Evolution : Where are we headed to

by bioflex 50 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Anony Mous

  I personally think (and that's just conjecture as nobody really knows) that the next 'step' in evolution is already among us. We're walking more upright and getting taller (compared to eg. middle-ages). We live longer so we have to get more resistance against things that affect us in the long-term. Those among us that are actively evolving are what some of us call on the "autism spectrum". There really is not much explanation as to why anyone is on the autism spectrum other than that they have more of a very specific trait or intelligence (be it in mathematics or in words) and I don't think it's a problem really, it's us evolving into a species that needs to be more intelligent in order to preserve itself but also to advance technologically. Sure, evolution produces all types of outliers and mutations that we don't know yet how to be integrated into our current society but when you get closer to the Aspberger's Syndrome on the spectrum, we're producing highly intelligent, fully sufficient almost a subspecies that doesn't rely as much on the old classic communications we needed in the caves but those that we have gotten available to us know.

  That and cyborgs.
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  cofty

  how about we evolving into some new life form, i would assume that is the only way evolution can be justified right?

  No not at all. Speciation only occurs if there is sufficient selection pressure. A shrimp, Triops cancriformis has just been discovered in Scotland that has remained virtually unchanged for 200 million years.
  
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  botchtowersociety

  Unguided biological evolution in humans is essentially over as the main driver of biological change/speciation. It will be guided from here on out.
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  NewChapter

  We just had this discussion in my anthropology class today. Weird. I agree with BTS (which happens when it doesn't involve politics). Before modern humans came on the scene, species reacted to pressures in the natural world, and their direction was decided by natural selection that plays on genetic diversity. But modern humans have a rich cultural life that affects the directions of natural selection. While discussing it, we watched a documentary where Richard Dawkins was theorizing that "memes" are on par with genetics when it comes to natural selection, directing it in a similiar way.

  So if we believe we should stop killing each other, we will make that happen--we will even fight biology, and people will live longer. It is just as effective of having a genetic trait that makes us less likely to kill. Also, pure natural selection based on environmental pressures and genetic variation has never taken this added pressure into account. Other species don't question their looming extinction, they don't fight against it, they don't have the culture and the memes to say it isn't right. We do however. We give medicine to the sick, we fight to kill dangerous bacteria, we find ways to produce enough food. So if our food source disappears, we don't just migrate, speciate or die----we find the food elsewhere and make it work.

  It's still a very new idea for me, and I'm still processing it, but I do believe that we won't be evolving as a species, unless one day we decide to artificially alter DNA---but that is still sci fi stuff at this point.

  NC
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  botchtowersociety

  As I see it, there are three leels, each able to adapt more quickly than the layer preceding it. Biological/Cultural/Technological. With the discovery of engineerable transcription factors, transhumanism is already here. Now we just need to lick the systemic delivery problem. By the way Newchapter,Google Ponatinib, should be out by the end of 2012, FDA gods permitting.
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  TD

  This is topic is to discuss where we are headed as humans as far as evolution is concerned.

  Evolution is an historical, not a predictive science. Nobody knows what conditions will be like in the future; therefore nobody knows how life might adapt to them.

  As far as the human race is concerned, we do our damndest to sheild each other from the selective pressures that drive adaptation. as New Chapter (Love that Anja Rubik (?) avatar) pointed out.

  We take care of the elderly and sick. We make glasses and contact lenses for those with poor eyesight. We make wheelchairs for people that can't walk. We make hearing aides for people with poor hearing. We immunize our children against the more severe childhood illnesses. We have laws and police and courts to help protect the less alert, gullible and those that are unable or unwilling to fight.

  The only significant changes that anybody has noticed in the human race is that our bodies our bigger than our distant ancestors and our brains are slightly smaller.
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  cyberjesus

  Evolution is gonna stop cuz we are gonna live forever in Paradise..
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  TheClarinetist

  Trying to listen to this.... kind of painful. You could drive a truck through the holes in his arguments. >_< I'll finish after my audition tonight before putting my two cents in on "where we're going".
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  TheClarinetist

  Okay... I can't take this anymore. My BS meter exploded. He started his argument by saying that the bible is right because it says it is and then goes on from there using only the bible as the source for his arguments. Really? Also, attacking the theory of evolution by accusing Darwin of being racist?

  Bioflex, we are going one of three places:

  1) Extinction of our reproductive lines.

  2) Evolution into one or many species through either biological or technological means.

  3) Discovering immortality and staying the same forever without reproduction.

  Of course, it can actually be any combination of those, but it has to be at least one of them. The point is that there is no set endpoint. We have no control. It's just going to happen, like the weather.
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  NewChapter

  Oh for heaven's sakes. This guy is driving me crazy. He seems to be arguing that because the bible does not teach evolution, it can't be true. And HE JUST DOESN'T GET TO THE POINT, nor does he progress. If you blink during my Anthropology professor's lecturre, you've already missed 2 building points. Someone needs to teach him how to teach. He is just preaching.

  NC