Evolution-what If we evolved to the point where we no longer need air

[Hamish Durie]

Ok here me out
We have come along way from tiny single celled organisims.
And we have evolved to the point where we are sentiant and we have been for awhile now.
Now would it be possible for the human race (give or take a billion years) to one day evolve to the point where we no longer needed air or to breathe.
It would redifine evrything.

Thoughts?


(capatcha I can't read arabic -.-)

 

[Jared Domenico]

Put the blunt down, turn yourself in to the police, and read a biology textbook while you are in prison.

 

[quayleman]

simply put, thats not how evolution works.
A species evolves to best survive IN ITS ENVIRONMENT. While theoretically life could evolve to the point of sentience without ever needing to breathe, a species that lives in an atmosphere with oxygen and already makes use of that oxygen will not evolve to stop using oxygen.

 

[Jaccer]

Alright, good point, but guys, listen.
You ready?
Alright, what if...
You paying attention?
What if we moved to mars, or somewhere where there's not Oxygen?
Then we'll evolve to not need any!
...
Screw you, it'll work.

 

[Berenzen]

Oxygen is required for organisms to undergo cellular respiration, so we would need to be able to produce it and contain it internally, so theoretically, yes. Practically, no. Co2 -> 02 converstion (photosynthesis) has an endproduct of stored energy and alcohol, which would be detrimental to humans as it is toxic. Not to mention that both of those processes are highly inefficient

And internalizing the process is the only way that a human could survive without air, you need oxygen input in order for an organism to live, and that can only occur by either internallizing (problem with it shown above) or by getting it into the bloodstream somehow (breathing, or technically filtration through the skin) but the second option requires a surrounding atmosphere of some oxygen (not too much or it will kill you though)


Edit: Before people start coming in with wrong ideas of how evolution works I'll show it here in a simple chart format

Species->Devestation of Species Occurs-> Some survive, pass on genetic material. However, this only occurs if there are survivors, if the species dies, then extinction happens.

So we will not be able to evolve to using another gas to breathe because it would kill all humans when they breathe in that gas. Therefore no genetic material that would cause evolution would be passed on.

 

[Valagetti]

simply put, thats not how evolution works.
A species evolves to best survive IN ITS ENVIRONMENT. While theoretically life could evolve to the point of sentience without ever needing to breathe, a species that lives in an atmosphere with oxygen and already makes use of that oxygen will not evolve to stop using oxygen.

Thank you, you cannot evolve in advance to what your environment will be. If that would happen, evolution would be intelligent.

And look at the human body, it needs oxygen, all mammals need oxygen.

 

[Daniel Forman]

It's simple. We'll just start using evolutionary stones

 

[Jonluw]

Well yeah, if we somehow developed to the point where our bodies have a radically different cellular chemistr-
Yeah, no.

Our cells need oxygen to metabolize glucose.
Evolution isn't some magical force that turns species into completely random things.
Even if we moved to a low-oxygen environment, such a radical change on one of the most basic functions in the body would take billions of years, if it was at all possible.

Do you have any idea how complicated a change this is?
First of all, you would need a new chemical reaction to produce energy instead of the current
glucose + oxygen -> CO2 + H2O + energy
This means we would need a completely different source of energy than glucose, so we would have to adapt to eating different food. Then every single one of our internal organs would have to undergo radical change in order to accomodate this new food and completely different metabolization. e.g. Our liver would have to stop storing glycogen, our stomach would have to contain different enzymes, and every single one of our mitochondria would have to be repurposed.

This is silly.
Read a biology textbook. And learn to spell while you're at it.

But going with the OP's proposal of "what if": Okay, we can now breathe a different gas. Yay, I suppose?
I don't get it. What's so great about this?

 

[Wuggy]

Now would it be possible for the human race (give or take a billion years) to one day evolve to the point where we no longer needed air or to breathe.

No. That's simply not how evolution works. Evolution is simply put: adaptation to the environment. There's no need for us to not breath oxygen.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Now would it be possible for the human race (give or take a billion years) to one day evolve to the point where we no longer needed air or to breathe.

No. That's simply not how evolution works. Evolution is simply put: adaptation to the environment. There's no need for us to not breath oxygen.

Until the Earth inevitably explodes. Or the sun goes supernova. Or some other fun doomsday scenario.

But evolution doesn't 'know' that life on Earth will cease eventually. It's not intelligent. You can't adapt (evolve) to something that hasn't even occurred yet.

 

[StBishop]

It's simple. We'll just start using evolutionary stones

This is the obvious answer to our problems.

The other answer is learning about how evolution works.

 

[Daniel Forman]

It's simple. We'll just start using evolutionary stones

This is the obvious answer to our problems.

The other answer is learning about how evolution works.

The ones that doesn't see the sarcasm in that doesn't deserve to evolve -.-

 

[VincentX3]

It's simple. We'll just start using evolutionary stones

This is the obvious answer to our problems.

The other answer is learning about how evolution works.

The ones that doesn't see the sarcasm in that doesn't deserve to evolve -.-

oh oh! I want to me a Flarvincent!

...
or a vaporient?

JUST THROW ME A STONE!

 

[StBishop]

It's simple. We'll just start using evolutionary stones

This is the obvious answer to our problems.

The other answer is learning about how evolution works.

The ones that doesn't see the sarcasm in that doesn't deserve to evolve -.-

I wasn't having a go at you. I liked the reference.

The second bit was more directed at the topic in general.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Its impossible to evolve to the point where we could live without Oxygen simply because Oxygen is one of the basic building blocks of life. Even the tiny single celled organisms that first spawned on earth millions of years ago didn't do so until the atmosphere had oxygen in it.

 

[Keepeas]

dude, air is needed for nearly all of our basic functions...and the complex ones too.
You don't really understand evolution do you...?
I leave it at that...NEVER HAPPENING. NEVER.

 

[Yopaz]

OK... We evolved FROM a stage where we didn't need as much oxygen. The earliest organisms died because the increasing levels of oxygen was toxic. Now oxygen is needed in every important process there is. Metabolism without oxygen is possibly lethal because of the products of it such as NADH.

We don't evolve in such a fashion. We evolve to adapt to the surroundings, our surroundings have oxygen. Thus we will breathe oxygen. Seriously don't make these topics if you don't understand the basics of evolution or physiology.

 

[Bakuryukun]

1.) What if we evolved to the point where we didn't need air? We wouldn't need to breathe, pretty self explanatory eh?

2.) That's not even remotely how evolution works.

 

[Vandenberg1]

Ok here me out
We have come along way from tiny single celled organisims.
And we have evolved to the point where we are sentiant and we have been for awhile now.
Now would it be possible for the human race (give or take a billion years) to one day evolve to the point where we no longer needed air or to breathe.
It would redifine evrything.

Thoughts?


(capatcha I can't read arabic -.-)

Don't hold your breath on this one kid...