Hawking Says Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution

movesguy sends us to The Daily Galaxy for comments by Stephen Hawking about how humans are evolving in a different way than any species before us. Quoting: "'At first, evolution proceeded by natural selection, from random mutations. This Darwinian phase, lasted about three and a half billion years, and produced us, beings who developed language, to exchange information. I think it is legitimate to take a broader view, and include externally transmitted information, as well as DNA, in the evolution of the human race,' Hawking said. In the last ten thousand years the human species has been in what Hawking calls, 'an external transmission phase,' where the internal record of information, handed down to succeeding generations in DNA, has not changed significantly. 'But the external record, in books, and other long lasting forms of storage,' Hawking says, 'has grown enormously. Some people would use the term evolution only for the internally transmitted genetic material, and would object to it being applied to information handed down externally. But I think that is too narrow a view. We are more than just our genes.'"

Comments

Re:Evolution does not work solely through mutation

[russotto]

We are simply carriers for genese. Evolution is gene centric. Most of your genes are useless to you. Stuff that is stupid at a critter level can make perfect sense at a gene level. Those little bastards are using us, and don't care about us at all, as long as we breed.

Don't anthropomorphize genes; they don't like it.

Evolution just needs seperate populations and/or environments. Eventually populations diverge and become more suited to their environments.

Evolution also needs variation. Mutation is one mechanism which provides that (though not the only one).

Re:What's his point?

[MightyMartian]

Well, first of all, humans are still evolving. I understand Hawking's point, but he's understating one aspect of our species to overstate the other.

I'll take his point, but I'll say none of this just began with literacy. The change in our evolution, if you can call it that, started with culture, and culture started a lot earlier than books, a lot earlier, in fact, than humans. Our closest relatives, the higher primates, show, to one degree or another, those abilities too.

Re:Only honest discussions are useful.

[AhtirTano]

So you're saying that the Scientific Method is bunk?

No, that's not what he said at all.

Re:What's his point?

[ldcroberts]

His argument must be about genetic engineering. Some people might assume it's his view that external knowledge being part of evolution is what's different, but it's not - as anyone with any real contemplation will point out - external transfer of information has been happening in many other species for many millions of years. An example would be the documented case of Blue Tits pecking through milk bottle lids on doorsteps to get at the milk. One bird started it, others copied, new generations of birds observed and copied it. Information was passed down. http://www.britishbirdlovers.co.uk/articles/blue-tits-and-milk-bottle-tops.html

Re:Only honest discussions are useful.

[Kaeles]

He said nothing of the sort, he said knowing math and science does not make you more intelligent, it makes you more knowledgeable, theres quite a bit of difference there.
The IQ test does not, NOT, measure pure intelligence, it assumes that you have working knowledge of language and math.
So, in short, intelligence has nothing to do with specific types of knowledge, it has to do with how well you can reason and think and observe.

Punctuation Nazi here

[jnork]

Way, too, many, commas.

Sorry, I know not everybody cares, but some of us find it harder to read when we're distracted by spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. It's sort of like hearing sour notes in music.

Feel free to ignore me. I'm just venting.