Evolution is over?

[Nemesis77]

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Begin discussion

 

[Wallydraigle]

I don't think that's quite so. We may have reached a plateau, where evolution slows down or stops for a while, only to return to normal when conditions cal for it. Of course from anyone's point of view it looks as things stay the same on such a huge scale, because we are incapable of fathoming such enormous amounts of time from the first person. It seems rather arrogant to think that we could stop such a force as evolution.

 

[BoberFett]

<< It seems rather arrogant to think that we could stop such a force as evolution. >>

Really? Evolution is closely related to natural selection. If natural selection in humans was still taking place, then why isn't the human race as a whole becoming smarter, stronger, faster and more resistant to disease?

What we have right now is de-evolution. Just ask Booji Boy.

 

[IGBT]

I suspect in the near future we will shed the psychological parasite of religion and evolve to a higher intellectual plane free of religious psychosis.

 

[Random Variable]

I don't like people who claim to know what they can't possibly know.

 

[Wallydraigle]

<< Really? Evolution is closely related to natural selection. If natural selection in humans was still taking place, then why isn't the human race as a whole becoming smarter, stronger, faster and more resistant to disease? >>



Um, well, I think we are. It just happens so slowly that we can't see it from the inside. Also even in the natural world there are factors that can temproraliy sidestep natural selection. An example is brightly colored birds or fish. The bright colors make a male more likely to get a mate and produce offspring, but the offspring get more and more bright, thus attracting predators more often than their more drably colored counterparts. This condition always finds an equilibrium, even if it doesn't happen immediately. I think that this state is comporable to what we are going through, at most.

 

[Wallydraigle]

<< I don't like people who claim to know what they can't possibly know. >>



Who do you mean? I always try to throw out possibilities, and I try to claim to know very little. I'm an agnostic in a pretty strict sense of the word. If you weren't talking to me sorry.

 

[Random Variable]

<<

<< I don't like people who claim to know what they can't possibly know. >>



Who do you mean? I always try to throw out possibilities, and I try to claim to know very little. I'm an agnostic in a pretty strict sense of the word. If you weren't talking to me sorry. >>


No, I wasn't talking to you. I was referring to the scientists in the article.

 

[McPhreak]

<< Really? Evolution is closely related to natural selection. If natural selection in humans was still taking place, then why isn't the human race as a whole becoming smarter, stronger, faster and more resistant to disease?

What we have right now is de-evolution. Just ask Booji Boy. >>



Like a lot of people said, we are still becoming smarter, stronger, taller, and faster, it's just that you can't tell every morning when you wake up to eat your breakfast.



<< It seems rather arrogant to think that we could stop such a force as evolution. >>



I would agree with this statement. It's much like how we believe, as humans, we could wipe out all life on this planet...riiiiiight....

 

[Elledan]

Biological systems are subject to change. Always, unless all activity has been stopped.

Even now, in your body, mutations take place. Every time a cell divides, there's a chance that some genes aren't copied the right way.

To think that this process would suddenly stop is only one step away from idiocy. Perhaps not even one step.

--

However, it's true that we Humans are influencing evolution in a manner which might prove to be fatal. By allowing the ones with the 'weaker' genes (including genetical defects) to live and multiply, we might see some very unfavorable results appear in the future. This wouldn't become visible until over a couple of decades at earliest, seeing the timescale on which evolution works.

 

[DRDEATH]

Evolution never started.... It's BULL ISH!!!

 

[StageLeft]

<< Evolution never started.... It's BULL ISH!!! >>

Sorry,no.

 

[avedis]

Evolution is dead.
Why?
Humans have become too nice. we help other weak humans survive, which the basis of evolution is the strong survive, and continue...
Anyway, who cares? I'll be dead when and if any major evolution takes place, and won't know about it.

 

[LAUST]

If this is the Peak.... we're fvcked

 

[CStroman]

All thanks to medical technology, it'll only get worse from here.

 

[StageLeft]

<< Evolution is dead.
Why?
Humans have become too nice. we help other weak humans survive, which the basis of evolution is the strong survive, and continue...
Anyway, who cares? I'll be dead when and if any major evolution takes place, and won't know about it. >>

That's not evolution, it's society. You think humans are nice, just take a look at all of the atrocities that are committed with horrifying frequency around the globe. Humans aren't that nice. We help out the weak because we realize that any one of us one day could be that weak person and it's in our best interest to help them out so that we can get helped out too.

