help future sentient species, radiation perhaps?
In the eyes of the evolutionary process that determines what species survive and those that will not we are insignificant.
We could help our planet by l9earning to control our population and finding a way to live within the finite resources it can offer us.
Sadly for some it wll never be enough and so we will become extinct.
How do you feel about that?
Were all our wars about differences between people who were different in some way from you make you feel better or worse when we finally face our self-inflicted extinction.

[Colmc54]

Or not?

[Colmc54]

We're too primative. We will become extinct. End of.

[Khandro]

It was once axiomatic (though not referred to as such) that, for your descendants, you left the land better than you found it. Alas this is no longer the case.

[Colmc54]

Too true Khllandro. We will not, we will leave a world harder for the next generation to survive in. And so the insanity we call human civilisation will continue till our failure this learn the meaning of the word 'finite' finally becomes all too clear. We will do what we've always done and go to war against ourselves and our home this planet Earth.
Our mother Earth will still have billions of years to allow a more intelligent species to evolve. They will surpass us because they will know they were not the first.
Will that be our legacy?

[johnny37]

Evolution assumes the strongest, fittest, (in human terms) wealthiest survive. If you ignore wars this is happening now between have and have nots. Look at the survival rates between Glasgow and Hampstead. It is now possible to add or take negative genes out of your DNA. Imagine a future world where lack of height, diabetes, tooth decay, etc etc could be removed from the DNA automatically until no negative genes exist. It is said that Jamaica is good at sport because only the strongest genes survived slavery. Yes, the world may become over populated but Im not going to worry about that for now!

[AB Editor]

Concept of the great filter explored here: http://www.nickbostrom.com/extraterrestrial.pdf - which should relate to your idea of whether we're on our way to extinction.

[jomifl]

You only have to see how quickly society is changing to realise that human evolution is probably speeding up.