NationStates Jolt Archive

Reading the various threads about evolution has got me thinking about humanity's continuing evolution. In the past 2-3 million years, we have evolved from apes into Homo Sapiens.

What about the future? Which evolutionary direction will humankind take. What advantages or disadvantages might there be that would benefit or limit us? Might we end up losing the one thing that differentiates us from all other animals? What impact does technolgical societies play upon evolution in humanity?

I'd like to know what others views are, though can I ask that this does not become a thread about creationism....there's plenty of other threads to debate that.

We'll probably get another thumb. Think about it, how much do you use your thumb today compared to people as little as 50 years ago? Try using a mobile phone, or remote control, etc...

Speciation might take place. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the USA those with less intelligence or education tend to reproduce earlier in life and have more kids. Well educated people tend to reproduce later, usually with a well educated partner, and have fewer offspring. Maybe the two groups will start to diverge and become separate species.

One species, few in number and highly intelligent, another numerous and dumb. Hopefully the smart ones will be able to harness the dumb ones as a labor force, but perhaps the dumb species will rebell and slaughter the smart people.

Speciation might take place. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the USA those with less intelligence or education tend to reproduce earlier in life and have more kids. Well educated people tend to reproduce later, usually with a well educated partner, and have fewer offspring. Maybe the two groups will start to diverge and become separate species.

One species, few in number and highly intelligent, another numerous and dumb. Hopefully the smart ones will be able to harness the dumb ones as a labor force, but perhaps the dumb species will rebell and slaughter the smart people.


"When there's no more room in hell...." =P

Apparently, assuming we don't go the obese route, which is the most likely step, humans will go onto become taller and thinner on average... but to think about it, we really don't need to "evolve" anything more than a faster brain, as technology has overtaken evolution.

It depends what we do in the future. If we start colonizing space we might get some interesting adaptations (which would be helped by the increase in radiation we'd be subjected too). Maybe fins to swim around zero G in...

One species, few in number and highly intelligent, another numerous and dumb. Hopefully the smart ones will be able to harness the dumb ones as a labor force, but perhaps the dumb species will rebell and slaughter the smart people.
Sounds like a great political science fiction novel.

By the way I hope the cave-people kick your extraterrestial ass. Fascism is unacceptable, no matter how "advanced" you are.

Sounds like a great political science fiction novel.

By the way I hope the cave-people kick your extraterrestial ass. Fascism is unacceptable, no matter how "advanced" you are.
How did you guess I was an extraterrestrial?

Reading the various threads about evolution has got me thinking about humanity's continuing evolution. In the past 2-3 million years, we have evolved from apes into Homo Sapiens.

What about the future? Which evolutionary direction will humankind take. What advantages or disadvantages might there be that would benefit or limit us? Might we end up losing the one thing that differentiates us from all other animals? What impact does technolgical societies play upon evolution in humanity?

I'd like to know what others views are, though can I ask that this does not become a thread about creationism....there's plenty of other threads to debate that.
I rather suspect that human evolution has reached its apex until we move into space ( should we survive that long! ). Pretty much from here on, the human race will be in control of its own directions, both from a technological aspect and from a biological perspective. With the continuing development of genetic optimization and recombinant DNA, humanity will be able to decide what its biological future will look like.

Use more % of our brain i guess, taller and more obese unless some easy way to loose weight is found.

I don't think evolution will be much of a factor in humans' future development. Evolution takes millions of years. Humans could alter themselves much more quickly through means like genetic modification, and bionic parts.

Likely within the next century Humans will 'own' evolution thanks to Genetic Manipulation. Basically the next step in subduing nature, evolution by traditional "Natural Selection" is already null and void for humanity.

Likely within the next century Humans will 'own' evolution thanks to Genetic Manipulation. Basically the next step in subduing nature, evolution by traditional "Natural Selection" is already null and void for humanity.Surely Technolgical development itself has an evolutionary impact upon humans. Someone mentioned the possible colonisation of other worlds...what about living permanently in a weightless environment in space. The more you would live in a zero gravity environment, the less likely you could safely return to Earth. Would this hasten the development of a sort of hybrid human who could live comfortably in both a zero G and earthlike environment.

