Originally Posted by BlackRanger
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.
Not how evolution works. Evolution is not caused by the artificial-ness of the environment, nor is it caused by necessity.
Originally Posted by 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.
Not how evolution works. See above, plus evolution is not caused by natural catastrophes.
Originally Posted by PieGod
Humans can evolve if it is necessary for our survival, like to become immune to a certain deadly virus.
Not how evolution works. Evolution is not caused by necessity or disease.
Originally Posted by BlackRanger
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.
Not how evolution works. You do not pass on traits that you develop, and you definitely don't pass things on through blood.
Originally Posted by genshin
I think it will soon and I think we will become fatter and fatter every 50 years until we look like aliens and start building homes in other planets by 2250
DEFINITELY not how evolution works. Not even going to bother with this.
Seriously, people.
Evolution is not reactionary. Evolution does not occur IN RESPONSE to necessity, the environment, major catastrophes, diseases, etcetera, etcetera. Nor is it necessarily correlated to physical fitness, attractiveness, intelligence, or any other physical trait. Oh, and it definitely does not occur on an individual level.
Evolution occurs because
A. Not every offspring that is produced will survive to reproduce,
B. Variation exists between individuals, and this variation in traits can influence survival/chance of reproduction, and
C. Said traits are heritable.
Being as these all apply to humans, the answers to the initial questions are as follows:
1. Yes, humans can evolve. To think otherwise is ridiculous. However, it's highly unlikely that any perceivable evolution is going to occur within our lifetimes.
2. If certain traits lead to increased chances of surviving to reproduce and increased rates of reproduction, then those are the traits that will be become more prevalent.
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We have no need to evolve because all our needs are taken care of.
But take one of those needs away and we will eventually evolve to live without it.
For example: The earth got it's warmth taken away by the ice age, but somehow it managed to make itself warm again.
My mum didn't let me play games and watch tv. I went outside and did some exercise= I got rid of my need for that kind of technology = Evolved.
But take one of those needs away and we will eventually evolve to live without it.
For example: The earth got it's warmth taken away by the ice age, but somehow it managed to make itself warm again.
My mum didn't let me play games and watch tv. I went outside and did some exercise= I got rid of my need for that kind of technology = Evolved.
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Firstly, evolution does not guarantee favourable changes.
Continuing on from what hanz0 said, people often get confused easily about the causes of evolution.
Massive changed in environment will not cause evolution, however they will heavily affect the ability of offspring surviving to reproduce, and it can reduce the population with a specific trait.
Someone previously mentioned 'a disaster' could make us evolve. Whilst not entirely correct, there is a grain of truth at the centre;
Before the 1800s in England there was a species of moth that had 2 distinct colour variations. One was a light brown, the other a black. The brown one could easily camouflage on trees, and the back one could not - since trees are not usually black. Of course, birds hunting for moths would find and catch the black ones easily. However when the industrial revolution came about much of the area around cities was covered in thick coal smog, causing everything to turn black. The black moths could now easily hide, and their population flourished, where as the lighter variation were the easy ones to spot. The now increased population of black moths practically took over the entire gene pool.
This example of a variation in environment causing drastic changes to the chances of certain characteristics being favourable.
To say it "provoked an evolutionary response" may look appropriate, but in fact it is not the most correct expression, evolution was happening before, and after, it is just the parameters that changed.
Originally Posted by hanz0
Seriously, people.
Evolution is not reactionary. Evolution does not occur IN RESPONSE to necessity, the environment, major catastrophes, diseases, etcetera, etcetera. Nor is it necessarily correlated to physical fitness, attractiveness, intelligence, or any other physical trait. Oh, and it definitely does not occur on an individual level.
Evolution occurs because
A. Not every offspring that is produced will survive to reproduce,
B. Variation exists between individuals, and this variation in traits can influence survival/chance of reproduction, and
C. Said traits are heritable.
Being as these all apply to humans, the answers to the initial questions are as follows:
1. Yes, humans can evolve. To think otherwise is ridiculous. However, it's highly unlikely that any perceivable evolution is going to occur within our lifetimes.
2. If certain traits lead to increased chances of surviving to reproduce and increased rates of reproduction, then those are the traits that will be become more prevalent.
Continuing on from what hanz0 said, people often get confused easily about the causes of evolution.
Massive changed in environment will not cause evolution, however they will heavily affect the ability of offspring surviving to reproduce, and it can reduce the population with a specific trait.
Someone previously mentioned 'a disaster' could make us evolve. Whilst not entirely correct, there is a grain of truth at the centre;
Before the 1800s in England there was a species of moth that had 2 distinct colour variations. One was a light brown, the other a black. The brown one could easily camouflage on trees, and the back one could not - since trees are not usually black. Of course, birds hunting for moths would find and catch the black ones easily. However when the industrial revolution came about much of the area around cities was covered in thick coal smog, causing everything to turn black. The black moths could now easily hide, and their population flourished, where as the lighter variation were the easy ones to spot. The now increased population of black moths practically took over the entire gene pool.
This example of a variation in environment causing drastic changes to the chances of certain characteristics being favourable.
To say it "provoked an evolutionary response" may look appropriate, but in fact it is not the most correct expression, evolution was happening before, and after, it is just the parameters that changed.
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It's a bit like saying picking up an object provoked a gravitational response, it's completely incorrect in that analogy, in this case your adding potential energy and the force of gravity will always be in effect. In the case of evolution it's the same except your narrowing the number of surviving alleles in favour of certain traits. Wow it's been a while since I've used the word alleles. Evolution does not happen at rates, so please don't say evolution has slowed down. The expression of 'rates' of evolution are a hindsight categorisation of the timeliness of selective pressures, with a bias for morphological changes. One thing that is different about human evolution is that we have mass communication and transport allowing for people of different genetic backgrounds to "interact". Our social structure isn't that strange accept that it's monogamous, which is not that common, but certainly not unique.
Now that you (any person reading this who doesn't know what I just said already) have been schooled by a computer scientist on biology, I'd like to recommend that you look up basic lessons on evolution, it's a critical theory in science and an important idea most people with internet access should know about.
Now that you (any person reading this who doesn't know what I just said already) have been schooled by a computer scientist on biology, I'd like to recommend that you look up basic lessons on evolution, it's a critical theory in science and an important idea most people with internet access should know about.
Last edited by Vox; Oct 27, 2011 at 07:32 AM.
