Interesting evolution article.

I just read an interesting article and wanted to share it with you guys.

news.nationalgeographic.com...

pertaining to evolution and where we are going.

Wow cool article!

I definitely think humans will continue to evolve.... not just physically though.

Everything about who we are comes from nature, including consciousness and the mind. To say evolution is limited to physicality is foolish... with the world becoming more and more about information and communication, I wouldn't be surprised at all if in the near future we see more and more humans developping faster, more efficient ways of natural communication. With the way we are so connected, I also wouldn't be surprised if we took an evolutionary leap as a whole species at the same time.

We haven't even come close to understanding the true functions and capability of nature- scientists still don't know what over half of our DNA is used for!

Unfortunately, I doubt in any of our life time, neither "electronic immortality" or space colonisation with be available, having said that, by the time we're old men maybe we'll be able to replace most of our organs with synthetic ones.

Haha the writer is having a bad day..

Natural selection, as outlined in On the Origin of Species, occurs when a genetic mutation—say, resulting in a spine suited to upright walking—is passed down through generations, because it affords some benefit.

That's just ridiculous. As if there are two kinds of spines: ones suited to upright walking and ones that aren't. The above should say

"..resulting in a spine better suited to upright walking.."

Originally posted by Monts
Wow cool article!

I definitely think humans will continue to evolve.... not just physically though.

Everything about who we are comes from nature, including consciousness and the mind. To say evolution is limited to physicality is foolish... with the world becoming more and more about information and communication, I wouldn't be surprised at all if in the near future we see more and more humans developping faster, more efficient ways of natural communication. With the way we are so connected, I also wouldn't be surprised if we took an evolutionary leap as a whole species at the same time.

We haven't even come close to understanding the true functions and capability of nature- scientists still don't know what over half of our DNA is used for!

Ahhh. Woo-woo, the province of people who want to talk about science but don't want people to think they're a damn dirty atheist

The mind is physical. Every thought you have, every motion you take, every bond you break, I'll be watching you - Er, I mean, every thought and motion your brain fires off is the result of a series of chemicals triggering electronic impulses through your nerve cells. These chemicals are primarily produced by your own body. Further the amount of these nerves is determined by the shape, density, and other physical aspects of your brain.

All of this is physical, it's all biological, and it's all genetic.

Your "consciousness" is the result of your endocrine system telling your nervous system, "oh, SNAP!"

If this argument by TheWalkingFox is just a product of chemical reactions in his brain then we have no reason to believe it is true.

Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
The mind is physical. Every thought you have, every motion you take, every bond you break, I'll be watching you - Er, I mean, every thought and motion your brain fires off is the result of a series of chemicals triggering electronic impulses through your nerve cells. These chemicals are primarily produced by your own body. Further the amount of these nerves is determined by the shape, density, and other physical aspects of your brain.

All of this is physical, it's all biological, and it's all genetic.

Your "consciousness" is the result of your endocrine system telling your nervous system, "oh, SNAP!"

Human thought and behavior is not reducible to simple physicalist terms in this trite manner. For if it is true it ultimately leads to physical determinism, which entails not only the denial of moral responsibility but also the denial of human rationality. Thus it is quite a self defeating position.

The evidence points to the fact that we are much more than physical. So a better description is that your immaterial mind makes a decision which then triggers a biochemical response triggering electronic impulses through your nerve cells.

Of course our physicality affects our immaterial mind but it is very clear that we have a thought life (dreams for example) that is not bound to the material.

Sure this issue is debated heavily in science and philosophy but the vast majority of scholars favor some form of dualism or at least emergentism, but this mind-body identity position you advocate is on the lunatic fringe can not explain human choice or rationality - in fact it completely undermines reason entirely.

For those in the know...

Job 32:7-8

I said, 'Let days speak,
and many years teach wisdom.'
But it is the spirit in man,
the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.

Originally posted by krax
Unfortunately, I doubt in any of our life time,

yes just what is so important about this Theory...

What is more important is teaching people how to come together and be non racially biased, Darwin was very racial and it was reflected in his writings.

I believe this to be somewhat a conspiracy too the way it is being used by some in present and in history to preach a doctrine of its own, a false doctrine at any rate because of the misuse and bad teaching of the subject.

there are alot of people who believe in Evolution (I being one of them) but I believe conscience life was created first and that humans are special... we should all show respect to one another but Evolution does not teach this and I have very recent evidence of this from my experience on ATS since I have been here.

Originally posted by Bigwhammy
If this argument by TheWalkingFox is just a product of chemical reactions in his brain then we have no reason to believe it is true.