One species, few in number and highly intelligent, another numerous and dumb. Hopefully the smart ones will be able to harness the dumb ones as a labor force, but perhaps the dumb species will rebell and slaughter the smart people.

Yep...except for the last part.

One of the next evolutionary changes we might come across is resistance to AIDS. There is a gene certain people carry that makes them highly resistant to contracting HIV. Its not full immunity but its still pretty good. With the huge number of AIDS deaths in places like Africa and India it could become more prevalant more quickly, with the pandemic acting like a kind of natural selection crucible. The high birth and death rate would but more generations through more quickly, allowing more oppurtunities for the strong to survive. But otherwise since the dawn of agriculture, we haven't really had the need to evolve. We change the environment to suit us now, not the other way around.

Evolution doesn't affect a species that is not subject to natural selection. We haven't been subject to natural selection for at least as long as we have been human.
The future evolution of humanity will be whatever we change ourselves into. (Probably corpses.)

Maybe fins to swim around zero G in...
that's kinda, err physically impossible without an atmosphere. no resistance to the fins= no locomotion. and if there is an atmosphere, then chances are we've rigged up a method of mobility on our own.

in answer to the question, it strikes me that evolution takes thousands and thousands of years. minute, largely aesthetic details shift with genetics, sure, but species-wide? looooooooong time. homo sapiens sapiens has only been around, what, 10000? 20000 years? besides which, large scale evolution such as what you described would probably require a denser and, well, smaller population than what we have. the further spread out we are, the less the genetic diversity and all.

maybe if we get the M(utualy)A(ssured)D(estruction) goin again, except with the middle east or china this time, maybe the worlds population will suffer enough of a blow, and our technology take enough of a setback to warrant such a change. if that is the case, maybe we'll become more muscular, and with thicker bones and stronger ligaments, to survive our harsh, irradiated, arrid landscape. after the fallout has passed, maybe we'll grow copious amounts of body hair to cover our frail flesh. maybe, to protect our eyes from the harmful elements and environtmental hazards, our brow ridge will become more pronounced. perhaps our nostrils will flare out, to better our skill at hunting. maybe the dominant species was meant to be neanderthal, and modern man was just too stubborn to back down. hmm. i am amused.

hmmm.....all the people stuck at desk jobs, eating unhealthy food, watching lots of TV......The answer to the question proposed by the thread seems to me to be more of a H.G. Wells "Martian" type of thing......only maybe without the big brain.....

Speciation might take place. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the USA those with less intelligence or education tend to reproduce earlier in life and have more kids. Well educated people tend to reproduce later, usually with a well educated partner, and have fewer offspring. Maybe the two groups will start to diverge and become separate species.

One species, few in number and highly intelligent, another numerous and dumb. Hopefully the smart ones will be able to harness the dumb ones as a labor force, but perhaps the dumb species will rebell and slaughter the smart people.

Don't hold your breath waiting for human speciation to happen. Apart from the fact that there is no scientifically accepted definition of "intelligence", let alone any evidence to suggest there is a strong genetic component to it, you're dealing with culture here, not biology. If the gap between rich and poor widens to anywhere near the extent required for speciation, there will be a revolution to reset the social divide long, long, long before any genetic drift starts to take place. Millions of years before.

