Are human beings done evolving?

Kutt

Are human beings still evolving or is homo sapien the final stage of evolution?

If we're not done evolving, have scientists hypothesized what the next stage of evolution might be like?

Charmar

http://physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=361074

Ryan_m_b

Paraphrasing from another thread:
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthr...80#post3295080

Elite Jacob

Is evolution the same as adaptation or is there a difference? I'm thinking if a person can adapt to something but its not passed on geneticly than its not evolution. Is that correct?

Drakkith

Evolution is the change in a species over time, not the change in an individual. A single organism does not evolve. Hit up the stickied post on evolution at the top of this forum.

peter09

There are mechanism within our environment which act to increase/reduce a groups reproductive capacity - often called selection pressures.

I would suggest that there is currently active selection against young men who like fast cars :-)

Ryan_m_b

I know this is in jest but this isn't correct because it implies that young men who don't drive recklessly do so because of a genetic component. Be careful when examining traits to think about all the possible causes, don't just chalk it up to genetics.

Borek

Well, you can't be sure there is NO genetic component to this type of behavior

Ryan_m_b

Of course, my point is that there is insufficient evidence to support any proposition that there is

peter09

In the spirit of interested discussion, and acknowledging that I am pretty ignorant about the details of evolution can I ask the following:

Does selection actually have to act on the genetic component of 'fast car driving' ...... if the selection pressure is strong enough then selection FOR the 'playing computer games at home' genetic component could become dominant.

So - sort of - does a behavior have to have a genetic component to be selected against?