Evolution....

[Master Yoda]

Since I was a wee lad I was a keen student that absorbed information like a sponge in the learning institutions we call schools. By the time I was standing at full height I understood the presented theory of evolution. How there are periods of non change. Then an event happens like an ice age or multiple volcanic eruptions that can last 1000s of years wipe out most living creatures while only a few anomalies that are suited to the new environment survives and repopulates according to their genetic traits.

Through a long period of time that amounts in years to 5-6 figures there is a period of no change again until the next event that causes NATURAL SELECTION. Catastrophic or environmental changes that are far and few. But every time it happens natural selection occurs and each species that survives become a little bit different. Over millions or tens of millions of years or more......species either become extinct or totally change (evolved). And these long periods of millions of years that contain a lot of natural selection within them causes EVOLUTION.

I was taught by biology teachers that humans have stopped evolving...why? because we now have the technology to minimise or prevent death for individuals who would not have survived in the past. Thus keeping weaker genes sustained in the global gene pool because almost everyone survives. And also we are better at defending ourselves against natural catastrophes. Not that we have faced one like the ones on movies like Armageddon.


But have we stopped evolving? Human civilisation has only existed for a tiny speck of time when it comes to the entirety of how long life on this planet has existed. I believe that genetically we have remained the same since natural selection has less of a chance of being expressed at present. The strong, weak, and the anomalies all have pretty much the same chance of survival. Even as we relentlessly destroy this planet and kill each other.

A brief mention though.....intellectual and spiritual evolution is clearly taking place as the increasing difficulties to make a living and cope with the new triumphs and challenges in this world is increasingly requiring more inner strength and understanding from each individual.

I do wonder though when the next Natural Selection event takes place in what ever form it may be. Which type of humans will be the survivors? The physically strong? The mentally elite? The spiritual masters? And millions of years from now I wonder what our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual features will be like?

Some say that the little Roswell aliens is what we may become. Is it time to awaken the deeper senses within each of us?.......I do wonder.........

 

[Tania Admin]

Very interesting thread. Who would the survivors be? Yes you would need to be intelligent and strength would be a factor. If it was mass natural disaster I think those who know how to grow/breed their own food would be the survivors, you need to feed the brain and have sustenance to keep strength.

 

[svengali]

Well, If a comet or similar celestial body took a wrong turn and smacked into us it wouldn't matter much how smart or dumb you were it would be game over.

Maybe the more "primitive" types with no T.V. or other news media to tell them what was on the way would be better off.

As to continuing evolution; your teacher was wrong.

It is and always has been an ongoing process. Humans today are bigger, stronger and smarter than we were even a couple of hundred years ago and the expansion of human knowledge is proceeding at breakneck speed. The illusion of our having stopped evolving arises because the physiological changes happen so slowly but they do happen.

I, too, would like to swing by this planet in a thousand or so years and see what it looks like then.

 

[Master Yoda]

I agree Sven. Evolution has never stopped. Especially cultural evolution. For my school teachers to say evolution itself has stopped just because out DNA remains the same for this short window of time is rather short sighted.

However though.....In text and scriptures less accepted or available to the public it has been documented that humans used to live a lot longer. We nowadays insist on doing so much damage to ourselves we wear out bodies out in 80 to a 100 years.

So physically have we devolved even though in other ways we have evolved?

 

[Master Yoda]

Very interesting thread. Who would the survivors be? Yes you would need to be intelligent and strength would be a factor. If it was mass natural disaster I think those who know how to grow/breed their own food would be the survivors, you need to feed the brain and have sustenance to keep strength.

Yes...those skills and physical traits will be vital. And I wonder what we will look like after 100 million years of catastrophic events......

 

[svengali]

I ..............................
However though.....In text and scriptures less accepted or available to the public it has been documented that humans used to live a lot longer. We nowadays insist on doing so much damage to ourselves we wear out bodies out in 80 to a 100 years.

So physically have we devolved even though in other ways we have evolved?

I don't know where that info came from but it is highly sus in my humble opinion.

In the good ol' days of ancient Egypt 30 years was considered old. People died young from such delights as dental abscesses and the kind of infections we can clear up these days with a handful of pills. Even as recently as early Australian history lack of medical care made life a pretty risky proposition.

 

[Master Yoda]

I don't know where that info came from but it is highly sus in my humble opinion.

In the good ol' days of ancient Egypt 30 years was considered old. People died young from such delights as dental abscesses and the kind of infections we can clear up these days with a handful of pills. Even as recently as early Australian history lack of medical care made life a pretty risky proposition.

Well, no answer is absolute, but according to my limited understanding of biochemistry, physiology, cultural evolution, and behavioural evolution. Habits of food, exercise, ways to take a shit, and physical exertion habits. Not to mention the simplicity of lives back then before the inappropriate overuse of modern inventions that bombard us with more information than our neurology can take.

Examples in the modern world exist where one culture may have stats that say they generally live longer. Below is an example.