Evolution is not a slow march of progress. It can only take place where reproductive advantage is conferred. Human control over our environment, and our ability to adapt our behaviours and technologies, renders us pretty much free from evolution except in regard to disease resistances, etc. I think Ekland is probably correct, in that (assuming we ever get off this rock) we will consciously adapt our own genomes to suit other environments. Which, I suppose, since technology is a natural behaviour for humans, could be regarded as a new type of evolution.

hmmm.....all the people stuck at desk jobs, eating unhealthy food, watching lots of TV......The answer to the question proposed by the thread seems to me to be more of a H.G. Wells "Martian" type of thing......only maybe without the big brain.....
but what makes you think we'll still be living so decadently in the thousands of years this would take? besides which, in the MASSIVE third world, life is not quite so easy. desk jobs are not so common. food is scarce, albeit, usually not that healthy. i'm not even gonna start on television or the wiles of the intraweb.

Medicine has killed survival of the fittest quite a lot these days. I don't think we'll be developing any extra fingers any time soon. What I think will be evolving is our social and psychological systems - because, you know, societies made up of people with less viable social standards die out, and stuff. If a civilisation has enough people with the correct psychology to make the society work for everyone, that society is fittest and survives. Of course if they've just got the correct psychology to make it work for THEMSELVES they'd also survive... but things tend to work out eventually, as evolvution goes. I mean, unless they don't, in which case everyone dfies anyway, so nothing to worry about there.

Hear yea! Hear yea! I proclaim in the future men will be fashionable clean shaven and women will wear trendy short goates. :p

but what makes you think we'll still be living so decadently in the thousands of years this would take? besides which, in the MASSIVE third world, life is not quite so easy. desk jobs are not so common. food is scarce, albeit, usually not that healthy. i'm not even gonna start on television or the wiles of the intraweb.


Yeah, well, I currently live in the third world (foothills of the Himalayas), and even here, the trend is for people to strive for a less-active existence.....leaving farms to work in offices or other low-excercise jobs, singing Kareoke and drinking in spare time......

I thought AI, internet intelligence and artificial life were the next stages of our evolution.

i think that they gradual trend of smaller faces, larger brains will continue... and other such physical aspects will continue to evolve to separate us more from the apes.

We are far from the apex of perfection, but since it's now considered morally unacceptable to allow someone to die just because they are defective we are unlikely to get any further. Genetic modification could be a good way to alter ourselves, but that's not evolution and what do we want to turn into anyway?

Evolution doesn't affect a species that is not subject to natural selection. We haven't been subject to natural selection for at least as long as we have been human.
The future evolution of humanity will be whatever we change ourselves into. (Probably corpses.)There's still plenty of 'natural' selection out there, albeit due to Nature that's been affected by us...

What I think is going to mitigate most of the evolutionary pressures that exist is that there are so darn many of us. When there were only a few thousand of us, in small numbers over a small area of the planet, then the need to tolerate changes in environment (e.g. desertifcation) by changes in physical, mental or social inheritance acted against most of the extant population. These days (and especially with our 'live-anywhere' technology, at least for those of us from the developed world) any effects are diluted...

Not that portions of our global population aren't more suited (e.g. different coloured skins, fat retention, etc) for different climates but when you take the "average genome", the survivors are as likely to be independantly wealthy as more suited to the environment. In fact, indigenous populations that have a head-start in dealing with the local effects of environmental changes in their neck of the woods (by being more suited to the environment as it is now) have already been ousted by colonists over the last few hundred/few thousand years (all well within the 'blink of an eye' time-scale as far as evolution is concerned) and there's even less presure on modern immigrants because of the 'technology' they bring (whether that be air-conditioning, anti-malarial medicines, transport methods, psychological attiotudes or a better type of gun/spear/whatever) reduces their susceptibility to local conditons (including local populations).

there is still some forms of natural selection going on, and these forms are almost impossible to weed out, for instance, how many of your would willingly marry an invalid that given full natural selection would have died long ago. these people though still alive, will rarely get the chance to reproduce.

we will still evolve, but because people like me with bad eye sight wont die out and will prob reproduce (im such a stud :D ) the genepool may actual evolve problems, such as a whole population with bad eye sight, who even though tey all got it fixed with laser surgery still carry the genes saying i have crap eye sight.

