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