The Future of Evolution: What Will We Become?

livescience ^ | 16 November 2009 | Charles Q. Choi

[JoeProBono]

The past of human evolution is more and more coming to light as scientists uncover a trove of fossils and genetic knowledge. But where might the future of human evolution go? There are plenty of signs that humans are still evolving.

However, whether humans develop along the lines portrayed by hackneyed science fiction is doubtful.

Clichés dashed

An old cliché has the highly evolved humans of the future sporting large heads to hold their advanced enlarged brains, "but that's nonsense, whole nonsense," said paleontologist Peter Ward at the University of Washington at Seattle, author of "Future Evolution." "If you've ever gone through a childbirth or witnessed one," Ward says, "we're already anatomically right on the edge of how big our heads can go — our big brains have already caused extreme problems in childbirth, and if we had bigger and bigger brains, that'd cause more mothers to die in childbirth, so evolution would select against that......."

[JoeProBono]

[Centurion2000]

The one on the left ain't bad either but I bet she isn't a liberal.

The Eloi were all liberals. Sitting around all day, eating fruits and nuts they didn't grow, F#$%ing like rabbits and enjoying their lazy, idyllic existence of not knowing that they were cattle and being fed upon.

[EGPWS]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZldlyeR8DU

yep and we stay alive presently via hanging on to personal freedom.

[BenLurkin]

http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/goldberg.wav

[1776 Reborn]

“If we ever move beyond this planet”

We’ll have to leave when the taxes are too high to stay here.

[samtheman]

Of course the article leaves out the possibility of politically-motivated evolution.

I envision (in my worst nightmares) something like a cross between 1984 and Brave New World in which the Socialist Masters genetically engineer themselves upwards while keeping their slave-societies stupid, weak and short-lived, through control of the media, education and medicine.

[oh8eleven]

[DennisR]

The price for Utopia can never be too high, can it?

Throw 90% of the incumbent out! And show up in D.C. on the day of the State of the Union Address in January for a massive protest by We, the People!

[SunkenCiv]

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[JoeProBono]

[Lucretia Borgia]

Sleestack!

[SunkenCiv]

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[Grimmy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM0AW9Mn1Fc

That’s the direction a certain set of our current pop wants to take the rest of us in cultural “evolution” at least.

[JoeProBono]

[Perdogg]

Genetic elite?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The Future of Evolution: What Will We Become?

Whatever each of us wants to become. Humans have been using intelligence and technology to side-step evolutionary forces ever since we started using tools. Just one example - there have been millions of people with bad eyesight who would would never have lived to reproduce without glasses. As technology continues to advance, human evolution will become increasingly self-directed.

Such articles always note the unintentional effects of technology on human evolution (smaller lower jaws from agriculture), but seem to assume that humans won't gain far greater intentional control with future technologies.

[Lucretia Borgia]

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[Daffynition]