Left to his own devices somebody who cuts their stomach not too bad and breaks their leg could die without seeking proper medical attention. We help such people out because we could be that person tomorrow.

Anyway I think this theory that it's over is very shortsighted.

 

[ScottMac]

Yeah, sure, you bet. That's what the dinosaurs said.....

Evolution is never over....rust never sleeps....Immortality diminishes with age...

FWIW

Scott

 

[linuxboy]

Anyway, who cares? I'll be dead when and if any major evolution takes place, and won't know about it.

That's certainly a great attitude to take. OOOh MEEEE. MMEEE. I don't give a fvck about what happens. Need to live and don't care. Yep. Well, that's great but I have a brain and this little brain tells me that if I can do less damage, I should. It's not good to stop caring, we kill off who we are when we do that.

And no, evolution can't be over; particles are still in motion, the mechanism doesn't just stop. If the question is whether evolution will benefit us somehow, that is interesting and I don't have an answer since I can't see the future. Although I do see modern man as somehow hindering healthy competitive selection.

Evolution never started.... It's BULL ISH!!!

Be that as it may, it's still real, observable, repeatable, and verifiable. If that's "BULL ISH!!!" then sure...

Cheers !

 

[Atlantean]

If evolution is the theory you choose to believe, then it is not over. Why would we all of the sudden stop evolving? That would be illogical to suggest because the species on the planet have been evolving for several billion years (since the supposed dawn of time) there is no reason that it should stop now.

 

[hollowman]

never over.

 

[Juniper]

We have yet to communicate telepathically

 

[xirtam]

I agree with Elledan. The biological processes of microevolution are just facts of nature. We'll always have genetic inconsistencies when cells divide, both during mitosis and meiosis.

2 things I noticed about the article:

What the article fails to distinguish is that microevolution is not proof for macroevolution. It talks about brain size getting smaller. Great. How is that an indication of speciation? We have many kinds of dogs. This is microevolution. They're still dogs. They never lose their dogness. Is that the same kind of evolution we're talking about? Because if it is, that part is not going to change.

Second, the article is talking about a guided process. It thinks that we won't change... why? Because we have no purpose or reason to change. Natural selection is a purely random process. There is no organization to genetic mutations. They're completely random... so why couldn't a genetic mutation occur randomly that would make some organism better suited for its habitat? Now, it wouldn't completely change to a new organism. Perhaps it could get a longer neck or a different color, but that's still a genetic change, making the organism either better suited for its environment, worse suited for its environment, or neither.

To assume that evolution is going to stop is to assume that dog breeders will all get different professions. This is not going to happen.

As far as the act of random and senseless processes producing greater levels of complexity and new forms of speciation... does anyone have any evidence that this happens in nature? And I'm not looking for a pile of bones that you can tell a story about... my story can be just as credible. I'm looking for real evidence.

 

[Insidious]

It's not over......


In our arrogant haste to dismiss what makes us (us = human animals) uncomfortable, we

look at our seemingly unchanged grandfathers and justify our insecure beliefs.


I am personally amused as I watch our "scientific community" fight a (so sad) loosing battle to

stop evolution. Our environmental control efforts are a perfect example... the politically correct

love to argue that global warming, ozone layer changes, ect. aren't really evolution because they

are caused by man........ OH BRUMHILDA! So, if we can define the catalytic source of a change, it is not a change?



With respect to natural selection, don't even kid yourself about whether or not that is occuring. IT IS! Just

because surviving a climate or killing a predator is no longer much of a factor, evolution continue... social and medical factors ARE!



You can cure every disease know to the globe, but still there will be those bloodlines which will not continue

with the same robustness of others. (a 6-breasted woman will probably experience different dating and opposite

sex attraction than one with a mere two, etc.) Er, yes that is only an amusing attempt to make a point.



And let us not forget, that pretty little bimbo who doesn't want her only asset disfigured. Is she gonna reproduce

at the same rate as a social parasite who knows their only hope for additional resources is more kids => more handouts?