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Humans Have Stopped Evolving And The Future Bleak If People Have Large Families

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    Humans Have Stopped Evolving And The Future Bleak If People Have Large Families

    So i found this on another site i go on and thought it would cause some interesting conversations

    Metro.co.uk: News, Sport, Showbiz, Celebrities from Metro

    here's my 2 pence worth.


    Have we stopped evolving?


    After a fashion yes. evolution through survival of the fittest is based on only those members of the species that are best suited to the enviroment manage to survive long enough to pass on their genetic code. so going with that idea anyone that has a genetic health disorder, Diabeties (yes i know this can also be brought on) or even like my self asthma would have died extreamly early on and would not have passed on our genes. at the same time you also have to think about groups of people that only marry into themselves, usually religious groups like muslims, jewish and catholic. over times would these groups not eventually evolve into their own sub sicies of homo sapian? (homo sapian islaman??) but before we get too carried away we should remember that evolution takes millions of years. even just 1 million years its 500 more times of our current 2000 years. and how long have we really been getting the benifits of these huge advances in medicine? maybe a quarter or that 500 years at the most?


    But on the other side evolutionary never actually stops. just because we are in control of our enviroment doesnt mean its doesnt continue to force us to evolve. a really good example would be a virus outbreak. there would be people that are immune to it or better at fighting it off than others. these humans would be the ones that survived to pass on their genes. but as a species with no natural predators, that no longer hunt (thanks to agriculture) and are no longer at the complete mercy of the enviroment. we will not see any fast evolution at work.


    Any Evolution will be social!


    Absolutly, in the past 6000 years homo sapian sapian has seen massive social evolution. the leap from packs of intelligent sentient animals, to what we are today, something that is outside the natural kingdom (and i know this image is wrong and we shouldn't be, but thats an unfortunate truth we act outside of nature, thats why we are causing all the damage to the earth)
    The large families argument is only valid in that we can't sustain our curent population growth however that is easily controlled by social and technological growth, as we develope more efficent ways to produce food and power and a less materialistic, self-centered social outlook, those problems will fade out.


    Extinction?


    Yes we will, even if the human race survives from now untill the end of the earth in 5 billion years when the sun expands, homo sapian sapian will have long since ceased to exist as we do now we would have evolved into a different type of homo sapian. cos thing about it 5 billion years is 2million 5hundred thousand times our current 2000 years.


    So what if we arnt that lucky, to survive the next 5 billion years. what will take us out? honestly it wont be a problem with our genetic diversity. it will be our own arogance and ignorence. can we survive an ice age? Yes! the technology we have will easily allow us to survive, we may lose a large amount of the population but that will only make it easier to survive. what about the next polar shift when earths magnetic feilds become weaker and cosmic rays do more damage. not a problem technology will again prevail and allow us to survive. continental shifts? technology. what would cause our eventual down fall? in my opinion if we lost technology. say that there was a war right now tonight, non nucluer or even necluer missiles were launch by and against military and government targets all over the worlds and at the same time EMPS were detonated all over the world. all doctors and scientists mysteriously vanish, how many of us, would survive, how many of you know how to catch your own food, make your own clothes make your own needles and thread or rope or medicines. our downfall if we have one will be our own ignorence we are so assured of our technology that many of us no longer learn or pass on the knowledge of the simple skills humans need to survive without technology.

    #2
    Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving And The Future Bleak If People Have Large Families

    Social evolution is also very important, though. I read an interesting article about reduced infant mortality and longer lives that supports the fact that both have progressed social and cultural evolution:



    We're at a point where any progression we can make as a species will come from cultural or social evolution. We're pretty good at being humans in our environment. In fact, we're too good, and we can dominate almost any landscape to the point of ruin.

    And ultimately, we'll probably adapt if we need to. We're really good at that. We're sort of like cockroaches.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving And The Future Bleak If People Have Large Families

      Originally posted by DanieMarie View Post

      And ultimately, we'll probably adapt if we need to. We're really good at that. We're sort of like cockroaches.
      i'd say more like the earth's common cold

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving And The Future Bleak If People Have Large Families

        I fully believe that population control is humanity's biggest challenge to ensuring a decent future for the species.

        While our global population density is not that bad, most major landmasses aren't arable or habitable. Right now, China only has about 7% of arable land in its borders. More and more nations are dealing with food and water security issues - meaning the ability to feed and water themselves in the future.

        We've got water security issues right here in Las Vegas which is a relatively wealthy city in a first-world nation. When Bugsy Siegel envisioned Las Vegas back in the 1950s. he was probably seeing it as a glitzy, but quaint, little oasis. A stopover between Los Angeles and points eastward. Today we have 2 million people living in a 7900 sq. mile patch of desert. In 2012, we hosted close to 40 million tourists as well. Our main water source is Lake Mead, a man-made Lake fed by the Colorado River. We've got about 2 - 5 years worth of water IF, and only IF, our population and water usage remains stable. If we get any more large resort casinos with water-using features (pools, water parks, fountains, man-made mini-lakes, etc.) or our population continues to grow by 300,000 people each year, that time estimate is going to start dropping below 2 years and into months.

        It's easy to sit back and ruminate on the future of the species, but pretty soon what's happening here in my microcosm is going to be a slap in the face of the macrocosm of planet Earth.
        The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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          #5
          Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving And The Future Bleak If People Have Large Families

          I think eventually, we are likely to have a population contraction one way or another. Nothing like an extinction, but a contraction that will stabilize the planet slightly. We might delay that event for a very long time though.

          I think for all practical purposes, evolution has stopped. Reproduction is occurring among all types of people, with almost all genotypes. There might be slight wobbles in allele frequencies due to things like sociological factors, but no characteristic that survived this far is going to be purged from modern populations. Most new mutations also will not be purged, but will accumulate extremely slowly. The vast majority of these will be neutral.

          Some day, we may use science to evolve. It might be as simple as weeding out or curing deleterious alleles prior to birth, or it may involve full blown eugenics.
          If you want to be thought intelligent, just agree with everyone.

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            #6
            Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving And The Future Bleak If People Have Large Families

            Humanity is evolving into a certain extinction.
            My posts are generally sent from my cell fone. Please excuse my brevity, and spelling/grammar errors.

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              #7
              Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving And The Future Bleak If People Have Large Families

              Two words; sexual selection. Favoured traits get passed on more frequently than unfavourable traits, this results in changes in allele frequencies over time... i.e., Evolution. That's day two biology stuff, and that's not even getting into intraspecific competition.

              We know what happens to populations that exceed their environment's capacity to support them, they reach a peak and then start declining.
              Trust is knowing someone or something well enough to have a good idea of their motivations and character, for good or for ill. People often say trust when they mean faith.

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                #8
                Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving And The Future Bleak If People Have Large Families

                Yep. It's also not impossible for human population to decline without some sort of forced natural cause (lack of food or resource or disease). We've been seeing this in Northern Europe and Japan for years. Germany's population is still declining so rapidly that it's still a major cause of concern in the country. Every couple of years, the government basically tries to bribe people into having more kids. They haven't hit the nail on the head yet because they're too conservative to hit the real problem (German women are highly educated on average and the overall culture still relies on women staying at home with the kids...bad mix. State funded daycare would do wonders).

                In most places with high levels of education, especially amongst women, population stabilizes or even decreases. It's a slow process to enact on the rest of the world, but it's the best solution that doesn't involve famine or disease.

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