The Continuing Progression of Human Evolution
Posted by Rick Bishop on Thursday, September 15, 2011
Under: The World We Live In
This isn't a debate over creationism and evolution. That topic will be saved for another day. Instead this is a discussion on how humans are still evolving, my theories and thoughts on it. To state the properly let's pretend that we had the discussion over whether we were created by an all powerful being or whether we evolved over the course of millions and millions of years from ancient primate ancestors. Let's pretend that we listened to that discussion and decided we like the story of evolution better. It made more sense to us.
Now to start this I need to start at the beginning...well, not THE beginning, but before humans, when we were still ancient primates. way back on the evolutionary tree we were small gorilla type creatures. Not the smartest apes in the bunch, not like apes today. They were herbivores, eating thick stalky grasses and greens. In fact, it wasn't until they decided to eat the meat of other animals that they really began to change as a species. The protein in the meat that they ate sparked brain development, made them smarter. And again it was until their offspring decided to use fire to cook their food that they began to become even smarter. And once again it wasn't until their offspring began to catch fish that they eventually, over many many many generations became human.
Now this is a big deal. This shows that evolution isn't merely based on natural selection but diet and culture has a roll to play in it as well. The reason this is so important is because I hear a lot of people saying these day that we as a species are no longer evolving the we used to. That we have too much influence on our genetics and the outcome of our offspring to allow room for evolution. But if our ancient ancestors decided to eat meat, decided to cook food and decided to catch fish, then didn't they too have a hand in their evolution? So its because of that I feel its safe to say, even with the roll we have determining the outcome of our offspring we are still evolving, just as our ancestors did.
Now understandably what we can do to change how we evolve and what our ancestors could do are drastically different. But on that same note, we as a species seem to rely less on natural selection to evolve. At least less than our ancestors did.
And of course this isn't to say that natural selection has disappeared all together either. In fact a team of scientist from the University of Yale have been running an ongoing study of human evolution in the small town of Framingham Mass. where they had access to the medical histories of some 14,000 residents since 1948. Of those 14,000 they studies more specifically over 2,000 post menopausal women. The study showed that in each generation the daughters of those women were slightly shorter, slightly heavier and had better hearts than their parents. and the study concluded that if dietary and cultural changes were not made, by the year 2409 women would be aprox. 2cm shorter and about 1kg heavier. While thats not a huge change. It does go to show that natural selection is still at work in humans.
Other studies have shown that the human brain is getting smaller with each generation. Even from the middle ages human skulls and the size of brain it could hold has gotten smaller. This is probably due to the fact that in such a close knit community, where the internet literally connects you to every part of the world, we don't need to retain as much knowledge to survive. We don't need to become a jack of all trades to build our own home, furnish it our selves and learn to hunt for our own food. We have specialist who do it for us, just as we specialize in one trade or another. And our bodies as well are becoming less adept to the physical strength and prowess that our ancient ancestors had. Truth be told, the average neanderthal woman could have easily beat some one like Arnold Schwarzenegger during his muscular prime in an arm match, or so says anthropologist Peter McAllister, author of Manthropology: the Science of Inadequate Modern Man. All this is despite the fact that since the Industrial revolution men have become taller and stronger.
All those things show that humans are still evolving. The question isn't so much whether we're evolving but, what are we evolving into? Even though it seems like science fiction, human cyborgs do exist. Not like they do in video games like Deus Ex or movies like the terminator, but they are real. There are people today who live with robotic prosthetic limbs controlled by sensors attached to the skin, which are given commands from the brain. This technology, while still in its youth is a huge break through and begs the question: Will we control the way our bodies look in the future? Will we be able to design a new body the way we design a new car? Will we be able to go to the store and but the latest upgrades for our cybernetic arms or legs? Will we be able to chose between x-ray vision or binocular lenses on our eyes. If so, will this force our bodies to evolve into something smaller and weaker? As it is our bodies have become something quite weaker and smaller than that of our ancestors. Will our bodies become something that requires less food and energy consumption because we'll have new robotic bodies to do it for us? Might we become short and frail beings not unlike the common portrayal of "gray aliens". What will the effects be on our bodies when we begin downloading our brains to hard drives and uploading them to clones of our selves? Will our genetic data become so diluted the way a copy of a copy of a copy does that we are no longer able to reproduce at all? What can we expect from our future? What are we evolving into? Is it a more superior race of beings, one which has the ability to control what physical traits we possess as well as what abilities and skills we have? Or will we become a small frail creature unable of living without the protection and service of robotic bodies?
