NationStates Jolt Archive

As us, humans, slowly evolve over time, we have to have something new about us. What do you think it may be?

Using logical sequence, we went from plants, to fish, to land fish, to monkeys, to where we are today. What is next? a bird type mammal?

What do you think will be our next feature; an extra arm, another brain, another organ, another gender, etc

Or do you think we'll be extinct before our next evolution comes?

You need to think about what sort of long-term evolutionary pressures there are on the human species, and remember that evolution is a kludge - it works based on what's already there. We won't be sprouting extra arms any time soon.

If there's any one evolutionary adaption it's probable for people to evolve, it's an expansion of the Monkeysphere. That'd have clear benefits to anyone operating in a society of more than 150 or so people (pretty much all of us), thus presumably helping anyone with it to get more mates and thus pass on the adaption to their offspring.

I suspect it will be the brain

For out there thoughts, I'd go for enhanced ability to perceive thought itself, a form of telepathy perhaps. I believe those that can best read other people will have the greater advantage in life. Not sure that translates to the best mating ability but possibly.

Our brain gives off electrical activity, there's been a couple of threads on science predicting choice - I'm not saying there'll be the traditional form of how we think about telepathy but I'd say there's a possibility.

Otherwise, height is the natural one to consider.

EDIT: In terms of Monkeysphere - there's a business book that says the best business units are limited to about 30 people - there's even a company that is broken into a series of 30 people business units, to the point of separate business pods - I think it's Gore-Tex.

I think we may "evolve" ourselves into extinction
for example Women in western cultures are seen as "good looking" if they are skinny as hell and not to bright (vast generalization but thats about what the media says) and if cultural selection continues to go that way "good looking" women may end up being to thin to actually live healthily or produce children at all. On the guys side of things steroid use (to make them look "handsome") could cause various reproductive problems.

dad created people in his own image and you're not going to do any evolving unless he says so

on the other hand we have been working on an angel-human hybrid... we are having some issues with the wings... darn things are way too heavy to fly... but people expect the wings, but without funditionality they really just cause various problems without solving any... we're probably going to end up ditching them... we considered giving them the power of levitation to augment the wings... but small children with the ability to levitate themselves and others are... well excessively problematic.

Our evolution is going to change to suit our needs.

We no longer have to be fit and fast to survive, so eventually we are going to become weaker & slower. Thanks to OHS regulations we are also going to become stupider.

I'm not sure if it would be anything. We've already evolved to the point where we can efficiently adapt to physical problems we face.

However, if our environment drastically changes (and it typically does), I'm sure we'll adapt to that - which way, however, is a crap shoot.

Everyone knows Aspergers are the next step in human evolution, no? :p

I think any future human evolution will start small. That said I think our next "leaps" will be immunological, metabolic rates, and/or tissue regeneration (with the advent of genetic enginering). Immune systems will have to evolve to better fight 'super bugs.' Metabolisms will change based on surrivors of current droughts and famines. And well scientist are working on regrowing limbs.

By the way:

Using logical sequence, we went from plants, to fish, to land fish, to monkeys, to where we are today. What is next? a bird type mammal?

A: Bats.

another gender, etc

...why would we need that?

We're unlikely to evolve new physical traits, as we've removed the selection pressure by technological adaptation rather than physical mutation. The only factors in evolution are the traits that mean you are likely to have an increased number of children. Thus, if you want to figure out where the human race is going, you need to look where all the babies are coming from.

Given that most Western countries are beginning to stabilise in population size, the genes most common in the third world countries - where population is growing at a ferocious rate - are becoming more and more prevalent. Possibly increased resistance to disease and polluted water will result. It's a long, slow process.

As for physical regeneration, we might just find a way to kickstart that technologically. See the regenerating mice. (http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=20)

Using logical sequence, we went from plants, to fish, to land fish, to monkeys, to where we are today.No, we didn't; certainly not plants anyway.

What do you think will be our next feature; an extra arm, another brain, another organ, another gender, etcThat's not typically how evolution works. You're more likely to lose than gain an appendage/organ. At the moment our species is (among other things) busy losing wisdom teeth, because they suck.

I think we may "evolve" ourselves into extinction
for example Women in western cultures are seen as "good looking" if they are skinny as hell and not to bright (vast generalization but thats about what the media says) and if cultural selection continues to go that way "good looking" women may end up being to thin to actually live healthily or produce children at all. On the guys side of things steroid use (to make them look "handsome") could cause various reproductive problems.

