Next Evolutionary Step?

Doc

So Darwin’s right and all you “Intelligent Design” people are wrong so what would you want our next step be?

Webbed feet to deal with rising see levels?

More UV resistant skin?

Telekinesis?

or just something like balls that can function on the inside?

Karl Hungus

Gills.

TestTransmission

Built in coffee percolator

Zillah

Technology is going to determine the fate of humanity before evolution gets much of a say.

That aside, evolutionary adaptation is dependent upon environment, so without knowing the future environment we cannot predict the future adaptations.

I'm hoping for telekinesis though.

Our dicks to grow to 3 feet long so we can inflate(or deflate) ourselves in times of severe flooding.

super_furry

Could do with some more pockets.

shenanigans1982

Unlimited sets of teeth.

galwayrush

The ability for most people to use their brainpower. Far fetched but possible.:rolleyes:

Blazer

galwayrush wrote: »

The ability for most people to use their brainpower. Far fetched but possible.:rolleyes:

We'll know at the 2012 general election.
If FF get back in then we know that evolutionary, irish people have gone backwards and we're doomed.
In 50 years the monkeys will be our masters..


actually hasn't that happened already? goddamn apes :mad:

Sherifu

Sporks for hands.

WeeBushy

That we might stop biting the inside of our cheeks.

CreepingDeath

Doc wrote: »

So Darwin’s right and all you “Intelligent Design” people are wrong so what would you want our next step be?

We've little or no "natural selection" to weed out the poor genes.
Maybe more resistant immune systems are the most immediate need.

But the human race isn't getting any smarter on average cos the stupid people of the world are reproducing as much, if not more.

Biggest factor in human evolution will be sexual selection, what women go for. So expect the average height to continue up.
Also, with declining sperm counts across the entire natural world due to certain plastics mimicing female hormones, maybe there'll probably be a sperm arms race. Only the most fertile men will be able to have children unless artificially helped ( no, not by beer )

Wazdakka

I think it's going to go the other way.

There is such a pharma culture developing all over the world where people are taking drugs and treatments for everything.
Were getting paranoid about every little germ, sickness, and flu.
Obsessed with organic naturally germ free food.
going for the doc with the slightest sniffle and temperature.
Substituting our bodies with vitamin pills, anti oxidants and lactose casio immunitas or whatever.

I think out immune system is going to be completely shagged in a few generations.
It's just going to forget how to deal with the real world itself.

Swine Flu should be stored for future use as a WMD.

Poor Uncle Tom

Built in USB port, its positioning would be interesting though......:D

CreepingDeath

An extra arm would be handy for bringing more drinks from the bar in one run. Even a small pringles arm to start with.

Wazdakka

The ability to bring 4 girls to orgasm simultaneously.

I'm not greedy, one more would be enough.

pierrot

I think we'll be giant super beings, and I don't think we'll have hair you see, I think we'll be completely hairless, and I think at the end of the day, what will happen is, we'll be all more of less the same, but with bigger hands. And eyes. And sex organs. Look in the back of a spoon. In the bathroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUNRzlf37x4

Gurgle

If this wasn't after hours I'd say earlier puberty, later menopause and multiple births would become more common. Medical advancement allows practically any genetic condition to survive & breed so the advantage will be with those genes which breed most.

But since it is after hours: Our toes will grow longer until we can use a keyboard and mouse with our feet while our hands look after stuffing our faces with pizza and beer.

Mena

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

Built in USB port, its positioning would be interesting though......:D

You mean Jerry Jalava? Been there done that, though it's not exactly naturalistic evolution, more like unnatural selection :pac:

Wazdakka

pierrot wrote: »

I think we'll be giant super beings, and I don't think we'll have hair you see, I think we'll be completely hairless, and I think at the end of the day, what will happen is, we'll be all more of less the same, but with bigger hands. And eyes. And sex organs. Look in the back of a spoon. In the bathroom.

AHA!!
I knew it,
Evolution at work..

Naos

Larger and stronger thumbs due to texting.

lightening

It's going to take a looooong time, but, we will all be the same colour eventually. Probably a nice coffee colour.

Schism

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Gills.

Mutations!

Sherifu wrote: »

Sporks for hands.

A good thing, only if they're titanium though.

Something like this is very much guess work at this point. I do seem to remember a story though from Africa where a certain tribe has grown immune to a certain disease after years of people suffering from it. Can't remember the precise details but you get the idea.

fletch...

we'l form an imunity to hangovers.

