Thread: Evolution in 100 years?

So you're saying that this is evolution?

It's a part of the process, yes.

Called mutation.

I'm not buying it. Evolution is being used as a cover for irresponsible chemical use.

Human being have the lowest natural mutation rate of any animal on the planet. We're not evolving into anything new anytime soon.

By the way, that baby grew up to have a successful martial arts career in the Mortal Combat tournaments.

the evolutionary process happening today, right now, is not about our bodies. it is a completely mental process

natural selection is whose beak works best for what type of environment. since man has been a creative being creating tools, we have not needed natural selection to evolve. survival of the fittest today is, who is going to continue their education. not whose muscles are bigger.

Originally Posted by juroara

the evolutionary process happening today, right now, is not about our bodies. it is a completely mental process

natural selection is whose beak works best for what type of environment. since man has been a creative being creating tools, we have not needed natural selection to evolve. survival of the fittest today is, who is going to continue their education. not whose muscles are bigger.

Problem with that idea:

Bacteria evolve, so do viruses, etc. Bacteria don't have minds, and viruses cannot really be considered alive, and yet both evolve without conscious thought.

And technically, human bodies are evolving as well. We develop natural immunities to diseases on occasion through inherited traits, and these eventually propagate in a population if there is a large enough benefit for that trait.

Rather than accelerating evolution, I would imagine that it might slow down. If you look at how late in life people are having children compared to a hundred years ago, it's a big difference. Having fewer generations across any amount of time would mean that there is a lower probability for variation to arise from recombination, and mutation. You're also looking at fewer opportunities for the evolutionary mechanisms like natural selection to work on.

I think at the level our society is with its capacity to take care of those who have negative mutations, we have sort of stopped evolving and at this point are just diversifying more and more. Mutations that render people repulsive so no one wants to date them is the only natural selection that seems to still be taking place, but aside from that with each generation human DNA becomes more and more varied. Not necessarily better, at least not on a noticeable level, but certainly different.

One thing that could be considered evolution is being born without wisdom teeth, it's a mutation that doesn't make one get their genes in faster or more abundantly into the pool, but it is certainly more suitable for the environment.

I agree, though, that there is ALSO a lot of very irresponsible chemicle usage.

Originally Posted by bluefinger

Problem with that idea:

Bacteria evolve, so do viruses, etc. Bacteria don't have minds, and viruses cannot really be considered alive, and yet both evolve without conscious thought.

And technically, human bodies are evolving as well. We develop natural immunities to diseases on occasion through inherited traits, and these eventually propagate in a population if there is a large enough benefit for that trait.

bacteria evolve so rapidly - it actually contradicts natural selection. from what I've heard, a single bacterium has been observed rearranging its own DNA to survive some outer condition.

natural selection means traits that survive some sort of outer condition evolving a species. but this hardly applies to mankinds evolution. because as far as natural selection is concerned, we already have the tool to survive any outer condition. that is, our mind. since our beginning, we have been using our mind to survive.

what effect did our ancient knowledge over herbs have in allowing a human to survive something, like the cold? *which was once DEADLY* how did our knowledge effect our bodies? did it give our bodies the time it needed to evolve over such illnesses, to develop the right immunity?

when the mind is the greatest tool that man uses to survive, our evolutionary process IS mental

think of this way.

lets go back in time, the stone age. who is more likely to die? the idiot who runs into a dark cave screaming madly, blindly swinging his arms in dark in case of a bear? or the smarter man who lights a torch and approaches cautiously with a spear? even in the stone age, it was still our brain that pushed us forward.

today we have conquered nearly all wild animals. what was that joke? coconuts kill more people than sharks? we fear no bears, wolves, or even lions. even lions in the wild have showed a fear of humans. we have built cities meant to survive hurricanes, earthquakes, even tsunamis. our process is a thousand times more mental than physical. and even then, our physical body has grown better because we took control of nature through agriculture.

and even then, we didn't stop there. and continued to control the food we produced. creating and obtaining more nutritious food than the wild was providing. nutrition, needed to advance our immunities to disease and illness. its so easy to take all that we have done from our mind for granted. if we saw another animal accomplish the same, we would shit our pants.

everything we do and create is a self expression of ourselves. our cities, a self expression of a people. look at how much has changed in just a hundred years!! what does that say about humanity?

if we can imagine ourselves as ants, and our cities as ant hills. and observe the ant hill a hundred years ago, and observe it today. would we not say, the ants have evolved?? why then, is it so hard, to pass the same judgment we would onto ants for ourselves?

