Geneticist Claims Human Evolution Is Over

GogglesPisano writes "UK geneticist Steve Jones gave a presentation entitled Human Evolution Is Over. He asserts that human beings have stopped evolving because modern social customs have lowered the age at which human males have offspring, which results in fewer of the mutations necessary to drive evolutionary change. Apparently the fate of our species now depends upon older guys hooking up with younger woman. I, for one, welcome this development."

Comments

My new mission is to save our species

[the_other_one]

All I have to do is to convince my wife to allow me to quit my job. She can provide the income for the family. I will do my duty to save our species by opening a non profit impregnation clinic.

Mostly bunk

[taustin]

Steven Novella deconstructs this nonsense with his usual thoroughness. The executive summary is that Jones got a lot of facts wrong, and that mutation is overrated as a factor in evolution anyway.

Re:Darwinian evolution?

[pacificleo]

Interesting . Does it means that those few , who are genetically superior [ an unearned privilege btw ] have a unsurmountable lead on the rest of the species . can someone work his way up to smartness and hope that Genetics will be kind to his children . think of JeWS .According to Hitler and his contemporaries they had low IQ and they are bringing down the IQ .Today they are considered to be most intelliegent race in world. they are a living example of environmental factors outdoing genetic factors and may be spilling over to genetic factors. this is how it should be . this is how its supposed to be .

Re:Right for the wrong reasons

[thepotoo]

"talking shit and lying out your ass" has almost no heritable fitness. It's a learned behavior, so you won't see evolution for or against it.

You are confusing Social Darwinism and biological evolution. Your last sentence is correct, though.

Re:Darwinian evolution?

[Toll_Free]

I wonder, if with the prevelenace of cosmetic surgery, will it eventually effect the gene pool?

I mean, if we cut off EVERY black mans left arm when they where born, wouldn't that trickle down genetically eventually (honest question, only using blaq mang as a word, not racially.... Change it to chinese, Japanese, American, Caucasian, etc to suit your needs).

--Toll_Free