Who is good at photoshop/paint. I vote we have an artist impression of the future human up here by the end of the week

Jesus Wept

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Gills.

*

*

9wetfckx43j5rg

Wierdly, scientist has said that babies are being born with slightly longer thumbs because the use of phones, texting , game consoles ect

Mena

Yadiel Worried Signpost wrote: »

Wierdly, scientist has said that babies are being born with slightly longer thumbs because the use of phones, texting , game consoles ect

Do you have a source for that? Because I call bulls$t! Evolution takes place through natural selection. Show me any selective pressures that would dictate longer thumbs as an advantage to the species?

WeeBushy

Mena wrote: »

Do you have a source for that? Because I call bulls$t! Evolution takes place through natural selection. Show me any selective pressures that would dictate longer thumbs as an advantage to the species?

+1, total BS.
There is no way that any substantial evidence could be gathered from only one generation. Along with the fact that I'm fairly sure women dont chose men to mate with by the length of their thumbs. Well I hope not anyway, I've got stubby thumbs...

9wetfckx43j5rg

No, I just remember hearing it on a news article.

I ain't an evolution expert, I think humans adapt to their environments just like plants and animals do. So it makes sense that that would start to happen. Maybe they are exaggerating their findings but it makes sense that it would.

dimejinky99

We're gonna evolve little arms at the small of our backs to be able to reach for toilet paper, which somehow is always behind us..very Monty Python but just watch..it'll happen!

Turtwig

An extra pipe in the neck. That way we'd have one pipe for breathing and the other one for eating and drinking. That'd way, I'd possibly never choke or shut up

WeeBushy

Yadiel Worried Signpost wrote: »

No, I just remember hearing it on a news article.

I ain't an evolution expert, I think humans adapt to their environments just like plants and animals do. So it makes sense that that would start to happen. Maybe they are exaggerating their findings but it makes sense that it would.

Well let me tell you that the news article is total BS.

We do adapt to our environment just like plants (and we are animals as well btw). However you only get adaptions when there is a pressure put on a specie by the environment, then the organisms that are best suited to the new environment are more likely survive and breed, and the advantageous characteristic is more likely to be kept in the population. The reason it is seen more easily in the plant kingdom and other more basic organisms is because their generation interval is way shorter than ours. You don't see a change from one generation to the next, it is extremely gradual.

Do you honestly believe that texting and playing more nintendo is putting and environmental pressure on us?

Turtwig

WeeBushy wrote: »

Do you honestly believe that texting and playing more nintendo is putting and environmental pressure on us?

Well evolution depends on who gets to reproduce more, right? The quicker you are to text, the better the chances become:p

GLaDOS

Hopefully, the ability for people to understand evolution.

WeeBushy

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Hopefully, the ability for people to understand evolution.

*sigh* if only... peoples' ignorance shocks me sometimes.

CianRyan

There's going to be a divide.
Because studiper(:rolleyes:) people have more babies and seem to care less and less about there educations and more and more about doing drugs. (I see this happening first hand, btw)

There'll be the smarter people as well. Smarted compared to the idiots and the smarter of our bunch too.
Though I reckon there will be less of the smarties.

Pygmalion

CianRyan wrote: »

seem to care less and less about there educations
...
There'll be the smarter people as well. Smarted compared to the idiots and the smarter of our bunch too.
Though I reckon there will be less of the smarties.

Well it hasn't happened yet surely.

CianRyan

Pygmalion wrote: »

Well it hasn't happened yet surely.

I'm dyslexic and have a flue, fcuked if I care about my spelling/grammar/punctuation right now.

Don't be an ass.

WeeBushy

CianRyan wrote: »

I'm dyslexic and have a flue, fcuked if I care about my spelling/grammar/punctuation right now.

Don't be an ass.

This is the internet, we revel in pointing out mistakes

Riddle101

I don't believe Humans will evolve anymore then they have. I think humans have come to the end of their evolution cycle. If the world does involve a next step in evolution it will proberly create an entirely different species. Or evolve another animal spieces.

Maybe something like this:D
http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/news/2007/10/26/read-all-about-it/dvd_read_all_about_it_261007_2s.jpg

WeeBushy

Riddle101 wrote: »

I don't believe Humans will evolve anymore then they have. I think humans have come to the end of their evolution cycle. If the world does involve a next step in evolution it will proberly create an entirely different species. Or evolve another animal spieces.