Tell me what you think Sven. I always appreciate your replies as they make me think and generate further learning.

http://www.tofugu.com/2010/10/06/why-do-japanese-people-live-so-long/

 

[Happy2]

It may be some races live longer than others whether it be Diet or a culture of cleanliness (Helping keep disease away)
But as a species we are living far longer generally Not as long as your examples of the past I presume you meant those chaps in that humourous novel called The Bible ? Methusala etc

 

[Master Yoda]

Lol...no I am not using the bible as literal reference. That would be like craping onto an iPad app called iToilet and expecting the grog-an to disappear into the screen when I flush......

 

[svengali]

Actually, the Japanese are an interesting study.

Pre WW2 and in the couple of decades after it colo-rectal cancers and Haemorrhoids (is that spelt correctly?) were almost unknown in Japan and the reason for this was the Japanese diet which was mainly vegetarian plus a fair bit of fish and little or no red meat. Similar results were found through most Asian countries.

However, as Japan became more industrialised and the Japanese people became more wealthy they adopted more western dietary habits, including eating more red meat, which became a status symbol.

Guess what?

Their rates of colo-rectal cancers and Haemorrhoids rose and these days they are almost as common there as in western countries.

Life expectancy statistics can also be a bit suspect depending on how they are collated. For instance a high infant mortality rate can really drag the numbers down even though the rest of the adult population may be living to a fair old age.

 

[sparky]

Lol...no I am not using the bible as literal reference. That would be like craping onto an iPad app called iToilet and expecting the grog-an to disappear into the screen when I flush......

Now that's an app worth buying
make camping so much easier

 

[Master Yoda]

Actually, the Japanese are an interesting study.

Pre WW2 and in the couple of decades after it colo-rectal cancers and Haemorrhoids (is that spelt correctly?) were almost unknown in Japan and the reason for this was the Japanese diet which was mainly vegetarian plus a fair bit of fish and little or no red meat. Similar results were found through most Asian countries.

However, as Japan became more industrialised and the Japanese people became more wealthy they adopted more western dietary habits, including eating more red meat, which became a status symbol.

Guess what?

Their rates of colo-rectal cancers and Haemorrhoids rose and these days they are almost as common there as in western countries.

Life expectancy statistics can also be a bit suspect depending on how they are collated. For instance a high infant mortality rate can really drag the numbers down even though the rest of the adult population may be living to a fair old age.

You're right about one thing. The younger generations in asia are facing an increasing rate of obesity and the problems that relate to that. Since the rampage of global fast food chains into their lifestyles, it has been quite a different world.

 

[Naughty Thoughts]

Fact: The DNA you are born with is the DNA that you die with. It is effectively locked in and it does not change (barring scientific advances allowing DNA to be updated at some point in the future).

Fact: A person gets half their DNA from each parent (normally - we'll assume old-school fluid-transfer procreation and ignore test tubers).

However - if Parent A and Parent B have two children, the two are not identical. Although the same DNA from each parent is used, it does not change in the intervening year(s) between the two births yet the children do not come out as clones.

Assumption: there is some element of randomisation when the two sets of DNA are mixed, resulting in dissimilar children.

Conclusion: as stated by others, evolution is ongoing. Keeping in mind that "evolution" is not directed. It is random mutations where some of them result in favourable outcomes (slightly longer legs allowing that individual to outrun predators) and some result in unwanted outcomes (slightly longer legs making that individual clumsy and easily caught by predators).

Dinosaurs didn't evolve into birds and reptiles, dinosaurs changed a bit at a time and some ended up as reptiles and some ended up as birds (and most died off in evolutionary dead ends).

Having said all that, it can be argued that when a species reaches a "best options" state, there is little improvement that mutations can create. Example: sharks and crocodiles/alligators. Neither of those families have changed much for the last few million years because they are very good at what they do. "Swim, eat, and make little baby sharks - that's all they do" to paraphrase the shark movie.

* Note: it is commonly accepted (though it might be wrong) that females are born with all their eggs. Those DNA bundles would be locked in. Human cells die and are replaced (some say you are a whole new person every 7 years), and males generate sperm on the fly so it could be argued that a males' DNA might contain new mutations over the course of the reproductive lifetime of an individual.

 

[homer]

We'll either evolve into formless being or regress back into simple single cell organism like an amoeba

 

[Happy2]

Evolution of humans is from primordial ooze to the dominant lifeform on the planet But look at Northbridge or the gatecrashers at parties nowadays and a large chunk of the populous is on the return leg

 

[Master Yoda]

Hmmmm perhaps the ability to choose to act like a douche already puts humans at the top on this planet.

Choice is a privilege not granted to all lifeforms in this Universe. ..

 

[homer]

There are other universe like ours, there are other humanoid out there. I can't wait to meet them, 3 breasted ladies, woohoo...lol

 

[Master Yoda]

There was once a three boobed humanoid on Mars. She was a WL.

Arnold didn't like her very much though. ...

 

[Happy2]

well of course Arnold was unimpressed Whats wrong with five boobs Just like her mums generation
Bloody plastic surgeons their producing a generation of freaks

 

[Master Yoda]

This has to be the coolest an hottest mermaid movie I have seen. And real mermaids do not wear bikinis like this one