Poll: is the evolution of humans stagnating?

[CG NUTS]

humans are destroying evolution in humans because the piont of evolution is dat when a person gets a mutation this makes him more ore less likeley to survive so in the wild. forexample animals with bad mutations die because like humans they don't have the tecnolegie to prtect them selves from far more stronger,bigger,... opponents. but to be abel to get the most succesfull humans you have to use sellective breading. but in ower modren human sociaty i think allot of people are against this because this wull mean a large procentige of humans wont be allowed to get children annymore. but i be lieve to get the most evolved and genetacly advanst humans we are gonne have to do this at one piont in time.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

I have to agree with Pimppeter2, any human today is far taller, smarter, healthiest and stronger than any human before (considering average). For some reason this thread reminded me about a joke about the second coming of jesus in family guy...great show. On topic, evolutions is a fact that even we, intelligent species, cannot escape, sure we can (and indeed we do) direct our evolution by directly changing the environment in which we live.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

SAD SNIP

Im afraid so. Look at our population increase. It has to drop suddenly or level off SOON. Other wise everyone starves to death. A pandemic is the BEST CASE SCENARIO if we dont get any population control in. Look at it this way. A lot of people. A small amaount of space. A bit of time. Some virus is gonna move in and have a party with that cramped population and a tonne of wonderfull fuel for its replication, bringing population back down to managable levels but killing tonnes of people. It will happen if we dont control population. Fact. Iether that or everyone starves slowly. So its preferable in the long run.

A level biology gets dperessing.

 

[thahat]

yes, we have, because we keep the weaker humans alive. its called compassion or 'not being a nazi' XD

ps. yes, rule of godwin XD

 

[chaos order]

I have to agree with Pimppeter2, any human today is far taller, smarter, healthiest and stronger than any human before (considering average). For some reason this thread reminded me about a joke about the second coming of jesus in family guy...great show. On topic, evolutions is a fact that even we, intelligent species, cannot escape, sure we can (and indeed we do) direct our evolution by directly changing the environment in which we live.

well if we can change or "direct" our evolution can it still be considered evolution?

 

[emeraldrafael]

I'd say no. I mean, it took us how long to get from cro-magnum to here? couple thousand years? You cant expect people to just grow wings within the next hundred years. Besides, Evolution is also on the germ level. If we have people who are resistant to a disease and pass that on, thats evolution in a way. baby steps and small steps count as evolution, and i dont believe its stopped or stagnated. I think now its more of a bodily defense then it is bodily additions.

 

[chaos order]

I'd say no. I mean, it took us how long to get from cro-magnum to here? couple thousand years? You cant expect people to just grow wings within the next hundred years. Besides, Evolution is also on the germ level. If we have people who are resistant to a disease and pass that on, thats evolution in a way. baby steps and small steps count as evolution, and i dont believe its stopped or stagnated. I think now its more of a bodily defense then it is bodily additions.

i was more thinking along the lines of us developing into a new species. i understand the evolution doesnt pop limbs on animals and that all changes are incrementally small. the explanation u give is change within the species but we are still essentially the same species. im just wondering if we indeed lived long enough, would we become something else?

 

[similar.squirrel]

I'm so glad this thread wasn't about eugenics. That is all I have to say I guess...

I had my finest invective readied, too.

OT: Heck no. Cybernetics. The fusion of man and machine. What is that, if not self-directed evolution? Hell, even smartphones could be considered an extension of our senses.

We are getting rather flabby, though. That's due to not having to chase our dinner any more.
Can't decide whether this is a good or a bad thing.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

@chaos order (quote function not working) yes, it is evolution nevertheless, we can direct it to a certain point, but we are still subjected to genetic mutations that are out of our control. Keep in mind that most mutations are harmless, and only those who really bring a benefit to the population will (in a natural selection scenario) be passed to the next generation. We are not altering evolution itself, but natural selection (to certain point), and not only with ourselves, but with the animals we breed.

However certain forces still remain and directly affect the evolution of humanity. Sexuality is indeed part of it. Normally (and even if it sounds inhuman) ugly people has less chances of reproducing that those that aren't ugly (and don't bring this to a moral ground, since it would be a totally different discussion). Answer this question to yourself, which woman or man do you find more attractive? (yes there are cultural grounds for it). Don't fool yourself thinking that you are free from natural forces, though we are sentient, we are not free from instinct.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

We have evolved to adapt to the new world we have built.

Unfortunately, we are treating it as a disease to be medicated.

Modern man has developed the ability to multi-task more easily than any generation before him, jumping back and forth between ideas as they are presented to him- a very important skill in the world of today. We call it ADD, and give you medication to "cure" it.

