What will human become? A Chinese girl needs your help

[ZealScience]

IThere are plenty of examples of recent evolution in homo sapiens such as Lactase persistence, CRR-Delta32 mutations, skin colour, altitude adaption etc etc etc

But skin color and adaptation to altitude can be caused by intrinsic mechanism of organs. i.e. we had them long time age. E.g. erythropoietin factor increase amount of haemoglobin in blood which adapts to high altitude, but everyone has the function, not necessarily to be evolved

 

[Ryan_m_b]

But skin color and adaptation to altitude can be caused by intrinsic mechanism of organs. i.e. we had them long time age. E.g. erythropoietin factor increase amount of haemoglobin in blood which adapts to high altitude, but everyone has the function, not necessarily to be evolved

It's not down to the "intrinsic mechanisms of organs". White people produce less amounts of melanin than black people, this is not an environmental thing, it is genetic. Our ancestor populations evolved over time to produce different basal levels of melanin. EPO is the same.

Either way there are plenty of other examples that I linked too. We are constantly evolving as a species and there is nothing to suggest that has slowed down or will stop.

 

[thorium1010]

I think the first problem is about the photosynthesis itself. Mechanism of decomposing water still remains unknown, I guess the removal of electrons by manganate is of great interest to chemists. The photochemical effect is the vital part for the synthesis. Also synthesis of those enzymes is a technological barricade. But I highly doubt that whether humans can live up to that age...

I think, it is very difficult to predict what the future will look like. Its the same with evolution, leave alone engineering our own evolution. Right now, at best can only change the environment, develop new technology, understand or environment, develop new ways to treat diseases. Its very difficult to predict what will happen to homo sapiens in the future.

 

[thorium1010]

White people produce less amounts of melanin than black people, this is not an environmental thing, it is genetic. Our ancestor populations evolved over time to produce different basal levels of melanin.

I need some clarification here, isn't it environmental pressure that brought about the genetic change and made them better adaptable to the environment (in which they lived ).

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I need some clarification here, isn't it environmental pressure that brought about the genetic change and made them better adaptable to the environment (in which they lived ).

Yes, white populations lost their melanin because it was energy intensive and not an advantage in colder climates (don't have a ref right now, remembering some evolution classes I did at uni). For black populations more melanin is an advantage.

Melanin gives you a higher resistance to skin cancer so mutations that give higher basal levels are selected for in hot/sunnier climates.

 

[thorium1010]

Yes, white populations lost their melanin because it was energy intensive and not an advantage in colder climates (don't have a ref right now, remembering some evolution classes I did at uni). For black populations more melanin is an advantage.

Melanin gives you a higher resistance to skin cancer so mutations that give higher basal levels are selected for in hot/sunnier climates.

The loss of melanin has to do with vit d and folic acid. I think the hypothesis was put forward by dr jablonnski and others. don't have ref to her work. But there is a Ted talk by her.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

The loss of melanin has to do with vit d and folic acid. I think the hypothesis was put forward by dr jablonnski and others. don't have ref to her work. But there is a Ted talk by her.

Fair enough, cheers for the name I'd say this was a fairly good example of homo sapiens evolution

 

[ZealScience]

But change like that is not as drastic as changing from homo erectus to homo sapiens. I heard that homo sapiens and homo erectus both originates from Africa. I can't see any chance for there to be a new form of human appearing and survive the competition with homo sapiens, though 20,000 years is too short to say that maybe

 

[Ryan_m_b]

But change like that is not as drastic as changing from homo erectus to homo sapiens. I heard that homo sapiens and homo erectus both originates from Africa. I can't see any chance for there to be a new form of human appearing and survive the competition with homo sapiens, though 20,000 years is too short to say that maybe

The only difference between speciation and adaptation is that for speciation to occur one population has to split into two (by becoming separated by geography usually). Then all you have to do is wait for one population to adapt to the point that makes them incapable of breeding with the other.

Again it's not 20,000 years it's 200,000 years. Our species as a low amount of diversity in it due to events like the Toba catastrophe and (in recent history) due to our high level of gene flow.

If gene flow was decreased then it is easily conceivable that we would speciate. In fact this probably would eventually have happened if it wasn't for the rise of global transport over the past few centuries/millennium

 

[gf11221]

Human Evolution in our distant future will become slower and slower as time pass through our knowledge, some beliefs saids that human will be able to control natural elements or create something from nothing just like how the universe began.

