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[Mr. Mike]

We are at the point where we won't really evolve much more. Not naturally anyways. I believe we'll first experiment with technological enhancements, then genetic ones, probably greatly enhancing our physical (if not also mental) features. I don't think we'll become brains sitting in capsules while our technology does the work for us; physicality is something we'll never want to lose.

In a whopping 8 million years we will have reached the ceiling as far as technology and science go. What then comes into question is whether we'll have become so powerful as to bend the laws of science to fit our needs.

As far as politics go, I wouldn't be able to say. Perhaps we will remain to have a democracy of some sort?

We will have colonised quite a lot of space by then also. There will probably be many sub-species of humans, each specialised for the planet they live on. I think at one point there will be a war between these species regarding racial superiority. We will live past this, and such racial and planetary traits will become obselete once genetic engineering reaches its peak and people can take the most adaptable form possible.

Of course, all this is assuming we don't encounter a far superior, war-mongering species in space. As long as we over-come this obstacle, we will reach this point. I wouldn't be able to say whether we'd be co-existing with other alien species or whether we would have wiped them out.

And that's all I've got.

 

[Kragg]

if we dont get off this planet in the next 500 years we are all dead anyway

and natural evolution in humans is impossible, we genetically engineer stuff now and any mutations will be engineered to the "norm" anyway

edit: ninjad by dr Mike

the escapist: by page 2 everything has been said and now its just people rehashing former oppinions

edit 2: haha i said dr instead of mister

 

[Baron_BJ]

Here's what we've compiled so far people; (wo)man-kind will have transformed into a hyper-intelligent species of midget lesbians with the strength and hair of ten water buffalo, not to mention our robotic limbs/organs for when shit just don't work quite right.

Our hairy, super-midgets will need to figure out a way to leaving this burning crevice of a world before the shit falls apart from the 1,000,000 different loads of annoying bullshit our green and blue rock seems to just not be able to handle.

 

[Nickolai77]

I carnt really see evolution happening to humans living in a modern developed society since humans in that condition are not subject to natural selection. Unless you have some sort of chronic health problem, chances are your still going to pass on your (perhaps flawed) genes to next generation- and medical technology will act as a compenstator to ensure that those offspring survive in a well enough condition to pass on their genes in turn.

The link the OP posted was quite an interesting read- although i think the claim that humans as we know them today will vanish in about a 100 years is exaggerated. Yes, i would expect developments in cybernetics and genetics to allow for humans to "become different" but for that to become wide spread you'll have to wait at least 200 years i say- and even then, homo sapiens will still exist.

 

[dfphetteplace]

I've written this before one here, but I'll give a quick summary of it. As we leave the Earth and go into other parts of the solar system and beyond, we will evolve, be it naturally or by our own design. We will move to different areas, small groups of humans exploring different parts of the universe. These small groups will change what they are in order to survive and thrive in other environments very different from our own planet. After thousands and thousands of years, two groups of people will probably be completely different, and may not even remember that human is their ancestor. These groups may not even look anything like human after this long. They will change themselves and then natural evolution will take place on top of that. In 8 million years, yeah humans will be long gone, but we may be something entirely different, perhaps many things entirely different from each other. Hope this helps.

 

[slowpoke999]

Hopefully the events in Mass Effect are similar to what Happens to humans, so even if humans are fucking retarded we got other species to make sure we don't kill ourselves. And that's hoping Mass Effect 3 has a happy ending or else...just don't open up and alien space-travelling technology and pretend we don't exist.

*snip*

As far as I know,humans have gotten taller, so why would they suddenly get smaller?

 

[Doitpow]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_After_Man


great book

 

[Project_Omega]

The future of humans : Your mum...

but seriously ...

I lost faith in humanity long ago

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

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[Billion Backs]

I think 8 million years is a bit too far.
Look back at the past 2-3 thousand years. Well, early 00's to mid 1000's kind of sucked, but before and after that, huge amounts of stuff changed. The Greek, the Romans, the Chinese (and other asian cultures), the Europeans after about 15th-16th century... Hell, even if you look back at the past 100 years there are plenty of changes.