It's only untrue if your version of truth involves believing things that are not factual and supported by evidence. Yup, what you read is the product of a complex variety of chemicals and electrical impulses. This is actually demonstrable. Might I direct you to the Neuroscience department?

Human thought and behavior is not reducible to simple physicalist terms in this trite manner. For if it is true it ultimately leads to physical determinism, which entails not only the denial of moral responsibility but also the denial of human rationality. Thus it is quite a self defeating position.

Unfortunately for your argument, it IS absolutely physical. I'm not sure why you feel this impacts morality. Morality is a social survival reaction. Basically we've learned that X behavior is rewarded in our society, while Y behavior is punished in our society, and we will thus generally act in accordance with X, unless we get the notion that acting according to Y will benefit us more.

Thus do even the most moral people succumb to sin, now and again

"Rationality," however, is pretty much a myth. It's an effort to pretend we're some special creature, aloof and separate from the world around us. This is pretty much false, and you can see the failure of rationality as a concept in the fact that most people behave VERY irrationally most of the time.

The evidence points to the fact that we are much more than physical. So a better description is that your immaterial mind makes a decision which then triggers a biochemical response triggering electronic impulses through your nerve cells.

What evidence is this?

Did you know that when you move your hand, your hand is moving before you even think about it? Basically your hand starts to move, and communicates its decision to move to your brain, which either allows the move to happen, or sends an impulse to alter or cease movement.

Welcome to instinct and the reptile brain.

Of course our physicality affects our immaterial mind but it is very clear that we have a thought life (dreams for example) that is not bound to the material.

Again, dreams are simply synapses firing. They are, for practical purposes, our brains filing recent memories, occasionally triggering older memories, and doing do without the usual "filter" routines that we utilized while awake. I'm afraid I can't explain it very well, but there IS plenty of research on the subject of dreams, and yes, they are biological.

Sure this issue is debated heavily in science and philosophy but the vast majority of scholars favor some form of dualism or at least emergentism, but this mind-body identity position you advocate is on the lunatic fringe can not explain human choice or rationality - in fact it completely undermines reason entirely.

Which scholars? Who? In what fields?

Hate to tell you, but philosophy is pretty much what happens when people who don't understand how the world works try to advertise their own ignorance. Often it involves an absolute refusal to accept the facts of reality, instead coming up with a far more convoluted and bass-ackwards scheme that makes the philosopher feel comfortable and special.

Human choice is easy to explain. At the most basic, we act according to what we believe will most benefit us. This is complicated by measures of risk and return, which are in turn formed by prior experience and education. For instance, a suicide bomber. Take some random fellow off the street and ask if he wants to die in an explosion along with a dozen other people, and he's pretty much bound to say no. However if he's been convinced that those dozen other people are a dire threat to his own family? Or if he's been taught that performing this act will actually lead to an eternity of comfort and pleasure?

"Reason" is simply making judgments based on the evidence at hand, another example of our head-meats giving a cost / benefit analysis. The evidence is that tomatoes are edible, so if I were to start claiming they were not, not only would I have to not eat tomatoes (which are yummy and nutritious,) but the rest of my society will think worse of me.

For those in the know...

Job 32:7-8

I said, 'Let days speak,
and many years teach wisdom.'
But it is the spirit in man,
the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.

I personally would not look for scientific knowledge in a book that insists plants existed before the sun, that clouds are dust from a sky-dwelling man's feet, and that otters are a sort of fish.

Originally posted by Cosmic.Artifact
yes just what is so important about this Theory...

What is more important is teaching people how to come together and be non racially biased, Darwin was very racial and it was reflected in his writings.

Do you have any quotes to back this up, or are you just going to keep saying this over and over again in every thread?

Originally posted by Cosmic.Artifact
I believe this to be somewhat a conspiracy too the way it is being used by some in present and in history to preach a doctrine of its own, a false doctrine at any rate because of the misuse and bad teaching of the subject.

A false doctrine of what exactly?

Originally posted by Cosmic.Artifact
there are alot of people who believe in Evolution (I being one of them) but I believe conscience life was created first and that humans are special... we should all show respect to one another but Evolution does not teach this and I have very recent evidence of this from my experience on ATS since I have been here.

The Theory Evolution doesn't teach "respect to one another" because it's purely a scientific explanation of how the process of Evolution works. It's not a life philosophy, it's not a moral code, it's hard science.

Great article!

I think we still are evolving. The off world evolution is very interesting since gravity and surrounding do have an impact and if that colony were to have limited gene flow, and become isolated you would potentially get a new "species" or variation.

As for are local evolution Obviously its not going to be noticeable in our time, but I think it will disprove to all those pesky creationists, that we were not spontaneously created but we evolve.

Long Live Darwin!!