I second these concerns about negative selection.

Maybe we will develop wings.......:D

I think the future of humans lies more in technological evolution than biological. The latter is extremely slow, the former isn't. Technologies that enhance human capabilities will come far sooner than any changes due to nature.

If there's any one evolutionary adaption it's probable for people to evolve, it's an expansion of the Monkeysphere. That'd have clear benefits to anyone operating in a society of more than 150 or so people (pretty much all of us), thus presumably helping anyone with it to get more mates and thus pass on the adaption to their offspring.

I love the theory of the Monkeysphere. That one theory answers a lot of questions about humanity. This is the one theory that also kills communism as a viable concept.

I totally agree with Atlantiers view. And with current medical capabilities evoloution is even slower. People who would have died before some medical advances came into affect, now don't and so to a certain extent evoloution is not taking place in that aspect.

No, we didn't; certainly not plants anyway.

At the moment our species is (among other things) busy losing wisdom teeth, because they suck.

Prevalence of wisdom teeth is an interesting statistic.

Wiki quote:
Different human populations differ greatly in the percentage of the population which form wisdom teeth, ranging from 99.8% in Bantu speakers to nearly 0% in Mexican Indians.

As genetic engineering is refined natural selection will to a large extent be replaced by teleological goal directed evolution as people choose what traits they want in their offspring and in themselves

As genetic engineering is refined natural selection will to a large extent be replaced by teleological goal directed evolution as people choose what traits they want in their offspring and in themselves

Interesting, as much as determining the sex of your baby is banned in a few countries - the UK included I think, at least in the public system - I wonder at what point legislation will come in to state at which point you can engineer your child.

It may well become the 'drugs in sport' issue where it's overtly illegal but everyone's doing it.

Interesting, as much as determining the sex of your baby is banned in a few countries - the UK included I think, at least in the public system - I wonder at what point legislation will come in to state at which point you can engineer your child.

It may well become the 'drugs in sport' issue where it's overtly illegal but everyone's doing it.

It will probably come in when China and India start to do it. We can't ourselves become uncompetitve now can we?

We won't evolve. Not soon. Why evolve wings when there are aircraft? Why be able to swim better when we have ships? Why need to think more when we have PCs and Macs?

Think transhumanism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism) and technological singularity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity). Biological evolution is so slow.

Evolution is still playing catch up - we are probably optimised for running round on tundras trying to catch food, not for living in centrally heated homes and working in offices stuffing our faces with processed food. So we could evolve to be able to live on crap like McDonalds and coke without dying young of a heart attack.

i doubt we'll gain anything new, but we'll probably lose things we don't need because technology allows for survival with many different traits that would have been an impediment before.

I love the theory of the Monkeysphere. That one theory answers a lot of questions about humanity. This is the one theory that also kills communism as a viable concept.

well, it kills state communism.

As us, humans, slowly evolve over time, we have to have something new about us. What do you think it may be?

Using logical sequence, we went from plants, to fish, to land fish, to monkeys, to where we are today. What is next? a bird type mammal?

What do you think will be our next feature; an extra arm, another brain, another organ, another gender, etc

Or do you think we'll be extinct before our next evolution comes?


Moe People, when nuclear winter forces us to live underground.

The next 'step' in human evolution will be the integration of our child (technology, computers) into our bodies.

Built-in air conditioning. *nod*

So we could evolve to be able to live on crap like McDonalds and coke without dying young of a heart attack.
Suddenly extinction sounds like a viable alternative!

As us, humans, slowly evolve over time, we have to have something new about us. What do you think it may be?
http://www.silverbulletcomics.com/~jennyg/writers/fowler/wolverine14.JPG

*snickt*

Human evolution is now dictated by humans. We can choose to contin ue the natural genetic lottery, deliberately breed ourselves for selected traits (slow genetic engineering) or wait a few years and go hog-wild with fast genetic engineering.

As to which way we will go - all of them.

As us, humans, slowly evolve over time, we have to have something new about us. What do you think it may be?

Using logical sequence, we went from plants, to fish, to land fish, to monkeys, to where we are today. What is next? a bird type mammal?

What do you think will be our next feature; an extra arm, another brain, another organ, another gender, etc

Or do you think we'll be extinct before our next evolution comes?

:confused: are you serious?
plants/land fish? a bird type mammal? an extra arm, another brain/organ gender?

I don't know how humans will evolve, no one really can. I'm pretty sure though that we won't suddenly evolve another arm or brain.

