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Human evolution: the next stages


Still Waters

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There have been a number of speculations lately concerning the eventual form humankind will take, particularly with regards to the role technology plays in our lives and how this could reshape our physical and mental selves.

http://www.guardian....ion-next-stages

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There have been a number of speculations lately concerning the eventual form humankind will take, particularly with regards to the role technology plays in our lives and how this could reshape our physical and mental selves.

http://www.guardian....ion-next-stages

they forgot to mention an option i think is much more likely: we will just "become one" with machines. Self-induced evolutionary process, if you will....

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Well an interesting topic, and one that can be speculated on endlessly, but heres 5 Signs Humans Are Still Evolving, and how

quote:

"But not only are we still evolving, we're doing so even faster than before. In the last 10,000 years, the pace of our evolution has sped up 100 times, creating more mutations in our genes, and more natural selections from those mutations. Here are some clues that show humans are continuing to evolve.

And point number 4 on the following list states our brains are shrinking!!!

"While we may like to believe our big brains make us smarter than the rest of the animal world, our brains have actually been shrinking over the last 30,000 years. The average volume of the human brain has decreased from 1,500 cubic centimeters to 1,350 cubic centimeters, which is equivalent to a chunk the size of a tennis ball.

Now for the list:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/30795/5-signs-humans-are-still-evolving

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Creatures evolve to suit their habitat. I won't be surprised in a couple of thousand years if we look like the Asguard from Stargate. Unless something drastic happens and we lose technology. We don't have any threats which would make us evolve over time. Especially something like colour changing skin, which is a defensive trait. We don't need it, though it will probably become possible through genetic augmentation. That's how Humankind will evolve, we will augment ourselves with technology,

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they forgot to mention an option i think is much more likely: we will just "become one" with machines. Self-induced evolutionary process, if you will....

It begins...

Borg.jpg

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It begins...

BrainRobot.gif

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god, i hope it's wings, as hovercars & jetpacks are taking too damn long!

bloody lazy scientists.....

:-)

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It begins...

Borg.jpg

.

won't be too bad if they all look like seven of nine.....

;-)

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.

won't be too bad if they all look like seven of nine.....

;-)

hehe, Ive always like a couple of things about seven of nine... can you guess? :lol:

eta my image vanished, heres another

seven_of_nine_by_hermione_of_vulcan-d3aprmx_large.jpg

Edited by seeder
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hehe, Ive always like a couple of things about seven of nine... can you guess? :lol:

Seven-of-Nine-seven-of-nine-10677650-400-500.jpg

.

i've always had one BIG thing about her seeder!

but if we WERE to become borg-like in the future, i should imagine that the next world war will be fought between the makers of viagara & duracell.....

;-)

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Considering the kinds of mysterious surprises our dear Universe has proven to have up its sleeves... I'm sure it won't be "just" change in shape or size of any one or more body parts. Consider a universe filled with an energy soup right after the big bang, observed by an imaginary body-less observer, just so we can relate. How exotic, compared to that soup, may I ask, is the that far unheard-of matter. And when you've had all these loose particles, how much of a surprise when you find, for the first time in the history of the entire universe, particles combining to form atoms, once believed to be indivisible. Having had loose atoms flying around for billions of years, imagine the surprise of our observer when it finds that these atoms are able to further combine to form stars and galaxies. What a view. All from that soup. What an evolutionary step when a staggering variety of heavier elements are further created, not only that they join and become larger and heavier, they will exhibit all kinds of different properties. When you've observed all these stars, planets and galaxies for a few billion years and I said to you that the next evolutionary step would be this matter becoming able to grow by itself, even move by itself? BS, you say. I've observed the laws of physics for billions of years, no such thing what you're saying. Then I say: haven't you learned by now that the universe keeps creating stuff that beats any kind of anticipation? Yes, here we are, we have life. Watching life for a few billions of years, what kind of imagination does it take to predict that this life, or, in essence matter, or even just energy fields, becomes conscious of itself? Yet here we are, wondering about who we are, where we come from and where we are going. It takes a sad person to guess that all there is left in this universe is physical evolution. That the next great mysterious step will be. . . . . a smaller brain. Really?? Is that our best guess? After all this? It would be a wasted universe. Would it not?

Edited by Rolci
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i think jacques' point is probably the most valid though- us humans are a pretty impatient bunch, and we're not going to hang around for thousands of years waiting for mother nature to gift us with super-tough cyborg bodies when we can do the job ourselves in a fraction of the time.....

(and who WOULDN'T want to be as cool as Motoko Kusanagi...?)

:-)

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No1 on your list would seem to counter this argument pretty well seeder-

.

http://www.unexplain...howtopic=250971

.

which i knew was never in doubt.....

hehe, off topic but...

Ever fancied trying GAGA ice creams? ( Not Lady gaga)

"One from the chest freezer: Restaurant sells breast milk ice cream"

When a well-stocked ice cream parlour says they sell every flavour, there are usually limits.

But one restaurant in London is selling breast milk ice cream which is being served to customers in a cocktail glass.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360225/Shop-sells-breast-milk-ice-cream-London-restaurant-Icecreamists-Baby-Gaga.html

I wonder if seven of nine understands "bitty"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOfI48IWESo

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It takes a sad person to guess that all there is left in this universe is physical evolution. That the next great mysterious step will be. . . . . a smaller brain. Really?? Is that our best guess? After all this? It would be a wasted universe. Would it not?