We better get some wings in the future that can make us fly or I will be mad!

Well I'll probably be dead anyway, but still!

Originally Posted by juroara

bacteria evolve so rapidly - it actually contradicts natural selection. from what I've heard, a single bacterium has been observed rearranging its own DNA to survive some outer condition.

No it does not contradict Natural Selection (as bacteria can reproduce quite quickly, therefore mutations spread through a population much quicker. Which in turn drives variation in a population and thus makes it easier for Natural Selection to act), and also citation with that last part.

Originally Posted by juroara

natural selection means traits that survive some sort of outer condition evolving a species. but this hardly applies to mankinds evolution. because as far as natural selection is concerned, we already have the tool to survive any outer condition. that is, our mind. since our beginning, we have been using our mind to survive.

what effect did our ancient knowledge over herbs have in allowing a human to survive something, like the cold? *which was once DEADLY* how did our knowledge effect our bodies? did it give our bodies the time it needed to evolve over such illnesses, to develop the right immunity?

when the mind is the greatest tool that man uses to survive, our evolutionary process IS mental

think of this way.

lets go back in time, the stone age. who is more likely to die? the idiot who runs into a dark cave screaming madly, blindly swinging his arms in dark in case of a bear? or the smarter man who lights a torch and approaches cautiously with a spear? even in the stone age, it was still our brain that pushed us forward.

today we have conquered nearly all wild animals. what was that joke? coconuts kill more people than sharks? we fear no bears, wolves, or even lions. even lions in the wild have showed a fear of humans. we have built cities meant to survive hurricanes, earthquakes, even tsunamis. our process is a thousand times more mental than physical. and even then, our physical body has grown better because we took control of nature through agriculture.

and even then, we didn't stop there. and continued to control the food we produced. creating and obtaining more nutritious food than the wild was providing. nutrition, needed to advance our immunities to disease and illness. its so easy to take all that we have done from our mind for granted. if we saw another animal accomplish the same, we would shit our pants.

everything we do and create is a self expression of ourselves. our cities, a self expression of a people. look at how much has changed in just a hundred years!! what does that say about humanity?

if we can imagine ourselves as ants, and our cities as ant hills. and observe the ant hill a hundred years ago, and observe it today. would we not say, the ants have evolved?? why then, is it so hard, to pass the same judgment we would onto ants for ourselves?

Actually, Natural Selection favoured a larger brain with humans, and thus we evolved to have our mental capacity. It allowed us to communicate more efficiently, to organise cohesive and complex social groups, and generally allowed us to be able to adapt quickly to changes to the climate. We are unique in the sense that whilst normally evolution favours more efficient and specialised bodies, our brains underwent an evolutionary path in becoming bigger and more complex.

Stuff like technology (even flint spears and rock tools can be classified as technology) arose with the ever complicated mind. We aren't the only species to have been observed to use tools, but we have gone far far along the road in order to achieve the civilisation we have now. Evolution is not in our minds, Evolution produced our minds through natural selection.

As for lions. No... they still remember that we are tasty, soft-skinned snacks. We may not be on their usual menu, but if they are hungry and see one of us in the vicinity.... lion goes "OM NOM NOM NOM NOM...".

Originally Posted by The Cusp

I'm not buying it. Evolution is being used as a cover for irresponsible chemical use.

Human being have the lowest natural mutation rate of any animal on the planet. We're not evolving into anything new anytime soon.

By the way, that baby grew up to have a successful martial arts career in the Mortal Combat tournaments.

A change to the Genome is mutation. Mutation is--

Oh forget it. You won't read it, and if you did you wouldn't understand it. I give up on you.