Has Evolution Stopped?

I watched a program the other night that triggered a thought. One of those thoughts that get deeper and deeper and you end up getting so caught up in the thought that you scare yourself.

In the program it was suggested that we have now no need to evolve as a species. I dont mean evolve in the spiritual sense or even the cultural sense. What i mean is the physical evolution.

At the start of time we were just cells and we have slowly changed and mutated to suit the needs of the enviroment until what we are today. In the past we changed because we had to in order to survive. We did not always walk fully upright but we did because this made us better hunters than the other similar species. This was around 4million years ago. Although we could now walk upright our brains were still only 1/3 of the size they are now. Theres a theory that goes around that as modern humans we only use 10% of our brains, was this the same back then?

I know evolution is something that happens over many many years in fact millions of years and this is maybe why i have the thought it has stopped considering my life span isnt even a grain of sand in this time. But i really do think it has stopped.

Think about it...... In the past we changed to suit the enviroment or adapted depending on the resources. Now if we WE need to change then it is enviroment we change and if we need to use a resource we dont adapt ourselves we adapt a peice of machinary or computer to get us the resource. We no longer have the need to hunt we have farms. Technology has stopped the need for evolution.

Im not saying that we wont evolve intelligently but physically as a whole species we are going no where.

Im not too sure if this is suitable for this forum or if anyone else has this veiw, but i would be grateful for some replies with your own opinions.

p.s Im new to posting but have been reading for a long time and love the site

we cannot have stopped evolving due to the fact that we haven't even gone really into outaspace yet. evolution is meant to be about adapting to our surroundings, so what happesn if we go out there.

also i have heard sometimes that alot about us says that we are not naturally meant to live like we do on this planet.

one never knows how we are going to evolve, but we can guess about getting rid of the bad parts of the human species, and coming up with a better alternative.

it also depends if we are here just us and god, or we are here under some other group like the matrix depicts. is the future upto us, or will some group stop us evolving becuase we are just here to do what we are doing right now.

Evolution indeed has not stopped. It is an ongoing, although a glacialy slow process, and as long as there are any living creatures with a DNA sequence, evolution will continue.
Many Futurists have theorized just what the human race (if it can be called that) will look like in the next couple of million years. A interactive link below shows what many have predicted.
Future Humans
Here is another link that gives many scenarios of what our future will be like.

Future Human Evolution using the Scientific Method

We as a race are changing our environment with polutants which are now part of our chemical makeup. This is an adaption to our environment. Examples are that we now have low levels of DDT, mercury as well as many other heavy metals that are now part of us. Just two or three generations ago this was not the case.

I will also add my voice to andy1033's addition of the outerspace angle.

if anyone is into history... not the old and very innacessable, say the times from 200 ad to 100 AD the signs of evolution are ther. Just visit any reconstruction or preserved housing from these times, obviously no good in the US as the native indians moved house much, and the tribes who did build permanent structures had then torn down, but anywhere in europe.

You will find one thing as a human visiting these places, you have to duck to enter the rooms and most people are too tall to stand up in them. The beds are also a lot shorter than todays. The reason, well obviously, humans are evolving and getting taller, well certainly this has been proved and that selection has meant that today the average adult is a good 1-3 foot taller than his only just 30 generations ago forefathers.

evolution does not exist some say. Evolution is it stopping etc... its here always will be and is soo observable that its almost waving a flag saying hi! im here.

regards Elf

Originally posted by MischeviousElf
if anyone is into history... not the old and very innacessable, say the times from 200 ad to 100 AD the signs of evolution are ther. Just visit any reconstruction or preserved housing from these times, obviously no good in the US as the native indians moved house much, and the tribes who did build permanent structures had then torn down, but anywhere in europe.

You will find one thing as a human visiting these places, you have to duck to enter the rooms and most people are too tall to stand up in them. The beds are also a lot shorter than todays. The reason, well obviously, humans are evolving and getting taller, well certainly this has been proved and that selection has meant that today the average adult is a good 1-3 foot taller than his only just 30 generations ago forefathers.

evolution does not exist some say. Evolution is it stopping etc... its here always will be and is soo observable that its almost waving a flag saying hi! im here.

regards Elf

That would be attributeable to diet, rather than evolution. You would find that genetically, there would be nothing that would cause them to be shorter than us, unless they were pygmies, of course

Originally posted by at_risk
In the program it was suggested that we have now no need to evolve as a species. I dont mean evolve in the spiritual sense or even the cultural sense. What i mean is the physical evolution.

Each new-born individual possesses about 100 mutations, evolution is still happening.

Whether someone thinks we need to evolve is neither here nor there. Biology and chemistry still takes place.

Theres a theory that goes around that as modern humans we only use 10% of our brains, was this the same back then?

It's not even true now. The 10% idea has no source in science, its not true.

I know evolution is something that happens over many many years in fact millions of years and this is maybe why i have the thought it has stopped considering my life span isnt even a grain of sand in this time. But i really do think it has stopped.

There has been evidence of recent evolution in homo sapiens. One recent mutation protects individuals in an italian family from high cholesterol and is leading to new medicines (see origins & creationism forum - human evolution thread).

We have not stop evolving . . .

Just look at all the new diseases that are coming out and see that is also people that have natural immunity to it.

The only reason that some people are lucky and can fight some of these diseases naturally against new viruses, bacteria has to come with their bodies evolving to stand them, while others just will succumb to them.

Just proves that the fittest or evolved can survived the changing environment.

it is true that creatures adapt to their surroundings as is present in natural adaptability syndrome, and due to the ever-changing nature of our environment we will continue to adapt. for instance the average global i.q. increases about 2 points every five or six years... we are getting smarter and as a result we have dramatically increased cranial size.

oh and about that comment on 10% of the brain it is not precisly accurate we use pretty much our entire brain, just not all at the same time... giving the illusion of neglected ability.

Stumason,
I thought the same for many years however some evidense is emerging that it is factor of evolution

Mean adult height is an indicator of very long-term (centuries) socioeconomic and nutritional trends in homogeneous populations. At the same time, changes in height have also been shown to be an indicator of long-term (generations) living conditions in homogeneous populations, and thus, a good complement to the usual anthropometric indicators of the medium--and short-term changes. Existing data on rural Bolivia confirm that there has been no significant improvement in health, sanitation and, especially, nutritional conditions in the Aymara and Quechua regions since Bolivia's independence (1825), and that living conditions have rather deteriorated in Amazonia (Beni). From a comparison of generational changes in height it is inferred that during the last several decades, and that conditions have probably worsened for the Quechua population environmental conditions appear to have remained the same for the Aymara population. On the other hand, some recovery in the Amazonia and improvement in the Chaco populations are apparent

PubMed

The taller ones who at the time would have had what could be described as a "faulty" gene would have proepered and mated more , therefore evolution shows that it is now becoming the norm.

Regards

Elf

as far as proving evolution it does not take much, if anyone would like to explain to me changes seen in the japenese waterfall fish that live only in two caves, or the similair crab thats eyes have disapeared, though these caves were only created in the last 100,000 years or so, its all staring us in the face (unless you sit in a cave for long enough then maybe your great great gerat great grandchildren squaered :-) would be abe to smell it!)

regards

Elf

It is true that we have stopped evolving due to the fact the poste mentioned. However, I do believe in the future we will begin to control our own evolution as genetic technology advances.

[edit on 23-1-2007 by NegativeBeef]