• Question: what is our next evolution going to be and when is it going to happen

    Asked by 349susb46 to Cristiane, Nicki, Nikolai, Richard, Samuel on 16 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Samuel Ellis

      Samuel Ellis answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      That is pretty hard to predict. However evolution is mainly driven by adapting to new conditions to survive, but because humans have easier lives these days a lot of those driving factors have changed. Some genetic change has been observed in recent times though, often linked to genes which help humans cope with certain diseases.

      More simple changes include the fact that humans have got taller over the last couple of centuries. It is likely that this is slowing down though, because most people are not undernourished as children any more meaning we grow to our full height potential.

    • Photo: Nikolai Adamski

      Nikolai Adamski answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      I’ve just answered a similar question. I’m going to use the same response here.

      The thing is that we as a species are artificially changing our “natural” evolution. Evolution happens when successful traits get propagated or at least kept alive in a population of organisms (animals, plants, bacteria): An organism with a successful trait passes it on to its children and so on, whereas disadvantageous traits usually lead to a loss in fertility, i.e less offspring. However, our use of technology and medicine can compensate some traits that would normally have been selected to be “unfit” in “nature”. So in a way we are deciding our evolution based on social and technical criteria. Where will it lead? Your guess is as good as mine 🙂

    • Photo: Richard Simons

      Richard Simons answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      I’ve got a similar perspective to Nikolai on this, though I have a different conclusion.
      Because we no longer need to change ourselves to fit our natural environment, and instead change our natural environment to fit us, evolution has no benefit and so there won’t be a chance for positive traits to be enhanced – not benefit in selection leads to no overall change and evolution stops.

      Evolution requires some external pressure for selection of preferable traits, I can’t think of a single trait that applies uniformly to any large group of people, yet alone the whole population, so the evolutionary pressure for selection of a trait is very low indeed. We may have got as far as we ever will in terms of natural evolutionary processes; but what about un-natural evolution, now there’s an exciting idea…

Comments

  • Photo: 349susb46

    349susb46 commented on :

    OK thank you

  • Photo: Nikolai

    Nikolai commented on :

    I see Richards conclusion and I raise him for one:
    What about social pressures? And how will our brain evolve. Our world gets more complex, so will our brains have to adapt, i.e. evolve to keep up. And where will that go. Plus, spontaneous mutations within a population can still arise and if they are deemed desirable (e.g. I want to be that smart too) they could be maintained within the population.

  • Photo: Richard

    Richard commented on :

    @Nikolai my conclusion is based more on the selection pressure, in building our society we have done away with the classic markers of ‘healthy’ mates, and choose partners on a range of complex (and often contradictory) characteristics. There would need to be some trait which had a universal benefit for natural selection to occur.
    Lets take the example of a random mutation that results in a significant increase in intelligence (a massive over simplification), what is the pressure for that gene to propagate? Would you expect to see crowds of mates around that individual? That’s not how our society works. Selection of a trait requires that the individual reproduces, and that is usually carried out through mate selection, or longevity of the individual.
    With the way that our civilisation adapts its environment to remove threats, cure disease and increase life expectancy I just don’t see a way that a process which is as slow and unguided as evolution can compete with our technological development.

    Also, there’s the issue of population size, it’s predicted that the population will grow to 9 billion by the end of the century, and with greater connectivity there will be greater mixing and more homogeneity, amongst an enormous population it would require a HUGE pressure to have any noticeable effect.

    • Photo: Nikolai

      Nikolai commented on :

      @Richard Maybe we need a better description than evolution to describe what will happen to us in the future? As you’ve said, evolution describes a process that takes millions of years so might not be appropriate any longer for us. I also agree with the greater homogenization of our gene pool.
      Still, it is kinda sad to think that “this” should be our final stage. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my side 🙂