I think human will not going to evolve from its form but will evolve on our very own knowledge, think about something related to human hybrid...

Since Synthetic Life creation is very possible, so maybe somehow we can create our very own human being or human hybrid w/ different ability and form but for me, i won't let technology control everything because human should!

 

[RufusDawes]

I am from Shanghai,China and I am not a native English speaker so there might be some mistakes in my words and I am sorry for it.

Back to the topic.

I have read some papers that some researchers believe with the development of technology, our evolution will come to a halt.

What is your oppinion about it? What will our brain turn to be? What about of our other organs?Is there any possibility that we can control the evolution and may become to be what we want us to be? Or is it possible that we will become extinct without disasters of nature?

The future refers to millions years later, not after hundrends years.
I need your help because this topic is a open question in my finnal exam and it is important to me!

Also if you are interested in China or Chinese, you can connect with me.

My opinion is that evolution has already essentially stopped as practically everyone in the west at least reproduces. China has 2 billion people, meaning they also have a high rate of re-production so any affects of evolution will be minimal.

I think there is no sexual selection going on so no evolution.

I hope this is not a homework question as I don't know what I am talkign about. I just have an opinion.

 

[Antiphon]

I think we'll be tall, pale, grey-skinned with highly advanced technology. Because we will have messed around with our genes and screwed things up, we will have to travel back in time in silvery flying machines and take genetic material from our distant ancestors.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

My opinion is that evolution has already essentially stopped as practically everyone in the west at least reproduces. China has 2 billion people, meaning they also have a high rate of re-production so any affects of evolution will be minimal.

I think there is no sexual selection going on so no evolution.

I hope this is not a homework question as I don't know what I am talkign about. I just have an opinion.

The following must occur for evolution to stop

The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium describes the necessary events for evolution to stop
1) A population must be large
2) No mutations may occur
3) Mating must be random
4) No migration
5) No differential reproductive success

 

[mishrashubham]

My opinion is that evolution has already essentially stopped as practically everyone in the west at least reproduces. China has 2 billion people, meaning they also have a high rate of re-production so any affects of evolution will be minimal.

I think there is no sexual selection going on so no evolution.

I hope this is not a homework question as I don't know what I am talkign about. I just have an opinion.

You might want to recheck your figures. China's population is 1.3 billion, not 2.

 

[avtodorov]

I have read some papers that some researchers believe with the development of technology, our evolution will come to a halt.

1 - What is your oppinion about it?
2 - What will our brain turn to be?
3 - What about of our other organs?
4 - Is there any possibility that we can control the evolution and may become to be what we want us to be?
5 - Or is it possible that we will become extinct without disasters of nature?

1 - Evolution, or evolutionary process is the property of life, all life-forms evolve and homo sapiens (humans) will continue to evolve;
2 - There will be no changes in the short term and when one ventures into longer term horizon of millions of years any pronouncements become highly speculative.
3 - the same answer as in 2
4 - Controlling our own evolution is _inevitable_. From the moment one strain of primates became deliberatively capable the classical evolutionary process changed. Humans actively disturb the environment and all the relationships in the biosphere _in the absence_ of understanding how those relationships work. Our socio-economic system is very primitive and reflects our evolutionary origins as warm blooded verterbrates. At the moment "all phenomenon and things human" are driven by institutions that evolved out of ignorance. Mankind has been long in the overshoot: the planet has been overpopulated for quite some time. We continue to add people because the world is the collection of autonomos nations that are governed by politicians who are _not_ scientists. Eventually scientists will realize that the only way for our species continuos survival is to control population on the global scale. Scientists will organize and eventually move into governemnt to implement population control.
All of this of course will not happen any time soon and most likely only happen when all the biodiversity is lost, air and water polluted and the society as we know it now has collapsed into aristocracy appropriating all resources and the rest of people living outside of the protected enclaves fighting each other for food and clean water.
5 - it is highly unlikely that we will become extinct in the abscence of some natural catastrophe (like asteroid hitting the planet); of course the planet will rebalance over time and there will be slow and uneven die-off of the drone/burden overpopulation whcih by some account is well under way (war, hunger, environmental disasters)