Is human evolution at a standstill?

In summary, a group of biologists believe that human evolution has reached its peak due to the Western lifestyle that protects us from natural selection. The increased mixing of human populations also limits evolutionary change. While some argue that humans can still evolve through genetic mixing, others argue that advancements in medicine and technology may actually be hindering the process by allowing individuals with genetic disorders to survive and reproduce. Ultimately, it is uncertain whether humans will continue to evolve and what direction this evolution will take.
  • #1
wolram
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4348751,00.html
For those who dream of a better life, science has bad news: this is the best it is going to get. Our species has reached its biological pinnacle and is no longer capable of changing.
That is the stark, controversial view of a group of biologists who believe a Western lifestyle now protects humanity from the forces that used to shape Homo sapiens.
'If you want to know what Utopia is like, just look around - this is it,' said Professor Steve Jones, of University College London, who is to present his argument at a Royal Society Edinburgh debate, 'Is Evolution Over?', next week. 'Things have simply stopped getting better, or worse, for our species.'

I tend to agree, we seem able to amass knowledge, but not able to advance, because physical laws restric the use of it.
 
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  • #2
this was entertaining :rofl:

In addition, human populations are now being constantly mixed, again producing a blending that blocks evolutionary change. This increased mixing can be gauged by calculating the number of miles between a person's birthplace and his or her partner's, then between their parents' birthplaces, and finally, between their grandparents'.

In virtually every case, you will find that the number of miles drops dramatically the more that you head back into the past. Now people are going to universities and colleges where they meet and marry people from other continents. A generation ago, men and women rarely mated with anyone from a different town or city. Hence, the blending of our genes which will soon produce a uniformly brown-skinned population. Apart from that, there will be little change in the species

We are not evolving yet this is a example of evolution. Mixing of genes that create new combinations that may provide a better fitness.

Similar processes led to the evolution of mankind, but this has now stopped because virtually everybody's genes are making it to the next generation, not only those who are best adapted to their environments.

I am not sure everybody genes are making it to the next generation. Sexual selection is still at work.

I think some people confuse Darwnism and evolution.

Darwinism in this sense is not synonymous with evolution, but rather with evolution by natural selection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinism

Definition of evolution:
In biology, evolution is the process by which populations of organisms acquire and pass on novel traits from generation to generation, affecting the overall makeup of the population and even leading to the emergence of new species.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution
 
  • #3
I guess the question should have been, "can humans evolve into some thing better". Sure a race that has no use for legs will probably evolve without
them, all manner of physical evolution is possible, i think what the author meant
is that, the quality of life has peaked for human evolution, that there will never
be a utopia, or that us humans will evolve some super powers of the mind,
cybernetics may enhance the life of a few in the future,but is that human evolution?
 
  • #4
wolram' said:
Things have simply stopped getting better, or worse, for our species.'
I tend to agree, we seem able to amass knowledge, but not able to advance, because physical laws restric the use of it.
By its nature, evolution is only visible upon reflection, never from within. Consider, our personal experience with it is but a single generation. Try looking at a thousand generations at a time.
 
  • #5
We can look back to the Minoans 1500BC, they had indoor plumbing and multi
roomed houses and it seems a rich life style, how are we better than them ?
 
  • #6
We have physicforums? They apparently never used their writing (Linear A) for anything but keeping account books.
 
  • #7
selfAdjoint said:
We have physicforums? They apparently never used their writing (Linear A) for anything but keeping account books.

And where would we be without Geen Span and Brown :smile: Physics Forums
is a step forwards and maybe it will evolve to some higher level of existence,
but we will be left with nuts, bolts, wires to play with.
 
  • #8
Actually, I tend to believe that our species is evolving into a less fit species. This is because we are helping people with genetic disorders life longer and allowing them to transmit their "flawed" genes (with respect to the environment as of now.) For example diabetes type I, is a genetic disorder that is due to a lack of insulin production. Insulin, which leads to glucose uptake into cells, is secreted from specialized cells that sense glucose or energy levels in the blood. People with type I diabetes would probably die before they matured to reproduce if it wasn't for our moral decisions and our ability to understand and rectify the situation by injecting insulin and sensing glucose levels in the blood with devices. So you genetic disorders are always arising but we are now essentialy selecting for the disorders.
 
  • #9
quasi426 said:
Actually, I tend to believe that our species is evolving into a less fit species. This is because we are helping people with genetic disorders life longer and allowing them to transmit their "flawed" genes (with respect to the environment as of now.) For example diabetes type I, is a genetic disorder that is due to a lack of insulin production. Insulin, which leads to glucose uptake into cells, is secreted from specialized cells that sense glucose or energy levels in the blood. People with type I diabetes would probably die before they matured to reproduce if it wasn't for our moral decisions and our ability to understand and rectify the situation by injecting insulin and sensing glucose levels in the blood with devices. So you genetic disorders are always arising but we are now essentialy selecting for the disorders.

Ouch, i am no medical expert, but are there not many gentic disorders that need modern medical methods to prolong life ?
That said, even if the human race is evolving into a physicaly weak people, is
the mental evolution offsetting this weakness ?
 
  • #10
I think Quasi426 has a good point with genetic disorders. However this is a very precarious subject since the Nazi leader in WWII had the objective to create a superior human race. Actually the war was mostly about superior and inferior human etnic groups/races/subspecies.

One more "improvement" that would help the human race would be the degeneration of primitive irrational and selfish instincts.
 
