Is evolution speeding up on this planet??

Heres an idea which has occupied my thoughts for a while now.

Our understanding of the evolutionary process is far from comprehensive as i'm sure you'll agree. Recently, chimpanzes have been observed exhibiting behavoir which has not been seen before, ie. the making and using of spears and using caves as shelter from the sun.

articles pertaining to this:

news.bbc.co.uk...

www.livescience.com...

Could this new behavoir be an example of an acceleration in the evolutionary process affecting chimpanzes? If this is true then, is this true across the whole spectrum of life on the planet including us and what is causing it?

At this point, i'd like to re-affirm that this is merely an idea so hear me out.

Assuming that the above is true, one would would have to ask 'why' this would be happening.

now, What if this is the action of a combined global conciousness in reaction to some kind of threat facing life on earth recently.
Let me re-phrase that:
maybe there is a global conciousness which is trying to increase the chance of survival of life on the planet in the face of some kind of danger.

If you assume that all life on the planet contributes to the 'knowledge' of this global conciousness, it would be safe to also assume that humans give the biggest contribution due to the complexities of our cognative faculties.
Is is not then, safe to assume that the recent and widespread knowledge and fear of climate change, terrorism, instability in many regions and the loss of faith in governments to be acting in the best intrests of the people, could have an impact on this process?

Maybe, life is doing its best to overcome the impending danger which it 'feels' (for lack of a better word) is threatening it, and one thing which it can influence is evolution, so it accelerates.
Maybe human evolution is speeding up too, giving us a rise in the cases of anomolous cognition.

en.wikipedia.org...

Alright, I think thats about it, feel free to rip this apart if i'm being a dumbass, and I realise that I have conviniently avoided the mechanisms through which evolution normally takes place but like I said, this is just an idea.

any thoughts?

I don't think evolution has a given rate of speed. But I suppose certain factors can speed up or slow it down, even our actions as humans may in effect cause rapid evolution for a species to keep up.

Unless creatures are reproducing and getting killed faster, they aren't evolving any quicker.

As for humans, they've been de-volving for the last two hundred years or so; now that we can keep the weakest and stupidest alive with our advanced medicine, technology, and the overbearing protections of our society, they're free to outbreed the intelligent.

This is EXTREMELY dangerous: with each successive generation, the median intelligence of the Human race is dropping. Within a few more dozen generations the planet will be completely overrun with fat, slobbering morons that are incapable of thinking beyond themselves for long enough to want to change the world for the better.

Depressing, right? So don't buy an SUV or watch too much television... Humanity needs your help!

I don't think so really, my dog seeks shelter in the heat, it's not evolution, just instinct.

The thing with monkeys is fascinating, but we know very little about the natural world as a whole and it's no surprise that there are creatures that use tools. These critters were using tools way before we ever found them, before the threat of global war, climate change and the like.

Therefore, I can quite confidently say that no quickened evolution is happening within the animal kingdom, or within our own populace.

Originally posted by The Parallelogram


As for humans, they've been de-volving for the last two hundred years or so; now that we can keep the weakest and stupidest alive with our advanced medicine, technology, and the overbearing protections of our society, they're free to outbreed the intelligent.

Isn't that the truth. A man once said "there are too many dumb people, and not enough people to eat them"

Well if evolution is driven by evironmental cues (I think that's the general consensus; works for me) then civilization's reforming/affecting the biosphere could be resulting in a hyper-speciation of sorts.

As, The Parallelogram points out above, civilized man can 'side-step' these factors now whereas the rest of the animal/plant kingdom is at their mercy. I'm not all that hip to (read: knowledgeable of) the idea of a global consciousness and how that may effect evolution tho... :shrug:


Here's a couple links I've had stuck in a folder you may want to read:


Naturally Occurring Chemicals and Environmental Cues and Current Application

Abstract

There is a war going on in the biotic environment around us. The constant fight for survival between plants and herbivores have produced many highly specialized defense and attack strategies. This review will describe in some detail some of these interactions the have led to the chemical and biological warfare between plants and their enemies.

And:




Good topic (with any luck you'll get some feedback from some of our resident experts)


Regards,
-Rren