It sounds like you think evolution stops and starts... It almost sounds like you think evolution has some kind of mind of it own, choosing what next to evolve. But that would just be absurd to think.

Evolution is ongoing everywhere you look; all animals, plants, and the most easily noticeable as it happens so fast- bacteria, etc etc are evolving. There is no "next step" in evolution as you describe it.

And you can't say at all whether humans will evolve anymore, as we don't know what kind of climatic changes, cultural changes and a whole host of other factors that effect breeding patterns will occur in the future.

Ross_Mahon

Bigger craniums and the ability to fly, And not with bingo wings, Actual wings!

WeeBushy

I think Dylan Moran puts it best:

My ideal body, you know, would be just probably something like ahm..one eye, you probably only need one. A kind of sucker thing instead of teeth, because they just give you grief in the end, you know. And a long long tube with my arse waaay over there so i dont have to deal with it. That would be ideal.

Daroxtar

All the people who had their teeth fixed with braces will mate with others who had it done and their kids teeth will be absolutely gimped altogether but they'll fix that too and they'll breed with more people with gimped teeth and on it'll go and as the teeth keep getting worse they'll keep on fixing it but eventually end up with teeth like this
http://www.ojalafilms.com/teeth1.jpg

Turtwig

Daroxtar wrote: »

All the people who had their teeth fixed with braces will mate with others who had it done and their kids teeth will be absolutely gimped altogether but they'll fix that too and they'll breed with more people with gimped teeth and on it'll go and as the teeth keep getting worse they'll keep on fixing it but eventually end up with teeth like this
http://www.ojalafilms.com/teeth1.jpg

Wut???

That makes no sense whatsoever, for what you are saying to be true the teeth must be really really BAD, and those people with bad teeth will have to do MASS reproduction with others with AWFUL teeth for generations : unlikely.

pablomakaveli

I know humans are currently evolving to no longer have wisdom teeth as they are useless. Given the easier lifestyles most of us enjoy we'll probably become more frail as well.

I'd like to see us evolve to have balls on the inside. If nature is so ****ing great why did'nt she evolve us to have sperm that could be produced at body temperture.

Riddle101

WeeBushy wrote: »

It sounds like you think evolution stops and starts... It almost sounds like you think evolution has some kind of mind of it own, choosing what next to evolve. But that would just be absurd to think.

Evolution is ongoing everywhere you look; all animals, plants, and the most easily noticeable as it happens so fast- bacteria, etc etc are evolving. There is no "next step" in evolution as you describe it.

And you can't say at all whether humans will evolve anymore, as we don't know what kind of climatic changes, cultural changes and a whole host of other factors that effect breeding patterns will occur in the future.

Hey i'm not pretending to be an expert on Evolution or anything, and i'm not claiming to know anymore then I do. But evolution is a mystery and you are right, Evolution does not have a mind of it own(Depending on what you believe). but it finds a way.

As for whether humans will evolve anymore, well I was only guessing in terms that humans proberly want evolve significantly. I mean we've come a long long way from our primitive ancestors. Any new evolution to us will proberly be small such as being able to cope in a new enviornment. But you're right again, we can't predict the future and that's why this thread was made, so that we can atleast guess what might be next for evolution.

Pygmalion

pablomakaveli wrote: »

I'd like to see us evolve to have balls on the inside. If nature is so ****ing great why did'nt she evolve us to have sperm that could be produced at body temperture.

I always wondered about that, since once they're inside the woman it's body temp. anyway.

You're mass producing millions of cells that don't survive well at body temperature, which have only purpose, to enter a body and survive as long as possible.

GLaDOS

Riddle101 wrote: »

But evolution is a mystery

Evolution is actually fairly well understood by scientists, I'm studying it myself

Pyr0

I feel the only way we can 'evolve' into a better species would be through the use of technology, altering our bodies and minds to surpass anything that could develop naturally.

Sign me up !

Turtwig

Pygmalion wrote: »

I always wondered about that, since once they're inside the woman it's body temp. anyway.

You're mass producing millions of cells that don't survive well at body temperature, which have only purpose, to enter a body and survive as long as possible.

Righty not a biologist, but just harbouring a guess.

Most cells contain water (correct?) water is such a unique substance that it specific heat capacity is lowest at a around body temp (namely 37ºC), which means we're more energy efficient - Good for survival methinks.:D

Again, it's just a guess, feel free to correct me if you think I'm misleading people.:)