Has our species stoped evolving

Has modern society stoped the human race from reaching its potential

once upon a time long ago it was the clever, the strong, the able who achived in life and had the chance to pass on their genes and ideals on to the next generation but now everybody cares for everybody else so people who perhaps have nothing to offer evolutionarily speaking live on and have many children, passing on thier "defective" genes and hinder the progress of ourselves as a species.

What do u all think

Yep, we've removed all natural limitations and such that cause adaptation. And everyone who would not be able to survive on our own is able to reproduce.

I just realized it, but we humans have taken evolution to a different level. Instead of the slow evolution of the gene pool, our technical augmentation is evolving to help us through the things that we would have had to genetically change for before.

XAOS

the purpose of evolution is to adapt to an environment.
but humans are the only species that are capable of controlling its environment... to a certain extent of course. its quite possible that we will no longer need to evolve (physically).

however, it's too early to determine this...
the homo sapiens have existed for only .05 million years... and we've come a long way since then.
and evolution is a process that takes millions upon millions of years.

and nature always comes up with new ways to wipe us out... who knows?

[Edited on 6-15-2003 by echelon]

however, it's too early to determine this... Posted by Echelon

Actually its been 200,000 years, and up to 5 million if you include the evolution from Lucy on down to today. However, I think we are still evolving...

We havn't actually. If you have seen the recent news about the "oldest human skeleton" they mocked it up with a body and it looked like Russell Crowe (no kidding) the oldest human would have fitted well into our society, probably better than how Russell fits in.

Not only was it taller and bigger than humans today it also had a bigger cranium.

Maybe we have devolved from the past...

Originally posted by echelon

however, it's too early to determine this...
the homo sapiens have existed for only 50,000 years... and we've come a long way since then.

A species never stops evolving, unless it goes extinct.

Originally posted by dragonrider
however, it's too early to determine this... Posted by Echelon

Actually its been 200,000 years, and up to 5 million if you include the evolution from Lucy on down to today. However, I think we are still evolving...

Dragon, Lucy was an extinct ape, not a human. I know, they come out with tons of fanfare when they announce their B.S. but the whispers are barely audible when they admit error, but they have admitted it.

As far as evolution, that stopped when they made it mandatory to put tags on items. You know the ones, such as the one on the hairdryer that tells the idiotic not to use it in the shower, or the ones on the lighters that tell the utterly moronic to extinguish flame before placing back in pocket. I fully agree that intellectual evolution has been stifled. This must be recticfied.

Do away with speed limits as well.

in my humble opinion,
our species shall continue to evolve, that is destiny.
on the other hand our civilization may crumble and cease, that is arrogance and stupidity.

tut tut

Huh? Pick a darned position, right or wrong and stick with it! Follow my lead!
Man, that was a middle of the road political answer if I ever saw one. Are you running for an office? You got my vote, Mr. Politician!

We are evolving. Probably quicker now than ever before.

Look at the achievements that have been made in the last century. Look at the failiures. All were on a much larger scale proportionally when compared to our previous history.

Then look to the future and you will see that our enviroment is changing every day and will continue to do so at a rapidly gaining speed.

Advances in technology will bring about further changes to the human mind and body.
This can also be classed as evolution.

Come on leveller, don't confuse technology with evolution.

Have we gained any more fingers to help us type?

Have we changed physically in any way over the last 160,000 years. nope. we havn't, if anything we have got worse.. smaller brain case, smaller physical size.

There is no evidence for us evolving at all in current times and little evidence for it in the past as well.

Changing our environment and devloping a sophisticated technology is NOT evolution.

Originally posted by Netchicken
Come on leveller, don't confuse technology with evolution.

I define evolution as man changing.
If technology changes man it doesn't mean he isn't evolving.

Why should evolution not involve technology anyway?
I see our ability to change ourselves as being no different to any outside force.

You could even argue that it's natural evolution, as without man the tools to change himself would not have been invented.

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
Huh? Pick a darned position, right or wrong and stick with it! Follow my lead!

Man, that was a middle of the road political answer if I ever saw one. Are you running for an office? You got my vote, Mr. Politician!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I love your attitude and posts!
I am not a politician, although I am political.

I am of the firm opinion that our civilization is, quickening toward an apex of self destuction. A parallel of Nero's Rome. Our fiddels are electric and our fires are nuclear!
I do not belive our "civilization" will endure, I belive our species will survive.
do I still have your vote, Mr. Crowne?

