What makes us evolve (in terms of thought or activity)?

What in your opinion makes us and has made us evolve as a species?

What things can you think of that you feel have really defined the course of human evolution.
Perhaps you only think its one thing, perhaps you think its many things. All ideas theories and suggestions are welcome.


Please don't troll bait into creationism vs evolution arguments. If one person thinks its god, please respect their view without voicing criticism. The purpose of this thread is not to debate the existence of non existence of God, but to discuss theories on how and why we have evolve and how we continue to evolve. If someone thinks its god and you disagree, please don't try to disprove their theory with science, just share what you think makes us evolve and why without aiming to discredit anyone else.

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Well, I would guess the usual:

The more attractive and child-worthy a male seems to be to females, the more children he may spread. Thus, evolution, if repeated.

If a seemingly very child-worthy male decides/has to because of reasons to stay away from making babies, his attributes will most likely get lost in history. Does George Clooney still not want a child? *srry

A reply to ManFromEurope

I agree that is one explanation of how children are spread. However it doesn't explain how he became so attractive and child worthy. It doesn't explain His evolution.

a reply to: nonjudgementalist
I don't think it works the same way nowadays as it did for the last billion years. In a petri dish, it is the bacterium that reproduces the fastest that dominates the culture; no more fitness testing.

a reply to: nonjudgementalist

Good question.

I'd say, "stress".

(bear with me)

200,000 years ago, modern man emerged, evolved from primitive man.

What precipitated that change?

Probably weather, climate.

Outsides stresses (there's that word) create environments where a species either adapts or dies. In order to adapt, you have to evolve.

So, stress.

QED

(in my humble opinion)

Every thing is in constant change, those things that aren't become stagnant and perish. We as humans call this stagnance "suffering", the universe calls it Nature. When we set ourselves against the Natural Law we experience suffering. If we don't change (evolve) with the ever-changing Natural Order we become the antagonist to the Order of the Universe and as a result we are destroyed. Those that remain only remain because they adapted to change. We call this adaptation "survival of the fittest."

So what makes us evolve you ask? Natural Law.

a reply to: nonjudgementalist
I assume you are taking about what gave humans the edge over non-humans.
Some anthropologists will mention the family structure, as something which allowed the human child a long period of nurturing and growth in intelligence.

I suggest that MEMORY was also a key factor.
Memory of the past makes it possible to recognise patterns in past events.
Once we recognise the patterns, we notice that they keep coming, we can project them as future possibilities, and we thus learn to grasp the concept of "the future".
In other words, we are living in a linear past-present-future, instead of living in an eternal present where things just come at us.
We are able to recognise trends, begin to think about what might be causing them, and learn to exploit the process.
(This helps us towards a better food supply)
If we had no memories of the past and no concept of the future, we would simply revert to an animal state.

originally posted by: StanFL
a reply to: nonjudgementalist
I don't think it works the same way nowadays as it did for the last billion years. In a petri dish, it is the bacterium that reproduces the fastest that dominates the culture; no more fitness testing.

I don't know if this is worth debating because its so far re over from humans, but the question that I would ask about that sample is what caused the faster bacterium to be faster?

a reply to: beezzer

Hmm Good answer. I agree we are quite stressed as a species

So it would make sense if stress is what made us evolve into a stressed out species.

But we are not all stressed. So what made those people evolve and not be stressed. It can't be stress.

Probably weather, climate. 

Outsides stresses (there's that word) create environments where a species either adapts or dies. In order to adapt, you have to evolve. 

So, stress. 

Lots of fat.

a reply to: nonjudgementalist

Look at it this way, if there is no stress, if there is no outside influence to challenge the species. . .

Then there'd be no reason to evolve.

a reply to: EviLCHiMP

Yes that makes perfect sense.

Ok so a broad answer would be change... I like that... But can you be more specific?

Anything you think in terms of human thought or activity that led to evolution you think of as being oustandingly progressive? (It's these kind of answers I am most interested in)

a reply to: nonjudgementalist

Hmm, evolved as a specie, going back to babel, i would say nothing after that. We just made real progres on how to behave as parasites.

a reply to: beezzer

OK, that makes perfect sense too. But its also a really broad answer.
So I will ask you the same question I asked evilchimp.

Is there anything in terms of thought of activity that led to evolution you think of as being outstandingly progressive?

a reply to: nonjudgementalist

Not sure I understand the question.

I see evolution as being a physical change/development to a species over time.

Could you reword it, please?

I would say "need" makes us evolve. When an environment changes you need to evolve (adapt) or die

Evolution is always happenning. DNA is the driving force of all life as far as we have seen. DNA is little more than strands of linked chemical bonds who's main job is to produce amino acids/protiens. These bonds occur in nature but have only ever been witnessed to be produced from other living creatures copying themselves by spontaneous cloning, asexual repro, and sexual repro. only one of these processes protects the beings genetic code from being used against itself by viruses, germs, some parasites. Change is our chemisty's natural response to the environment. Genetic variance is the best way to keep from being vulnerable to viral infections.

Chemistry is going to do what it does. When you bring sodium into contact with water, there is a violent reaction that can be predicted when one knows the specific amounts of each. If/when we can reverse engineer a human body/brain, we will see that we are little more than fleshy robots carrying out our natural chemical impulses for survival in a physical world. Materials and chemicals react to each other in very predictable ways. When we understand our chemistry better, we will be able to make our bodies better. We simply do not have the computing power to make decent models of the entire process. DNA/our bodies are little more than chemical reactors. Chemicals do what chemicals do, and that is react to other materials.

Change is inevitable, even in asexual repro. However, it is the environment which drives the direction of the change. When an environment becomes less than favorable, some of the beings will not be able to cope and will not be able to pass on their genes When that environment gets harsher, the being who are not able to adapt, will die, and not be able to pass on their genes.
The few who live and maybe even adapt enough to thrive will be the only ones left to pass on their genes.




a reply to: nonjudgementalist

a reply to: DISRAELI

Good answers, and quite detailed, thank you


The only thing I would disagree with though is that we would revert back to an animal state without good memories... There may be an element of truth to that, but it erroneously implies animals have bad memories, which science has proven to be untrue. Animals have amazingly good memory.

It think its more accurate to say that if we didn't apply our memory, we would devolve. Now here's where it gets interesting. Not applying our memory causes devolution, so therefore the opposite must be true. How we apply our memory capacity is what causes evolution. In other words it's not memory that drives evolution, but activity.

a reply to: nonjudgementalist

What makes us evolve?

Selection pressure.

a reply to: beezzer

Sorry there was a typo.
The question was supposed to be:

Is there anything in terms of thought or activity that makes us more evolved as a species, you think of as outstandingly progressive?

OK I edited the thread title so we can all be on the same page.