So you can't possibly predict technological changes with any kind of accuracy if it goes beyond a few decades. And our society is very affected by technology, and will only become more affected as things go, so you can't really predict much about societal changes in such far future.

So, eh, might as well pull something absolutely random out of your ass. Say how humanity will be conquered by race of space lobsters in 2449009 or something.

And that if we don't fuck up Earth a lot sooner.

 

[FactualSquirrel]

Well, we won't have evolved in the slightest due to the way evolution works, so we'll probably have overpolluted and populated the earth, and had to start colonizing other planets which would be possible thanks to the amount technology has advanced within this time. It will now be a simple matter to do a lot of things, global warming will have been wiped out and we'll have most of the stuff we hae problems with done automatically.

Obviously, we'll actually be dead, but that doesn't actually help you, so yeah.

 

[Summerstorm]

If all goes well (We are not losing the earth till we can seed ourselves into the cosmos), we will be able to change ourselves.

Transhumanism... We will be so good in genetic engineering/biotechnology and such that if we choose to recreate us, we can. Maybe there will be even different "humans" alltogether: AI's in our image, superhumans, or strange, alien creatures build out of our own ideas and values.

The point is: We are barely subject to natural evolution anymore, and we are beginning to take our own fates in in our own hands. We can steer our own "evolution" in a insanely faster rate than nature itself ever could. We can change millions (billions) of creatures in just one generation.

The whole problem are the moral dilemmas, the fear and the de-stabilizing effects on our cultures... Also the thing that we likely wioll not be perfect in this fields for the time of change... so some bad stuff might happen. (Better to be safe than sorry?)

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

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[TheNamlessGuy]

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[The Ouroboros of Red]

Well, as far as physical evolution, I'd say we would probably lose quite a bit of parts. Pinky fingers, little toes, and (probably) appendixes are insignificant to the point where we don't really need them any more. Our dental structure would be very different, I'd imagine.
Of course, this is all just hypothetical. The problem with making assumptions about physical evolution is that many work under the mistaken principle that evolution is a singular, omniscient guiding force. It is not an all-seeing hand, changing things about and advancing organisms. It's really just a constantly occurring event. The main reason why it happens is because of offspring inheriting useful DNA and alleles. The reason why humans are so diverse is because we've established that just about anyone in our society (with a few exceptions: http://boingboing.net/2009/12/03/man-wins-world-of-wa.html) can create an offspring. So really, we could de-evolve (unlikely).

... Eh, enough of my ramblings.

 

[chaos order]

i personally think we've stopped evolving, no this is not saying that human are perfect by any means, its just that we adapt the environment to our needs, this eliminates selective pressure such as weather or resources. and seeing as we create "perfect" environments to live in, the "weak" dont die and are able to mate and further their "weak" genes (btw im not a Nazi im just explaining how we've stopped evolution. and im using "weak" very loosely) that's not to say humans will not change. However, the only change i can see that could be similar to evolution would be through artificial means. By this i mean through implantation of machines into our own bodies in order to further our abilities.

 

[Acier]

Smaller jaws because of softer modern food, the little toe is vestigial so well lose that, huge loss of muscle mass from being lazy idiots.

I thought we needed a little toe for balance, it's pinky fingers that are completely unnecessary at this point.

That's not to say they won't be vestigial in 8 million years.

Its a yes and no answer apparently, does the little toe affect balance? you get a different answer from different people.

The best Yahoo Answer to the above question happens to be "I've broken my little toe twice", yeah thanks for that enlightening answer GeeoGeeo@Yahoo.

There's only only one way to find out, I'll go on webcam and cut my little toe's off and see what happens, stand back children THIS IS FUCKING SCIENCE!

As for the pinky finger, of course thats needed!, at 4pm everyday the Brits need it to stick it out while sipping tea, if Natural Selection deprives Brits of afternoon Tea I'll lose my faith in Darwin.

Oh God! The depravity!