I think we're on the verge of a completely new and interesting evolutionary dynamic.

Our brains are the product of our genes. That is, those mutated genes that improved the performance of our brains gained an reproductive advantantage over other brain genes. In other words, our evolving brains enhanced the survivability of our genes. Brains were the tools of genes.

Brains have developed so much they can now devise ways to alter genes. Now, genes are becoming the playthings of brains.

On what basis will brains decide to change genes? Fashion? Aesthetics? Ethics? All these are ideas or, in other words, memes.

It seems to me that we are facing a battle between memes and genes. Which will win? Memes have the advantage in that they mutate much faster. Genes reproduce more accurately.

My money is on memes. Especially once we connect our brains directly into the world wide web.

Our evolution is going to change to suit our needs.

We no longer have to be fit and fast to survive, so eventually we are going to become weaker & slower. Thanks to OHS regulations we are also going to become stupider.

That's not how evolution works.

As us, humans, slowly evolve over time, we have to have something new about us. What do you think it may be?

Using logical sequence, we went from plants, to fish, to land fish, to monkeys, to where we are today. What is next? a bird type mammal?

What do you think will be our next feature; an extra arm, another brain, another organ, another gender, etc

Or do you think we'll be extinct before our next evolution comes?

I think it'll be mind powers such as telekinesis, mind control and telepathy.

Think transhumanism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism) and technological singularity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity). Biological evolution is so slow.

The next 'step' in human evolution will be the integration of our child (technology, computers) into our bodies.


My money is on memes. Especially once we connect our brains directly into the world wide web.

Count me out for all that nonsense.

http://www.silverbulletcomics.com/~jennyg/writers/fowler/wolverine14.JPG

*snickt*

That would be pretty badass...

I think we will evolve into antelopes.

What? My guess is just as good as all the others here.

I think we're on the verge of a completely new and interesting evolutionary dynamic.

Our brains are the product of our genes. That is, those mutated genes that improved the performance of our brains gained an reproductive advantantage over other brain genes. In other words, our evolving brains enhanced the survivability of our genes. Brains were the tools of genes.

Brains have developed so much they can now devise ways to alter genes. Now, genes are becoming the playthings of brains.

On what basis will brains decide to change genes? Fashion? Aesthetics? Ethics? All these are ideas or, in other words, memes.

It seems to me that we are facing a battle between memes and genes. Which will win? Memes have the advantage in that they mutate much faster. Genes reproduce more accurately.

My money is on memes. Especially once we connect our brains directly into the world wide web.

Memes have already won the internet.

Likely it will relate to social behavior, and greater adaptations to large societies and processing of the vast amounts of info that we are regularly presented with.

Longer fertility periods and longer lives are also plausible developments.

Superpowers.

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/6003/wolverine14lt9.jpg

*nods*

http://www.silverbulletcomics.com/~jennyg/writers/fowler/wolverine14.JPG

*snickt*

You Bastard. :mad::(

Do you think human evolution has come to a halt?

It would seem like there is no particular pressure to evolve. Furthermore, undesirable traits/ mutations are much more likely to be passed on due to a cushy lifestyle and modern medicine.

Humans have evolved the ability to adapt their environment to fit their needs, rather than adapt to the environment.

By the way:



A: Bats.Batman?

Batman?

"Bats" was merely a response to the implication that a "bird-like mammal" had not evolved yet. Bats are mammals, and can fly, so the evolution of a bird-like mammal has already occured.

...why would we need that?
Making new levels of pleasure?
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MMPH/250239~Hellraiser-Posters.jpg

I'd say that height is one of the most obvious examples, we've been getting taller at a very consistent rate over the last few thousand years. A lot of this has to do with the improvements in our diet over that period of time, but I can't help but think that because taller people tend to be more popular (look at the presidential candidates, almost all the taller candidates have won), and therefore would have more opportunities to mate. Now, I don't know if we are on our way to an even taller human being, or if a return to a shorter human would be more efficient and desirable in the future. Either way, I think there is going to be some movement in the near future.

Our technology is going to change us much more and much faster than any type natural selection. Between nanotechnology and genetic engineering, we'll be able to change our genome over night.

I'd say that height is one of the most obvious examples, we've been getting taller at a very consistent rate over the last few thousand years. A lot of this has to do with the improvements in our diet over that period of time

But we cant POSSIBLY improve our diet, look at what we've got, genetically enhanced good, can it be more enhanced?

LG is the next step in human evolution. Homo Clownien.

