Human evolution.

[Hlmaster]

Let's forget about 2012 or oblivion in this thread.

Based on the theory of evolution, all living beings can evolve, becoming more favorable for survival in certain ways. Therefore, it is possible that the human race evolve?
In your opinion, how would be such evolution?
Discuss.

[BlackRanger]

Animals and plants evolve to survive in their environment.

Since our environment today is almost entirely artificial, humans have no need to evolve.
Everything in our world is handed to us, like food and water. We have cars to get us from point A to point B. We can buy clothing and live in warm houses. Even wants like relationships and entertainment are easily obtained for most. It's all at our disposal, so we have no need to change anything about us.

[NoCheerios]

Essentially what BlackRanger said. The community we live in is so static to a day-to-day human life that, as a species, unless some massive apocalypse were to occur, we'd go nowhere.

[Boredpayne]

So long as the mechanism of natural selection holds true any species will evolve. Humanity doesn't get a free ride just because we make buildings and we CERTAINLY aren't sustaining everybody on the planet, we're fighting a continuous battle with viruses, each other, and nature to survive and thrive.

Lol, "unless some massive apocalypse." The rate of evolution != the enormity of the changes.

[BlackRanger]

Originally Posted by PieGod Humans can evolve if it is necessary for our survival, like to become immune to a certain deadly virus. Small pox was an epidemic, to name one. Although since evolution tends to take a VERY long time, we used our knowledge to develop a cure on our own. On the other hand, the bubonic plague was a very serious killer back when humans didn't have the technology to find a cure. Apparantly we evolved to become immune, because it doesn't exisit (atleast, barley) today.

Becoming immune to disease isn't evolution.

If you get the chicken pox as a child, you are prone from catching it again. That doesn't mean you "evolved" overnight.

The reason why the Black Death died out after the Middle Ages was because people who survived it became immune, and they passed that immunity through blood to the next generation and so on.

[Boredpayne]

Originally Posted by BlackRanger Becoming immune to disease isn't evolution. If you get the chicken pox as a child, you are prone from catching it again. That doesn't mean you "evolved" overnight. The reason why the Black Death died out after the Middle Ages was because people who survived it became immune, and they passed that immunity through blood to the next generation and so on.

Immunization occurs because your body has synthesized antibodies to fight the virus once already, and so is much more prepared to exterminate any infection the second time.

Regardless, antibodies themselves are a product of evolution.

[BlackRanger]

Originally Posted by Boredpayne Immunization occurs because your body has synthesized antibodies to fight the virus once already, and so is much more prepared to exterminate any infection the second time. Regardless, antibodies themselves are a product of evolution.

An immune system, yes. Immunity to a certain disease, no.

Immunity is the immune system's job, that's just how it works. Immunity to Black Death or swine flu or typhoid fever is not evolution, unless you want to boil it down to the evolution of man.

[Boredpayne]

Originally Posted by BlackRanger An immune system, yes. Immunity to a certain disease, no. Immunity is the immune system's job, that's just how it works. Immunity to Black Death or swine flu or typhoid fever is not evolution, unless you want to boil it down to the evolution of man.

You've misunderstood what I'm trying to say.
The very existence of antibodies themselves is a result of evolutionary processes (ergo we will continue to develop defensive measures against viruses for as long as they kill us). Nowhere do I state that antibodies spontaneously evolve in response to diseases, or that a single entity can evolve at all.
I was simply offering an explanation of the mechanism at work (in fact, explaining why it isn't evolution) and restating my point in what I hoped was a more clear format. Guess not.

[PieGod]

I see what your saying, but that isn't what I was reffering to. I see how I made it confusing.

What I ment was that no one catches the disease anymore because the body evolved to be born with immunity, or the evolution to be able to produce antibodies against a a certain illness. I see I had a bad example of evolution, my fault.

Evolving to have thumbs would be a better one..

[Hyde]

Our evolution has progressed from organical to technological. We are constantly evolving, by making stuff to make our survival easier, while at the same time, giving an illusion that full scale darwinism is not in effect(which is a sack of shit, as the higher ups of the gene pool go for the other higher ups of the other gender's gene pool, thus making 'better' babies, where as the sack of shits of one gender's gene pool breed with the other gender's sack of shit part of the gene pool, making dumber, less likely to survive babies[unable to feed themselves/their families, which is defined as survival nowadays]).

Evolution is a concept, and said concept can be applied to nearly anything that betters something so it has a greater chance of surviving.