Tut

He's not evolving but adapting, you can put a child from 160,000 years ago into our society and he would grow up as one of us, and probably visa versa.

Where is the change in individuals over that time? There is none, your definition of evolution as to include technology is wrong, or at least unique to you certainly no one else would accept it as viable.

Originally posted by Leveller

I define evolution as man changing.
If technology changes man it doesn't mean he isn't evolving.

Why should evolution not involve technology anyway?
I see our ability to change ourselves as being no different to any outside force.

You could even argue that it's natural evolution, as without man the tools to change himself would not have been invented.

I once read a book (sorry I can't think of the title) that claimed that computers were, in fact, the next step in terms of the evolution of the brain. The computer, the author argued, is quite literally an extension of our memory (and, no, he wasn't thinking of cyborgs or anything weird like that. His argument was based on the idea that we displace both memory and other mental functions (like mathematical processing) onto computers, making them, in a very straightforward way, a conduit for some element if our 'minds'.

But, yeah, in other ways our society has stopped evolving because, no matter how dumb or lazy you are, the government will always feed your kids, no matter how many you have... But, in a way, I wonder if evolution will, in the end, balance this out, as a nation filled with dumb, lazy people, will eventually collapse from the inside. So, though in the short run those who can't support themselves may have a lot of biological success, in the long run the system that supports them may collapse.

Originally posted by Netchicken
He's not evolving but adapting, you can put a child from 160,000 years ago into our society and he would grow up as one of us, and probably visa versa

Originally posted by Leveller

------------------------------------------------------------------------

no the child would not grow up as one of us.
Carl Gustaf Jung spent his life researching the sub-conscious collective mind of mankind, what you refer to as paranormal.
if our civilization possesed a time machine and could transport a being from 200,000 years ago to the present, the child would not posses the accumulated collective mind of our time .
his memories and knowledge and instincts would only consist of those accumulated by his ancestors not ours.
in short DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SCREW WITH TIME


TUT

Ray Kurzweil developed the voice recognition application that became Dragon Naturally Speaking.

He is a writer par excellence on the integration of human intelligence and machine functioning.

Two books, colloquially 'Intelligent Machines' and 'Spiritual Machines', expand on the evolutionary concepts you raise there, onlyinmydreams.

But the most fascinating part of the second book, for me, was the timeline that showed how billions of years of evolution were now compressed into years or months or weeks or days.

Things to look forward to:

* debates about what is a human entity and what is a machine entity
* the legal rights of machines
* a new class structure between brain-augmented humans and regular-brained humans

And my favourite cocktail party question:

Q. When the hell are programmers and developers going to get off their chuffs, and stop adding bells and whistles to uninteresting word processing and accounting applications and stupid computer games, and concentrate instead on ridding us of totally obsolete and useless input devices such as QWERTY keyboards and meeces?

A. When the short term fast buck motive allows them to.

OOOHHH good idea Tut, but it only works if you think Jung has all his marbles.

Now that implies that there is a genetic component to memory - that racial memory is passed on biologically. AFAIK there is no evidence for that (although I would be interested in it if there was)

If however if the collective unconscious is some sort of psychic background to humanity, then the person from the past would "plug in" just as a normal human does...

Originally posted by tututkamen
no the child would not grow up as one of us.
Carl Gustaf Jung spent his life researching the sub-conscious collective mind of mankind, what you refer to as paranormal.
if our civilization possesed a time machine and could transport a being from 200,000 years ago to the present, the child would not posses the accumulated collective mind of our time .
his memories and knowledge and instincts would only consist of those accumulated by his ancestors not ours.
in short DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SCREW WITH TIME


TUT

Originally posted by onlyinmydreams
I once read a book (sorry I can't think of the title)
But, yeah, in other ways our society has stopped evolving because, no matter how dumb or lazy you are, the government will always feed your kids, no matter how many you have... But, in a way, I wonder if evolution will, in the end, balance this out, as a nation filled with dumb, lazy people, will eventually collapse from the inside. So, though in the short run those who can't support themselves may have a lot of biological success, in the long run the system that supports them may collapse.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Yea! do not worry you can not think. You must be one of those right wing Christians, who have been born again and belive that everyone who has faced trial and tribulation should be executed for not paying taxes to the Military Industrial Complex.
Yea, kill the poor, feed the rich. Yea if your poor and fall in love your dumb and lazy. If your rich and join the Skull and Crossbones and Free Masons your cool.
You are fortunate this is the www. cause if you were here I would rip your head off and sh t down your neck

probably gonna get me some little red warnings