Uh, ADD doesn't work that way. True ADD (And by extension, ADHD) is not the ability to multitask, it's finding it difficult to focus on anything at all, even if one wants to. Taking medication such as ritalin doesn't stop one from multitasking at all, it simply allows one to focus on something (be it one thing or several simultaneous things).

People who give ritalin to children who can focus on several things at once are idiots, that's not ADD at all.

And yes, I am talking from experience.

Then we misdiagnose the hell out of ADD. The only people I know who are diagnosed with "ADD" are just excellent multi-taskers.

 

[chaos order]

@chaos order (quote function not working) yes, it is evolution nevertheless, we can direct it to a certain point, but we are still subjected to genetic mutations that are out of our control. Keep in mind that most mutations are harmless, and only those who really bring a benefit to the population will (in a natural selection scenario) be passed to the next generation. We are not altering evolution itself, but natural selection (to certain point), and not only with ourselves, but with the animals we breed.

However certain forces still remain and directly affect the evolution of humanity. Sexuality is indeed part of it. Normally (and even if it sounds inhuman) ugly people has less chances of reproducing that those that aren't ugly (and don't bring this to a moral ground, since it would be a totally different discussion). Answer this question to yourself, which woman or man do you find more attractive? (yes there are cultural grounds for it). Don't fool yourself thinking that you are free from natural forces, though we are sentient, we are not free from instinct.

does it make me a bad person if i loled at ur ugly person analogy

 

[Eliam_Dar]

@chaos order

Not at all, I even loled myself...and I forgot a very important fact: BWAW

Which means, Big Wallet Always Wins

Even being ugly

 

[Flac00]

No, evolution has not stagnated in the human race. In fact it is going just the same as before. That is the magic of evolution. It isn't change over thousands off years, it is millions of years. We just can't see our evolution in recent times because it is so slow. Ps, the fact that the population is taller then our ancestors in NOT evolution, that has to do with food supplies, ala: north koreans are shorter than south koreans.

 

[Flac00]

The Species may be evolving even though society apparently isn't.

We have evolved to adapt to the new world we have built.

Unfortunately, we are treating it as a disease to be medicated.

Modern man has developed the ability to multi-task more easily than any generation before him, jumping back and forth between ideas as they are presented to him- a very important skill in the world of today. We call it ADD, and give you medication to "cure" it.

Uh, ADD doesn't work that way. True ADD (And by extension, ADHD) is not the ability to multitask, it's finding it difficult to focus on anything at all, even if one wants to. Taking medication such as ritalin doesn't stop one from multitasking at all, it simply allows one to focus on something (be it one thing or several simultaneous things).

People who give ritalin to children who can focus on several things at once are idiots, that's not ADD at all.

And yes, I am talking from experience.

Then we misdiagnose the hell out of ADD. The only people I know who are diagnosed with "ADD" are just excellent multi-taskers.

The same goes for Autism. I also speak from experience.
Anything to excuse not trying to understand. See also the platform of the Republican Party.

I am not getting into the politics thing but ADD is real, and many people truly have it. My brother as one example. He had ADD, and it had NOTHING to do with videogames (we have macs and 2 games), tv (couldn't watch much) and other stuff. His ADD caused problems for him but the medication like Ritalin helped him greatly in both school. You can't assume that everyone with ADD is full of bull. But one thing I will say is that our culture is better in my opinion then others. We have more racial tolerance and we don't promote mass murder. The fact is that our culture is changing (don't say evolving because that is different) so fast that you can't act all huffy puffy and say "oh, but past generations had more self control/were smarter/had more ingenuity/had a better culture, etc".

 

[Schadenfreulein]

No, human evolution hasn't stopped or slowed. That's stupid. The "less fit" are still being killed off; they're just being killed off in somewhat different ways than in the stone age. Instead of being eaten by a bear or starving to death, we're dying of AIDS and cancer and heart disease caused by overeating. People with genetic resistance to these causes of death will pass on their genes and make the species as a whole more resistant.

And even if life has gotten easier, that doesn't mean evolution has stagnated. It's just changed direction. Look at the way our jaws have gotten smaller because we discovered fire and started cooking food, or the way we have no fur because we started wearing clothes. Evolution as the result of a cushier environment is still evolution.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Stagnating? No, I'd say it's shifted into reverse.

 

[fenderstrat]

evolution takes millions of years... we probably cant even say if it stopped or not.

 

[chaos order]

Stagnating? No, I'd say it's shifted into reverse.

well u cant really say "reverse" in terms of evolution since it really goes in any direction. but i understand what ur saying either way