Current Events > Are humans still evolving?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Will we look like radically different forms millions of years from now?

Yes

Yes. The internet age and other factors are changing our brains. I doubt well change physically but mentally humans have a long way to go.

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Yeah

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Nyyyyyyyeh

In the worst of ways.. I guess >_>

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Not really. I believe the last evolutionary change in humans was the ability to process lactose in certain populations. Since then, humans have a done a pretty good job of changing the environment so we don't have to adapt to it...

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nope, this might be our final form

but with technology, a lot of things are possible but progress and the norm can't handle one another

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We'll eventually lose our pinkie toe because it's useless.

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AmericaTheBrave posted...

We'll eventually lose our pinkie toe because it's useless.

So we'll then bang our ring toe on the bed frame until we eventually get rid of all of them and our feet just become one big toe.

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How do some of y'all think evolution works
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I don't think there's any physical traits left in humans that can give any person enough advantage or disadvantage in finding food or reproduction to make that trait become more prevalent or disappear.

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Yes, now that marriage is slowly going away, only alpha chads who get to give unlimited dick are going to be passing on their genes.

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indica posted...

Not really. I believe the last evolutionary change in humans was the ability to process lactose in certain populations. Since then, humans have a done a pretty good job of changing the environment so we don't have to adapt to it...

We're just a few decades from having a fully fledged permanent location in space where people will live. That by itself is pretty huge.

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Our chins will eventually fuse with our collar bones

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I'll say yes. My M.D. roommate in grad school told me cancer is an unsuccessful mutation. We know what the bad mutations are but not what the others (neutral or beneficial) may become.

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gunplagirl posted...

We're just a few decades from having a fully fledged permanent location in space where people will live. That by itself is pretty huge.

That is pretty cool. I was thinking of evolution more in a physiological sense, which is about adaption, rather than the new age view of evolution being a state of transcending

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indica posted...

That is pretty cool. I was thinking of evolution more in a physiological sense, which is about adaption, rather than the new age view of evolution being a state of transcending

If you can call it that

its criminal how we just decided were gonna start dumping all our trash on another planet and leave this one without fixing it


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RedJackson posted...

If you can call it that

its criminal how we just decided were gonna start dumping all our trash on another planet and leave this one without fixing it

Fair point. In the same vein of thought, I love the poem "Whitey on the Moon."

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RedJackson posted...

If you can call it that

its criminal how we just decided were gonna start dumping all our trash on another planet and leave this one without fixing it

What makes you think "we" are going to leave the planet? When white people colonized the rest of the world, they didn't abandon Europe.

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Animals can stop evolving - just look at crocodiles. And from an evolutionary standpoint were already apex super predators. So who knows.

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masticatingman posted...

Animals can stop evolving - just look at crocodiles. And from an evolutionary standpoint were already apex super predators. So who knows.

Armchair scientist here. I'm always fascinated by the animals that are basically the same as they were millions of years ago. Sharks are in that category too.

Are they unable to evolve further? Or have they reached their optimal state for exploiting their niche and have no need to evolve further?

As you say, "who knows?"

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Yep. We're getting taller and our little toes are getting smaller.

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Even if creatures seem similar after millions of years, that doesn't mean no changes took place. Something like more of the population having green eyes, for example, is a change that mostly doesn't seem to "matter" but it's still a change. Besides, with gene editing, there will be artificial evolution. Also, selection always happens.

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i feel like after you take yourself out of the food chain like we have, you're arresting development to some capacity

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*devolving
but yes

The Trent posted...

i feel like after you take yourself out of the food chain like we have, you're arresting development to some capacity

There are still plenty of other pressures, like climate change, nuclear war, shifting to more intellectual labor instead of manual labor, available food, etc.

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1337toothbrush posted...

There are still plenty of other pressures, like climate change, nuclear war, shifting to more intellectual labor instead of manual labor, available food, etc.

fair enough
is there any evidence that we are physically evolving to meet the warming of the planet?
nuclear war i'm going to just throw out
what does evolution look like as you shift to intellectual labor instead of manual labor? we're certainly fatter now than our ancestors


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The Trent posted...

fair enough
is there any evidence that we are physically evolving to meet the warming of the planet?
nuclear war i'm going to just throw out
what does evolution look like as you shift to intellectual labor instead of manual labor? we're certainly fatter now than our ancestors

Well first off the process of evolution won't necessarily show major changes in just a few generations. Also, it's more complicated than "suddenly all humans can withstand certain temperatures better" as the results of climate change are also quite complicated and will have differing effects in different parts of the world(e.g. flooding, severe weather, etc). On top of that, there are many different coping strategies. For example, if the global temperature raises, it doesn't necessarily mean that only those who can withstand higher temperatures will survive. It could also be people who can afford to run air conditioning will survive to pass on their genes.

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So...no?

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1337toothbrush posted...

There are still plenty of other pressures, like climate change, nuclear war, shifting to more intellectual labor instead of manual labor, available food, etc.

Hopefully brains get bigger - not that that's a cure all - but there's some stupid shit, and too many god damned conspiracies being believed these days.

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JACKBUTTMOMMY posted...

I didnt come from no monkey!

We evolved from and still are apes.

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Every single birth is technically evolution in some way. Proper major changes in large creatures simply take so long that the scale to witness it could only be observed by an immortal.

nemu posted...

Every single birth is technically evolution in some way. Proper major changes in large creatures simply take so long that the scale to witness it could only be observed by an immortal.

I think one day we may be able to halt the aging process, but then we would just end up commoditizing time like the movie In Time.

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Uh, duh. When a generation passes you can't expect the exact same ratio of genotypes to remain.

Every time couple where both have brown eyes have a child with blue eyes then the population evolved.

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metallica846 posted...

If humans evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Cant fucking explain that shit!

We evolved from other apes that are now extinct. As did chimpanzees and gorillas.

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Our heads are bigger and we've gotten taller, although that's a sign of more consistent nutrition. Our next major evolution is probably gonna be determined by the next long term shift in the atmosphere.

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emblem boy posted...

How do some of y'all think evolution works

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Our bones have become finer and our jaws smaller after the agricultural boom. Thats why we have overcrowding of our teeth and some of us dont have room for our wisdom teeth. We also have a useless tendon in our wrist (some people dont have it at all).

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brestugo posted...

Hopefully brains get bigger - not that that's a cure all - but there's some stupid shit, and too many god damned conspiracies being believed these days.

We could evolve a codependence on AI to do intellectual labor for us. Even biologically-speaking, our bodies are made up of a stunning variety of life. Gut flora, for example, seem to have a much bigger role to play than was thought in the past.

Going back to technology, already there is a heavy reliance on the internet and it affects how we interact, how we recall things, and how much knowledge we have available to us at any time. Then there's also work on augmenting the brain, like with Neuralink. The evolution could be down to who's more willing or able (monetarily, physically, mentally) to accept brain implants. It's not necessarily all changes about taking advantage of something, either. With lack of physical activity, human bodies in general may change over time to cope better with sitting longer periods of time, which could lead to changes we think of now as undesirable. Evolution is a matter of trade-offs.

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