At what point, due to technological advances, will we be able to fairly say that mankind has evolved into a new species?

[glenn1]

Let's face it, Homo sapiens puts us into the same category as some hunter-gatherer from 6,000 years ago trying to make fire and fighting off predators with a stone axe. He bears almost nothing in common (apart from DNA) with a child born in Western Europe or the U.S. today. At some point, will technology force us to define ourselves up into a new species designation?

 

[Orsorum]

Given time, with our dietary and medicinal advances, we may advance into another form or another bone structure.

I think the average height, over the last 6,000 years, has changed from like four feet to about 5'10"... plus, the primary digit for just the last generation has changed from the index finger to the thumb. Wonder what else...

 

[db]

Yes now it is a species of @ssholes, with a few nice people sprinkled in for contrast and agony.

 

[Moonbeam]

Evolution is all about DNA. As long as the iceman's frozen sperm can fertilize a living female human, we will be the same species.

 

[jamautosound]

I think cloning would qualify as a new species. No?

 

[polypterus]

No, because by definition the classification "species" has nothing to do with technology. We would still be able to breed with humans living 50,000 years ago, so we're still the same species. If anything technology will probably prevent us from evolving into a new species, as we can use technology to adapt our environment to us, instead of the other way around.

dc

 

[paulee]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Evolution is all about DNA. As long as the iceman's frozen sperm can fertilize a living female human, we will be the same species.

that's exactly what I was going to say. you hafta look at what defines a species.

 

[JellyBaby]

We will always be human. 10,000 years from now, even if we have big heads, large black eyes and two peckers we're still human. Evolutionary changes happen so slowly/gradually there's no way we'll ever wake up in the morning and say, "Hey, I have another pecker! I think I'm Human 2.0 now."

 

[glenn1]

Evolution is all about DNA. As long as the iceman's frozen sperm can fertilize a living female human, we will be the same species.

Well, certain breeds of dogs and cats can mate and produce offspring. Does that make them members of the same species? How about donkeys and horses producing mules?

Perhaps it's that i have a non-science background, but if that's the case where speciation is simply a matter of being able to reproduce, then i think that the term "species" is somewhat meaningless.

 

[LAUST]

Unemployed?? Thats what you mean right? Machines and Computer putting everyone out of work :Q

 

[Haircut]

Well, certain breeds of dogs and cats can mate and produce offspring. Does that make them members of the same species? How about donkeys and horses producing mules?

Yes, a great dane is the same species as a chihuahua, they are different breeds of the same species.
I think horses and mules are part of the same genus and this is what allows them to breed. Their offspring is sterile though.
*edit* More info here.

 

[Maverick]

Biological definition of a species is when two individuals can mate and produce fertile offspring. Thats why all dog breeds are the same species but mules are not. Cavemen were no dumber than we are now...I'm sure they were people just like us with the same basic thought processes. You wouldn't look back on Napoloean and say he was a lower species because he didn't know how to use a computer, would you?

As far as evolution goes, there are requirements for a species to evolve...basically human beings cannot evolve in the normal way because of the way our species has progressed.

We have too large a population and our population is not isolated to a single environment. The only way we may evolve is if we send humans off to a distant planet and cut off all contact with them. In a million years they may evolve to something different.

Another reason is our extremely large population. Small populations have a chance to produce offspring with newer traits that give them a significant advantage over their ancestors and eventually gain dominance over them. That event is extremely unlikely when you have a population of 6 billion. Even if a child or two is born with some evolutionary trait, it will be squashed out before it appears in 6 billion others.

The only technological advance that could advance our evolution would be genetics. Still even then you'd have to isolate the individuals and break off contact with them till they establish a new species that cannot reproduce with us.

 

[hoihtah]

i think once we start cloning humans... we'll have to say that we're a new species.
or at least they are.

 

[Moonbeam]

Twins are clones and they are most definitley the same species.

 

[fatbaby]

Originally posted by: glenn1

Evolution is all about DNA. As long as the iceman's frozen sperm can fertilize a living female human, we will be the same species.

Well, certain breeds of dogs and cats can mate and produce offspring. Does that make them members of the same species? How about donkeys and horses producing mules?

Perhaps it's that i have a non-science background, but if that's the case where speciation is simply a matter of being able to reproduce, then i think that the term "species" is somewhat meaningless.

mules are sterile , so mutation is a likely result from interbreeding (dude, no more beastality)

The offspring of a cat and dog will be a hybrid species...and if that hybrid species mates with other hybrid species, they will produce a new species.

We can evolve, but it isn't likely. Our adaptations to the environment are acquired after birth, not passed on by our adapted parents. We can easily change environments unlike animals. The only way to evolve is a seperation of the gene pools, geographical isolation isn't likely neither is reproductive isolation, so evolution isnt likely.

 

[jhu]

Twins are clones and they are most definitley the same species.

not if one of them is a killer cyborg from the future

 

[Nefrodite]

cultural evolution and memes its all about the memes baby! doesn't meann we've evolved physically, but our ability to culturally evolve is one of our main advantages. after all, if i tossed a bunch of u onto an island as kids ud end up as savages lord of the flies

 

[jhu]

actually we can make a new species of human right now. what you do is get maybe 10,000 people and give each one of them the same gene translocations. that way, they'll be able to produce viable offspring between them, but not with the rest of us. instant new species.