Next Evolutionary Step?

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?

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

Hopefully, the ability for people to understand evolution.

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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 !

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.:)

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.

As far as I know, it's the production itself that is more effective at cooler temperatures. You would produce sperm if you had internal testes, but you would be less fertile due to the testes not working as efficiently.

Pygmalion

As for what I believe will happen (just realised I made 2 posts in this thread without actually answering OP), I'm of the opinion that it's all downhill from now.

As has been mentioned before, unintelligent and/or uneducated (not neccessarily the same) people are reproducing more, so I'd expect the average intelligence of society to drop sharply.
On the other hand, when the world is overrun with McDonalds workers I imagine the average wage for skilled and educated workers will rise a lot, maybe this could cancel it out as it becomes more and more obviously rewarding to study hard.

Also modern medicine might mean our immune systems get worse (or stay the same, but I definitely can't see an improvement).
As less diseases are fatal or crippling nowadays people with these diseases are having more children and in the cases of any diseases that can be passed genetically will make more sufferers of these.

Computers and the like have removed our need for manual calculations or a great memory (why remember an addres/phone number when you have google/mobile phones) but I imagine they might have a positive effect on logical thinking and problem solving skills (You can't do the calculations yourself with pen and paper but you can understand the procedure well enough to tell a computer, step by step, how it's done, the tedious stuff is the automated bit).

Pygmalion wrote: »

Also modern medicine might mean our immune systems get worse (or stay the same, but I definitely can't see an improvement).

The main problem is with so much anti-biotics the diseases are getting stronger. Stronger medicine = bacteria evolving to overcome this medcine, all of a sudden we've no medicine that works. This is how MRSA and such become a major problem.

(sorry if it seems I'm picking on your posts

)

Pygmalion wrote: »

As for what I believe will happen (just realised I made 2 posts in this thread without actually answering OP), I'm of the opinion that it's all downhill from now.

As has been mentioned before, unintelligent and/or uneducated (not neccessarily the same) people are reproducing more, so I'd expect the average intelligence of society to drop sharply.
On the other hand, when the world is overrun with McDonalds workers I imagine the average wage for skilled and educated workers will rise a lot, maybe this could cancel it out as it becomes more and more obviously rewarding to study hard.

Also modern medicine might mean our immune systems get worse (or stay the same, but I definitely can't see an improvement).
As less diseases are fatal or crippling nowadays people with these diseases are having more children and in the cases of any diseases that can be passed genetically will make more sufferers of these.

Computers and the like have removed our need for manual calculations or a great memory (why remember an addres/phone number when you have google/mobile phones) but I imagine they might have a positive effect on logical thinking and problem solving skills (You can't do the calculations yourself with pen and paper but you can understand the procedure well enough to tell a computer, step by step, how it's done, the tedious stuff is the automated bit).

Well, I just had started a post about MRSA and that bloody nerd got there before me:P... so um yeah computers..uh...errr...OH YEAH Auto immune disorders will almost always never go away now..
So yeah, computers...

Computers, are mixed blessing I think. A calculator undoubtedly removes the need for simple arithmetic, which of course removes the need for us to exercise our brains. However for a scientist/engineer the calculator makes life
easier by letting them actually work on the problem at hand. The problem, from an evolutionary point of view, though, is how many people in todays society are using calculators so that they can spend more time on more brain taxing issues?

@ScienceNerd doesn't vaccination help our immune system evolve too??? (Obviously not as fast as the 'bugs', I know)

$Photo of DonkeyStyle \o/$ DonkeyStyle \o/

Not gonna happen, but my evolution wish-list:

The ability to close our ears.
In adapting to the internet age, we'll evolve the ability to un-see things.
Larger bladders so we only need to piss once per day.
The body naturally creates delicious alcoholic beverages over time and stores it in a bladder-type-thing ready for release into our mouths... a bit like that squirty saliva thing under your tongue.... there'll be two of them.

Malty_T wrote: »

Computers, are mixed blessing I think. A calculator undoubtedly removes the need for simple arithmetic, which of course removes the need for us to exercise our brains. However for a scientist/engineer the calculator makes life
easier by letting them actually work on the problem at hand. The problem, from an evolutionary point of view, though, is how many people in todays society are using calculators so that they can spend more time on more brain taxing issues?

Technology in general is very interesting from a evolutionary point of view. Instead of surviving environmental issues due to mutations/existing qualities which suit it, we can possibly develop the technology to survive it, making evolution unnecessary to survive said environmental change.

Compared to a lot of animals we are physically inferior, our main advantage is our brain, helped by opposable thumbs for ease of manipulation of tools. With that to our advantage, I believe we won't need to adapt dramatically to any changes while other species will.

Malty_T wrote: »

@ScienceNerd doesn't vaccination help our immune system evolve too??? (Obviously not as fast as the 'bugs', I know)

As far as I know, it doesn't. Immunity such as that isn't genetic and as such isn't passed on to offspring. It improves our immune system greatly, obviously, but it has to be done to each human individually and isn't part of our genetic make up.

Rabies

Humans are no longer adapting to their environment, we've been adapting it for a thousands of years. Our evolution is gonna slow to an crawl compared to flora and fauna.

artanevilla

rarnes1 wrote: »

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

Dunno what I'd do with the extra 3 feet.