We will lose our hair, get taller(less noodles) i think the focus in our genes will shift from physical traits to intelligence(a forced evolution as each generation has more to learn, discover and comprehend) and its the only thing that cannot be logically done artificially.

In the long run, colonization of planets and Biomechanics will force us to adapt independently and outshoot to a number of sub-species.

You Bastard. :mad::(
Great minds think alike, and fools seldom differ.

Memes have already won the internet.
After reading Dawkins and Dennett, watching lectures and participating in debates, I’ve still never been given a satisfactory explanation as to the difference between ‘memes’ and ‘ideas’.

Think transhumanism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism) and technological singularity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity). Biological evolution is so slow.
To much based on faith alone for my liking.

The supporters of transhumanism and those who look forward to the Apocalypse seem to have a large amount in common...

LG is the next step in human evolution. Homo Clownien.

I'm trying to keep a low profile until my kind outnumber you pathetic humans.

In fact, forget I said that. *nod*

I'm trying to keep a low profile until my kind outnumber you pathetic humans.

In fact, forget I said that. *nod*

http://www.drunkard.com/images/430.jpg
I have erased my brain. :)

Great minds think alike, and fools seldom differ.

:) Okay, all is forgiven.

The most immediate changes will occur as we spread out from Earth to other planets. Evolutionary pressure on Mars will favor lightweight frames, and possibly big lungs unless we make the atmospheric pressure the same as Earth's.

As physical labor is done mostly by robots, humans will favor intelligence over physical strength. This change will be slow, as it won't depend on the stupid ones dying off immediately, but on the smart ones doing better economically, and successfully providing for larger families. Rednecks eventually go extinct.

The possibility of telepathy is an interesting one. I may doubt the claims of psychics, but I'm open to the possibility that humans have some sort of latent telepathic abilities. Certainly that would be a beneficial mutation - imagine if you could read someone's mind and tell if they were interested in you? The smart ones would not go after the hot businesswoman who's actually a lesbian, but the cute girl who secretly has a crush on them, but isn't brave enough to say anything. The dumb ones will go after the hot businesswoman anyway and get kicked in the balls, losing their abilities to reproduce entirely.

The supporters of transhumanism and those who look forward to the Apocalypse seem to have a large amount in common...

I was gonna argue that... but I'm pretty sure your right. I am kinda looking forward to both.

I'd say that height is one of the most obvious examples, we've been getting taller at a very consistent rate over the last few thousand years. A lot of this has to do with the improvements in our diet over that period of time, but I can't help but think that because taller people tend to be more popular (look at the presidential candidates, almost all the taller candidates have won), and therefore would have more opportunities to mate. Now, I don't know if we are on our way to an even taller human being, or if a return to a shorter human would be more efficient and desirable in the future. Either way, I think there is going to be some movement in the near future.

How many people are too short to find a partner?

How many people are too short to find a partner?

obviously I wasnt

At least someone is paying attention.

Batman?

Or Manbat.

At least someone is paying attention.



Or Manbat.

I haven't read those comics...(manbat), how are they?

Dysgenics is the way 'forward' for much of the Western world. *sigh*

Manbat is a genetically altered (villan) human scientist who wanted to be more bat than man in the Batman comics and cartoons. Considering Batman's longevity and popularity; I'd say it a damn good comic, an American main-stay.

Dysgenics is the way ‘forward’ for much of the Western wold. *sigh*
You think we’re on a downward slope?

I was gonna argue that... but I’m pretty sure your right. I am kinda looking forward to both.
I have a sincere doubt that either will happen.

There’s too much utopian, faith-based talk given over to transhumanism these days; the idea that if we only figure out bionics and nanotechnology, everything is going to be all right. As if technology can solve all of our ills.

You think we’re on a downward slope?
Yep. Particulate in our air and various unnecessary chemicals in our cheapest food, which is mostly what the more breeding-oriented classes buy, completely fuck up babies in the womb and then make them increasingly retarded as they get older. Sad, really.

How many people are too short to find a partner?
1.3 billion.

I'm not sure if it would be anything. We've already evolved to the point where we can efficiently adapt to physical problems we face.

However, if our environment drastically changes (and it typically does), I'm sure we'll adapt to that - which way, however, is a crap shoot.

This is the same "end of history" theory that sounded so good a decade ago.

Toes are going to go. Used to be used for hanging onto branches, not needed for that so much anymore, so those little bastards' days are numbered.

Ladies and genltemen. I present to you...the next stage of human evolution. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bbmccMpgrg)