Posted on 07/28/2009 11:14:56 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
When we daydream about the future, we tend to focus on the fabulous belongings we're going to have. Jet packs, flying cars, weapons to kill aliens, cell phones that make today's sleek models look clunky -- you name it, we're going to have it. We don't tend to focus, however, on who we'll be in the future. Most of us probably picture ourselves exactly the same, though maybe thinner, as surely we'll all have robot personal trainers by then. While we see the world's technology evolving to meet our needs, we may not think about how we ourselves might be evolving.*
*The story of evolution up to this point explains how we became the upright walking, tool-using homo sapiens of today. The turning point of this story so far concerns cranial expansion. About 2.5 million years ago, hominids started out with a brain weighing approximately 400-450 grams (approximately 1 pound), but around 200,000 to 400,000 years ago, our brains became much bigger than those of other primates [source: Kouprina et al.]. Now, we humans walk around with brains tipping the scales at 1350 to 1450 grams (approximately 3 pounds) [source: Kouprina et al.].
*As humans, we enjoy a much larger neocortex. This area of the brain is the key ingredient that separates us from other species -- it allows us to do our deep thinking, make decisions and form judgments. And while our brain has served us well so far, it certainly has a few defects we wouldn't mind eliminating, like disease, depression and the tendency to make drunken phone calls at 2 a.m. to an ex-boyfriend. But until recently, scientists thought that we were done evolving, that we had reached a sort of evolutional apex. Now, though, some researchers think that we're not quite done.
(Excerpt) Read more at health.howstuffworks.com ...
Creationists )(and their ID cousins) with specious arguments and pseudo-science in 3..2..1...
No, it's de-volving. Just look how stupid people are in this country, voting for a fraud like Obama. Heck, they are too stupid to even know the difference between a forged COLB and a real birth certificate, and those are people who are supposed to be educated journalists and investigative reporters, judges, law enforcement and others in high office.
Then there is this global warming BS, deviant sexual behavior, etc etc etc.
Nope, there is no sign of increasing intelligence in this country.
“Are we not men?”
There is absolutely no proof whatsoever that we evolved from monkeys and apes.
LOL
>> No, it’s de-volving. Just look how stupid people are in this country, voting for a fraud like Obama. Heck, they are too stupid to even know the difference between a forged COLB and a real birth certificate, and those are people who are supposed to be educated journalists and investigative reporters, judges, law enforcement and others in high office.
Then there is this global warming BS, deviant sexual behavior, etc etc etc.
Nope, there is no sign of increasing intelligence in this country.<<
Your logic is unassailable. And we see it in a few years.
Freedom as an ideal is no more. The thinking required to make it work is far gone.
*sigh*
Hard to tell these days.
I think you're probably right, but for different reasons than you posit. Beginning centuries ago, but especially this last century, a human's brain doesn't no longer to be as effective as it once did to survive. With the advent of social-help programs all over the globe, and particularly in the developed world, one can frankly be dumb as a stump and still make it long enough to procreate.
So, where once only the smartest human animals would "spread their seed", now every moron and their brother is passing their "idiot" gene along to countless unsuspecting human offspring. This is not a good sign in Darwin's Theory of evolution.
>>There is absolutely no proof whatsoever that we evolved from monkeys and apes<<
There is plenty of scientific proof. But it requires people who understand science to understand it.
It’s absolutely devolving. I can cite countless examples of how and why, but one really needs to look no further than music to see the process.
Nor is there proof that oil is found in ancient strata.
And no coal has marks of (now extinct) plants. The La Brea Tarpits are just an elaborate hoax. Yes, hoax. That’s the ticket.
>>So, where once only the smartest human animals would “spread their seed”, now every moron and their brother is passing their “idiot” gene along to countless unsuspecting human offspring. This is not a good sign in Darwin’s Theory of evolution. <<
This has been a hilarious new front on the creationist front.
The “people are getting stupid” (idiocracy) argument, which ignores the nature of stochastism.
Thanks for the laughter. To see TToE in action (idiots breeding supra idiots) is all we need for a rebuttal presumption of TToE in action.
I'm hardly an creationist. But, Darwin demands that evolution is at least is partially catalyzed by a species doing what it needs to do to improve itself in order to further it's chances of survival.
The original question of the article is, "Is the human brain still evolving". It seems logical, given man's current predilection to help the helpless, cure the sick, and feed the starving are all things that will work against evolution in the coming millennia. The importance of intellect, oddly enough, is becoming less important as it's no longer paramount to one's survival.
Why just add computer chips to our brain to increase its capacity?
Possibly to interface with computers. To have a thinking capacity of a human and a processing time of a computer.
The modern human brain is a bit smaller than the cro magnon brain.
One does not need as much intelligence to live in a civilized society.
Or domesticated...
Capacity is already grossly under utilized. More storage is simply overkill.
Well said.
But is it that the future of the human race? Genetically enginener a human with bigger brains and greater intelligence using microprocessors neural implants.
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