Next Step in Human Evolution

PrivateDonut writes "Where is evolution taking our species? MSNBC has up an article that examines where evolution could take the human race. The gist of it is that no further evolution will occur unless humans can be separated into isolated groups." From the article: "Such ideas may sound like little more than science-fiction plot lines. But trend-watchers point out that we're already wrestling with real-world aspects of future human development, ranging from stem-cell research to the implantation of biocompatible computer chips. The debates are likely to become increasingly divisive once all the scientific implications sink in." Class, please read Transmetropolitan for homework.

Comments

Re:The politics of evolution have failed.

[quiffhanger]

Exactly: many people seem to forget that the key concept behind evolution is "survival of the fittest". Just because we require dexterious thumbs for playing our playstations doesn't mean our offspring will magically be born with superior thumbs unless, of course, in some scary extension of multiplayer games our survival did really depend upon our playstation skills :)

However, IMHO evolution is still occuring - the causes have simply changed. People who fail to reproduce nowadays are the ones who fail to find a mate - which in today's society is intrinsically linked to your social skills...

In which case - I have some serious doubts about the future of the slashdot crowd ;)

Re:Really looking at the situation

[Oscar_Wilde]

Over the next few centuries, the average IQ of the human race will drop to 60-70.

I think you mean the average will drop to 60-70 using the current scale. The average itself wont change. It's 100 by definition.

Re:One word - Disease

[Fyz]

Sure, but 25%? The great Spanish Flu of 1918 killed 25 million people out of around 2 billion. And that was before we knew about viruses.

Success actually

[2nd Post!]

You misunderstand evolution if you think it's not working.

The current situation, where everyone survives, works in favor of evolution. It means when the next catastrophe occurs (whether it be killer allergies, poison canaries, pollution, parasitic ants, whatever), we will have a hundredfold more diverse genetic pool than if we were thinned out because less people survived.

To put it succinctly, we are currently in a phase where the geneline is being enriched.

Re: Evolution is not rational

[E_elven]

No, no, no! You may understand this correctly but there are so many who do not so even stating it incorrectly is dangerous.

Obviously other animals have evolved to adapt to their surroundings, birds have evolved to be lighweight so they can stay in the air, --

No, birds can stay in the air because they are lightweight.

-- fish in very deep and dark water have evolved to have colourful lights on them,

No, the other fish just died.

polar bears to have lots of fur, and so on..

The ones without fur, also, died.

The one Really Big Thing about evolution is that there is no purpose. The fittest do not survive, it is just that the least fit die off.

Similarly us humans can only wonder at our own complexity because we are so complex that we are capable of wondering.