2012 the Salvation of Humankind?

Something recently occured to me...

Human evolution is at a near stand-still... at best. At worst, we are in a state of regression.

It is a common misconception that evolution is always a progressive occurance. Most people do not understand the folly in this type of mind-set. It is perhaps even worse than not believing in evolution all together.

Society is disillusioned by our advancements in technology. They see the new technology and assume that "we" are getting smarter... That "we" are getting better. What is not usually realized by the average person is that the vast majority of our creations, brilliant ideas, and amazing masterpieces of music and art are being produced by a very small percentage of intelligent people.

The human gene pool is about to dry up. Why? Because there are too many people in it. The human population is now so great that any mutation (for better or worse) has no chance of surviving in our gene pool long enough to affect all human beings. All of our good genes are being soiled by inferior genes before anyone even notices they exist. And even if a mutation did have a chance of success (and believe me, the odds are infinitesimal) it would take thousands upon thousands of years to affect all of humanity! We'd have seperate sub-species of humans by that time...

There are few factors of natural selection left for humans due to modern medicine and welfare programs... "Inferior" human specimens live and reproduce every day, where in the natural world they would have died off already, rooting out the weak branches of our species and leaving plenty of room for improvement.

The end of the Mayan calendar is 2012. Some interpret this as the doom of everything. However, the Mayans supposedly saw this simply as the end of a cycle, and believed that humankind has been through several cycles already. Is it possible that 2012 is going to be the great equalizer that our species needs?

It's just a thought, but what if aliens are preparing for a mass weeding of the human species? Marking those they've decided to keep (or not keep) with implants? Taking samples of our DNA? Or maybe they don't plan on keeping any of us...

This is how I see it happening:

1) Mass collection of "good" human DNA.
2) "Defragmenting" (for lack of a better term) of our DNA.
3) Complete genocide of the human race.
4) Repopulation of the human race via "good" DNA (clones, test tube babies?, etc.).
5) Aliens act as mentors for the first few generations of the next cycle.
6) Aliens leave new generation to themselves for a while, leaving behind a legacy of legends, myths, and stories of ancient "gods."

If this is the case, it is doubtful that any of us will be chosen to stay alive for the next cycle...

[edit on 14-1-2006 by CloudlessKnight]

What do u think the holy grail is about?
bloodline as been the most sacred source of all mankind, look at the royal families of the world, all they've done is try to conserve there bloodline and the holy grail,
Lady diana was picked becouse of her good DNA,
and now they want to know your DNA,
your assumsions are allready in use.

Human evolution is on the brink of the next step,
when the North becomes the South then it will begin.

all the best... ian

I'd say you're very close cloudless... but at the same time, very far away. A good thought indeed... but improve on it

I wanted to post a paragraph from an article on Evolution at Wikipedia.org.

From Wikipedia

Many aspects of genetic drift depend on the size of the population (generally abbreviated as N). This is especially important in small mating populations, where chance fluctuations from generation to generation can be large. The relative importance of natural selection and genetic drift in determining the fate of new mutations also depends on the population size and the strength of selection: when N times s (population size times strength of selection) is small, genetic drift predominates. When N times s is large, selection predominates. Thus, natural selection is 'more efficient' in large populations, or equivalently, genetic drift is stronger in small populations. Finally, the time for an allele to become fixed in the population by genetic drift (that is, for all individuals in the population to carry that allele) depends on population size, with smaller populations requiring a shorter time to fixation.

Here's the full article:

en.wikipedia.org...

I hope this helps a little to explain the point that I'm trying to make, since I talked to a few people about this and they seemed a little confused. I recommend reading these sections, if not the entire page: Gene Flow, Population Structure, Drift, and Natural Selection.

Now, if a large population is to evolve as a whole, then there need to be factors of natural selection. In the case of humans, we have an extremely large population for our species, and thus an almost inconceivably large amount of genetic variation (far more than necessary). So to help in our evolution, we would need to have extremely large factors of natural selection. That's not to say that we are completely void of these factors, just that they are too insignificant to affect our population as a whole. Nothing short of large scale natural disasters all over the world would be that significant.

That's where I think the aliens come in. Assume for a moment that we are a part of some sort of breeding program... for whatever purpose. Now apply to humans what we already apply to the animals and plants that we breed for ourselves. Doesn't it make sense for the breeder to get rid of undesirable traits, and keep the desirable ones?