  • #11
wolram said:
Ouch, i am no medical expert, but are there not many gentic disorders that need modern medical methods to prolong life ?
That said, even if the human race is evolving into a physicaly weak people, is
the mental evolution offsetting this weakness ?

Since the environment humans live in is dependent on their fitness I can see how mental evolution if it is indeed occurring is a benefit. This is only because we have such control over our environment right now. However after some catastrophic natural disaster such as a plague or asteriod collision we may once again be depended on the natural environement and thus not be as fit.

Also I just wanted to say that I am not in anyway advocating a eugenetics movement where by we actively select "qualified" and "fit" humans to mate and not allow others who are not as qualified to not mate. This is very disturbing to me. Also I would never take the side of not treating sick people on the basis that they are damaging the genetics of our species. That's just my moral stand, which I believe is the moral stand of nearly all people, with the exception of those like hitler and some others in the eugenics movements.
 
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  • #12
I totally agree with you quasi426, human advance has been snuffed by natural
disasters in the past, it could or even will happen again, will it be physical or
mental power that ensures our survival, i do not know, but i guess we will be
no better off than our ancestors.
 
  • #13
There isn't much doubt that we are trading off some of our physical fitness. Medical development has really stepped in the way of natural selection. This really isn't in much dispute.

What is interesting though is what we are potentially gaining. Sometimes the benefits are obscured. For instance, an individual with sickle cell anemia is typically immune to malaria. Apparently coded in the DND right next to the defect trait is a beneficial trait. A doctor once gave me a few more examples of this that I have since forgotten.

And who would trade Steven Hawkins for an athlete? Titles like "gifted" and "genius" and "world-changing" seem kind of cheap when applied to him.

Perhaps natural selection naturally bends into the realm of the intellect after a certain amount of time. If it does, I wonder if there are environmental triggers?
 
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  • #14
examples of ongoing human evolution...
mixing of races, changes in immunities to diseases, broading of genetic diversity by caring for those individuals who would not live to reproduce without the help of technology...

Is it better or worse? That will depend on the future conditions of our ecosystem (and perhaps our culture). At the moment, we are very well adapted to our environment...well enough to be taking some amount of control over it. Will that last? Probably not. Change will happen and humans will keep adapting to the new conditions, or adapt the environment to our needs, or go extinct.
 
  • #15
our evolution haven't stopped and will never stop, our lifestyle simply changes the rules of evultion and where it goes
 
  • #16
evolution

To my view, the most significant change is that we are fast approaching a point at which we'll control our own evolution. Once we fully understand our own code and master the means by which we can manipulate that code (including integrating the biological and the mechanical -- robotics, a.i., etc.) we will control the destiny of our species -- or the many species we will surely become.
 
  • #17
"approaching a point at which we'll control our own evolution."

That is a most peculiar idea that I too have wondered. The evolutionary process has been tweaked before. An example I can think of are mutator genes, which encode proteins that can mess with the genomic DNA by switching for example A base pairs to C base pairs. This may seem trivial but it is making the process less random. Anyway in response to the fact that we can control our own evolution, we may be fast approaching but we are very far from it. Because as of right now we cannot even predict everything that is going on with the most studied organism known as E. coli. We do not know how all the machinery works in E.coli which is only 1 cell.

Also this race to controling our own evolutionwe have to consider it as a race against an extreme environmental change that may wipe out certain technological advances and place us back. Examples of these are pandemics, asteriods, or even ideological changes. Looking back at history there are times when thinking creatively/scientifically were looked down upon and lead to punishments such as death.

Just to make it clear by controlling our own evolution, I don't mean that we mate certain humans with one another and not allow certain humans to mate. I mean a manipulation of the genome prior to birth to give rise to the appropriate phenotypes or actual physical and physiological characteristics.
 
  • #18
I think we mean the same thing, but I expect we'll master all of this within the next few decades at the outside. Unless the exceptionally dramatic environmental change occurs within the next 20-40 years I don't think it will matter. Something could happen that soon, but I don't think it likely.
 
  • #19
zenjicomet said:
I think we mean the same thing, but I expect we'll master all of this within the next few decades at the outside. Unless the exceptionally dramatic environmental change occurs within the next 20-40 years I don't think it will matter. Something could happen that soon, but I don't think it likely.

I'm not sure exactly what top secret information you have access too that leads you to believe we are moving at such a fast pace, and that we know exactly where the finish line is. But from my perspective we are not decades away from controling evolution to the point that we can make ourselves adapt to any environmental situation (i.e. another planet)
 
  • #20
I don't think we will ever stop evolving, as long as the climate changes (among other factors) we will be subject to random mutations that will either be beneficial or not in light of these new factors.
 

What is human evolution?

Human evolution is the process by which humans have descended from ancient primates and have evolved physically and genetically over time.

Has human evolution stopped?

No, human evolution has not stopped. Evolution is an ongoing process that occurs over millions of years, and humans are still subject to natural selection and genetic changes.

How has human evolution changed over time?

Human evolution has changed significantly over time. Early humans were much more physically and genetically different from modern humans due to natural selection and environmental factors.

What factors influence human evolution?

There are many factors that influence human evolution, including natural selection, genetic mutations, environmental changes, and cultural practices.

What evidence supports human evolution?

The evidence for human evolution is vast and includes fossil records, genetic studies, comparative anatomy, and observations of living primates. These pieces of evidence all support the idea that humans have evolved from earlier species.

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