.

i'm not sure it would be a waste Rolci, the human brain is the (to our knowledge) universe's crowning achievement, nothing else comes close for complexity & elegance of function, and so far, the human brain is the universe's best way of thinking about itself.....

;-)

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never tried it Seeder, but with the exception of cow-snot and cockroach anuses, i'll give pretty much anything a try!

(should imagine it doesn't come cheap though!)

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Healing factors, unbreakable bones, flight, strength, invlunerability, immortality, any of those will do.

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We didn't evolve from the apes, our bone structure isn't anything like the apes. Ask any anthropologist and they will say that the last ape man human like creature died off before we got here. Why would there be an evolutionary leap? We are the evolutionary leap, albeit a fallen one. We could if we worked at it have abilities that no other creature on earth has. But we are looking everywhere else but inside us for the answers. The study of our inheritance is kept a great lid on to keep people ignorant and to keep people prisoners. What if one day you woke up and found that satan was real. That he is the reason your lives have been ruined from the beginning. What if you found out that he is the reason you can't and won't believe, because you didn't that that you are a multi-dimensional being, being tortured and modified by entities you can't see. A true enemy is an enemy can't see and you can't fight and when your finally ready to start fighting him, your too crazy to put up a fight, your belief system is all wrong, and your nearly already dead.

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We didn't evolve from the apes, our bone structure isn't anything like the apes. Ask any anthropologist and they will say that the last ape man human like creature died off before we got here. Why would there be an evolutionary leap? We are the evolutionary leap, albeit a fallen one. We could if we worked at it have abilities that no other creature on earth has. But we are looking everywhere else but inside us for the answers. The study of our inheritance is kept a great lid on to keep people ignorant and to keep people prisoners. What if one day you woke up and found that satan was real. That he is the reason your lives have been ruined from the beginning. What if you found out that he is the reason you can't and won't believe, because you didn't that that you are a multi-dimensional being, being tortured and modified by entities you can't see. A true enemy is an enemy can't see and you can't fight and when your finally ready to start fighting him, your too crazy to put up a fight, your belief system is all wrong, and your nearly already dead.

How did you manage to go from..

We didn't evolve from the apes, our bone structure isn't anything like the apes

to...

What if one day you woke up and found that satan was real

to...

because you didn't that that you are a multi-dimensional being, being tortured and modified by entities you can't see

:passifier:

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I would think any 'evolution' Man will possibly go through is synthetical.

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Maybe to rise above being an animal instincts will come next

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Yeah none of those are going to happen. Just look at human reproduction today. It would seem "less intelligent" people are spreading their genes much more rapidly and effectively than "intelligent" people. I think the same thing could be applied to future adaptions. Say some people actually start developing tentacles or wings, theres still gonna be a bunch of people without the new adaptions, breeding just as rapidly if not more so than people with the new adaptions. There is no survival of the fittest so these mutations will never likely spread to the entire human race or even to a large portion of it. The Borg scenario on the other hand, I could certainly see that happening some day...

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Well an interesting topic, and one that can be speculated on endlessly, but heres 5 Signs Humans Are Still Evolving, and how

quote:

"But not only are we still evolving, we're doing so even faster than before. In the last 10,000 years, the pace of our evolution has sped up 100 times, creating more mutations in our genes, and more natural selections from those mutations. Here are some clues that show humans are continuing to evolve.

And point number 4 on the following list states our brains are shrinking!!!

"While we may like to believe our big brains make us smarter than the rest of the animal world, our brains have actually been shrinking over the last 30,000 years. The average volume of the human brain has decreased from 1,500 cubic centimeters to 1,350 cubic centimeters, which is equivalent to a chunk the size of a tennis ball.

Now for the list:

http://mentalfloss.c...-still-evolving

None of these things are recent or have in any way been shaped by modern life. Civilized life maybe, but not modern. None of these are evidence that we are still evolving currently. Still interesting post though.

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Aren't evolutionary processes at their most basic level shaped by environmental factors and careful selection of successful 'mates' that would bolster your offspring's chances of reaching sexual maturity?

The fact is that we are hardly likely to feel any pressure from environmental factors since we are indeed shaping our environment to match our needs and desires. This holds true for the industrialised world and to a certain extent the developing and/or transitional world. It would have to take a catastrophe to wipe out the 'weaker/non-adapted' population so that there would be a transition to the stronger elements. Something along the Black Death of Medieval Europe but on a planetary scale.

With regards to the second concept, even weaker non-competitive mates are reaching sexual maturity more than ever and indeed reproducing successfully. This is a cause of our societies advancing in the concepts of medicine, equality and rights. In no way am I against this concept even though I'm using it as an argument. Point in case would be a disabled couple having children thanks to the assistance of the welfare state and the recognition that all individuals have a right to procreate. In older times with poor to no social nets for the disadvantaged, these individuals would struggle and at least in my opinion not reach sexual maturity, or their offspring would likely die before reaching maturity.

I believe that 'natural' human evolution will likely slow down ridiculously or grind to a halt altogether thanks to the arguments I've used above. I agree fully that 'evolution' of the human race will occur by our meddling with technology, be it synthetic or biological, but then again, this won't be true evolution, but advancing optimisation of the stage we've currently reached as a species.

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