Semantics. No offence. |
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Many scientists in this day and age make the claim that humans have reached the pinnacle point in evolution and have simply stopped evolving. Everything we need is now catered for and it could even be argued that we are biologically devolving. However, what many people fail to take into account is the development of technology. |
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Last edited by Raen; 08-19-2013 at 10:34 AM.
Semantics. No offence. |
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What scientists say that? Without really thinking about this topic before, it's obvious to me that we'll keep evolving as long as the following conditions hold true: |
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In a way though the changes are still random. Look at video technology for instance - when videotape first came out inthe late 70's there were several possible formats, Beta and VHS emerged as competitors in the consumer market, and then VHS won out and Beta faded into obscurity. For consumer use anyway. Then came Laserdisk, which was amazing and considered the pinnacle until DVD came out. Then all of a sudden there's Blu-Ray and HD DVD and Blu-Ray won the competition. So market competition does provide something like the pressures of natural selection, but on an economic/market level rather than biologically. Of course, these factors (market competition, economics etc) are a part of human society and would cease to exist if the human species went extinct or became bereft of technological capabilities. So this kind or pressure isn't really self-sustaining outside the context of human society. |
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Mankind Has Stopped Evolving | Michio Kaku | Big Think |
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I'll be watching the video in a minute, but I wanted to say real quick - I agree with Dianeva that natural selection still does play a part in today's society, but I think it can only provide small changes. Now, when the environment changes drastically again, then I guess we'll start to see some real evolution again. Like if society is demolished (many ways that can happen and leave a surviving human population). Ok, off to watch Michio! |
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Yeah, there will be small pockets of evolution shown in very small towns and populations like that. That would include things such as average height of the people living there and frequency of certain hair colours, but nothing too major. It would certainly be interesting to see the effects of societal collapse on evolution. But for our sake, I hope that doesn't happen in our lifetime, haha (unless of course we become immortal with cyborg technology but I'll not get too carried away). |
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I may be wrong and I don't know about the actual time frames, but I've been under the impression that evolution takes a lot of time, millions of years, thousands or something to cause any drastic noticeable change to a species. Why are you all expecting it to happen fast enough for us to notice? In any individual's lifetime, it isn't going to appear that their species has changed at all. |
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"Is technology technically natural evolution?" |
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We have enough evidence to suggest that evolution has happened even in just the past 2,000 years or so in the human race. People have become taller, sleep cycles have changed and various other things you could find through a quick google search. This is not an extensively long period of time considering how long we suspect evolution to take. None of us are expecting it to happen fast enough for us to notice and no posts here really imply that. |
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I do see technological progress as the same trend of evolution. Evolution builds on it self, and leads to technology, and the technology then builds on it self. I think most planets that have life, and have time to evolve will eventually have technology, because it is just a step in the process. That said I don't think it is evolution, and I think we have for the most part stopped evolving in any practical sense. |
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I'm not sure getting taller constitutes a significant evolutionary change, at least not on the order of spawning a different species (well, obviously ). I consider it more one of the small changes. But then I don't know how scientists classify that stuff. Yeah, to give rise to a different species would take millions of years, and personally I don't think the human race will be around in a million years. |
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I just just using it as an example. And you're wrong, intelligence is almost surely connected with genetics. There have been many studies done on this. |
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I think the evolution of technology is an expression of the evolution of the human brain in its 'unique' ability to adapt. Some of the earliest species of fish had parts of their body evolve hundreds of millions of years ago and the result was that some of them could live in both water and land. I see it the same way for humans: a harmony of parts of the brain involved with creativity, imagination, focus, self-awareness, knowledge etc. allows human beings to survive in almost any environment on the planet...with the possibility of survival off the planet. People could live in areas of the globe that are -50 because the human brain can build a home and a fire. People can explore the depths of the oceans with submarines, move into the sky with hot air balloons, and explore the moon with rockets, suits, and captured air --to put simply. All of the technological inventions that allowed humans into environments that would otherwise be inhabitable or impossible to reach are the result of the development of the brain, which is --unlike the inanimate objects which it commands--directly subject to natural evolution..in my opinion. |
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I believe technology is an expression of the universe''s evolution. |
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