things like this can be seen in other species, crocodiles who loive in murky water, have very bad eye sight that they have evolved over millions of years, the reason the ones bringing in the bad eye sight gene didnt die out from lack of food and therefore failing to mate is because they dont need good eye sight, and now because of our technological breakthroughs neither do we, as we can safely get our eyesight fixed once we have stopped growing.

we may find that our brain is a deciding factor in many thigns for our species. richer people are generally rich (assume first generation wealth, eg bill gates) are normally the smarter ones, whether it be through making technological breakthroughs and cashing in, or being a sly oil mogul buying and selling at teh right time, either one show intelligence in one form or another. the main difference to the last few billion years is that the one with less advantage wont die out, in this day and age the average joe, will keep reproducing assuming he has enough food.

so eventually we may get as someone here has said already 2 sub species of the human race.

but, with the addition of genetic manipulation into teh fray who can say what will happen. we have essentially become the first species on this planet to have the ability to consciously force his genetic evolution allong a certain path. this step will be the key to where we go from here, designer babies.

we must be careful though that we do not fall into the trap seen in GATTACA, where the cost of a designer baby is limited to the higher social groups through prohibitive costs, if GATTACA were to be played out for a few more decades you could even see the "evolution" of designer works forces, where people are paid to have their children designed for a certain task, knowing that at least then they will have a constant job, that may give their children enough money to have their own true designer babies, of course should this happen the distinction between rich and poor would be so much, they woudl never let the "invalids" into the their social groups.

anyway those are some of my thoughts on teh subject i hope they made some form of coherherent thought.

Maybe fins to swim around zero G in...that's kinda, err physically impossible without an atmosphere. no resistance to the fins= no locomotion. and if there is an atmosphere, then chances are we've rigged up a method of mobility on our own.Zero G, not zero atmosphere, is what I think BSC was talking about...

I'm thinking of kind of like various creatures (lizards, reptiles, snakes, frogs [yes, I know there's overlap there] assorted mammals, etc) that developed 'extra skin' to glide (over many successive generations, the population tending to survive greater and greater falls in a medium-density forest/jungle environment because some of their number had a bit of 'extra surface area' and such developed instincts as to take advantage of that).

Theoretically, any human culture left adrift in a 'world ship' with perpetual low/zero gravity and a multi-thousand year journey drifting across the gulfs of space might well find that many physiological changes could occur. Both to individuals, compared to their full-gravity counter-parts back home, but also over the generations, as the mobility advantages/disadvantages of given mutations/'errors' to the standard body-plan encumbered and enabled these zero-G dwellers differently to how they might have been on your average lump-of-rock planet or moon...

For 'fins to swim with' you'd need many, many generations to pass for all the little changes to build up (though you could imagine a Zeroth generation crew-member having webbed fingers and toes and contributing that quality to the initial 1st-gen gene pool) and you'd also have to theorise a social change that eschewed clothing (not necessarily a sticking point, given the assumption that the living-area and most of the working areas would be environmentally goverened for comfort, and of course a limited population could easily adopt new social conventions within only a generation or two).

I could go on, but maybe I want to write this up as a book... ;)


in answer to the question, it strikes me that evolution takes thousands and thousands of years. minute, largely aesthetic details shift with genetics, sure, but species-wide? looooooooong time. homo sapiens sapiens has only been around, what, 10000? 20000 years? besides which, large scale evolution such as what you described would probably require a denser and, well, smaller population than what we have. the further spread out we are, the less the genetic diversity and all.Exactly what I think (which is why I 'gravitated' (no pun originally intended) to the idea of a world-ship floating through interstellar space...) Small population, high genetic mixing and a complete change in the evolutionary pressures to what we experience.

Sounds like a great political science fiction novel.

By the way I hope the cave-people kick your extraterrestial ass. Fascism is unacceptable, no matter how "advanced" you are.

Sounds like the The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
I think no more 'natural' evolution will take place, from now on I think that any evolving will be human caused, such as nanotechnology, chemical, genetic manipulation etc.