Now to start this I need to start at the beginning...well, not THE beginning, but before humans, when we were still ancient primates. way back on the evolutionary tree we were small gorilla type creatures. Not the smartest apes in the bunch, not like apes today. They were herbivores, eating thick stalky grasses and greens. In fact, it wasn't until they decided to eat the meat of other animals that they really began to change as a species. The protein in the meat that they ate sparked brain development, made them smarter. And again it was until their offspring decided to use fire to cook their food that they began to become even smarter. And once again it wasn't until their offspring began to catch fish that they eventually, over many many many generations became human.
Now this is a big deal. This shows that evolution isn't merely based on natural selection but diet and culture has a roll to play in it as well. The reason this is so important is because I hear a lot of people saying these day that we as a species are no longer evolving the we used to. That we have too much influence on our genetics and the outcome of our offspring to allow room for evolution. But if our ancient ancestors decided to eat meat, decided to cook food and decided to catch fish, then didn't they too have a hand in their evolution? So its because of that I feel its safe to say, even with the roll we have determining the outcome of our offspring we are still evolving, just as our ancestors did.
Now understandably what we can do to change how we evolve and what our ancestors could do are drastically different. But on that same note, we as a species seem to rely less on natural selection to evolve. At least less than our ancestors did.
And of course this isn't to say that natural selection has disappeared all together either. In fact a team of scientist from the University of Yale have been running an ongoing study of human evolution in the small town of Framingham Mass. where they had access to the medical histories of some 14,000 residents since 1948. Of those 14,000 they studies more specifically over 2,000 post menopausal women. The study showed that in each generation the daughters of those women were slightly shorter, slightly heavier and had better hearts than their parents. and the study concluded that if dietary and cultural changes were not made, by the year 2409 women would be aprox. 2cm shorter and about 1kg heavier. While thats not a huge change. It does go to show that natural selection is still at work in humans.
Other studies have shown that the human brain is getting smaller with each generation. Even from the middle ages human skulls and the size of brain it could hold has gotten smaller. This is probably due to the fact that in such a close knit community, where the internet literally connects you to every part of the world, we don't need to retain as much knowledge to survive. We don't need to become a jack of all trades to build our own home, furnish it our selves and learn to hunt for our own food. We have specialist who do it for us, just as we specialize in one trade or another. And our bodies as well are becoming less adept to the physical strength and prowess that our ancient ancestors had. Truth be told, the average neanderthal woman could have easily beat some one like Arnold Schwarzenegger during his muscular prime in an arm match, or so says anthropologist Peter McAllister, author of Manthropology: the Science of Inadequate Modern Man. All this is despite the fact that since the Industrial revolution men have become taller and stronger.
All those things show that humans are still evolving. The question isn't so much whether we're evolving but, what are we evolving into? Even though it seems like science fiction, human cyborgs do exist. Not like they do in video games like Deus Ex or movies like the terminator, but they are real. There are people today who live with robotic prosthetic limbs controlled by sensors attached to the skin, which are given commands from the brain. This technology, while still in its youth is a huge break through and begs the question: Will we control the way our bodies look in the future? Will we be able to design a new body the way we design a new car? Will we be able to go to the store and but the latest upgrades for our cybernetic arms or legs? Will we be able to chose between x-ray vision or binocular lenses on our eyes. If so, will this force our bodies to evolve into something smaller and weaker? As it is our bodies have become something quite weaker and smaller than that of our ancestors. Will our bodies become something that requires less food and energy consumption because we'll have new robotic bodies to do it for us? Might we become short and frail beings not unlike the common portrayal of "gray aliens". What will the effects be on our bodies when we begin downloading our brains to hard drives and uploading them to clones of our selves? Will our genetic data become so diluted the way a copy of a copy of a copy does that we are no longer able to reproduce at all? What can we expect from our future? What are we evolving into? Is it a more superior race of beings, one which has the ability to control what physical traits we possess as well as what abilities and skills we have? Or will we become a small frail creature unable of living without the protection and service of robotic bodies?
In : The World We Live In