a question for atheist or evolutionist?

Question

what do you believe the next stage of human evolution will be?

yo gary:
just because i ask a question to a specific group it does not make me one of themyou need to learn that assumptions are the mother of all screw ups.

i am not asking for an answer that will tell me what will really happen i am asking what you think. thats all

and yet born again:
christians like yourself have never been able to prove that god exsist.
and just saying because i believe does not make it true.

Answer 1

It is difficult to predict the future. The real question is how far has Man slipped Natural Selection? Are we capable of steering our own destiny, or will the smaller forces we tend to ignore guiding our future? Will our evolution be technical -- those that aren't good with computers lose out over time? Will we fail under the burden of those who can only exist by means of the social safety nets created in the 20th Century? Will one group ever branch off as a new species? Will we colonize space, and then find that "Martians" have drifted down a separate path?

I would like to believe that our intellect will guide or evolution and that while our form changes only subtly (slight increases in cranial volume with increased internal complexity) as we shake off our millions of years of outdated instincts that lead to many of our self-inflicted woes. In this form, Earth can become a paradise.

My two greatest fears are that our technology outgrows our wisdom and we bring about our end, or that out increasing reliance on technology outraces our humanity and we become the Borg.

Answer 2

Evolution does not go by stages. Changes come about so gradually that the difference of a few hundred years isn't even noticeable. There is no next stage.
Changes are taking place even now but we can't say it's the result of evolution. In general, boys are taller than their fathers. Is this the result of evolution or just better nutrition ?
Lifestyle is another factor in change. A hundred years ago kids were worked almost to death on family farms or coal mines. Now it's next to impossible to get them away from the TV.

Answer 3

I'd like to say that, as we switch to a more technological world, our minds will improve naturally and the brain will be far more important than the body. Problem is, I don't see evolution going to anything "good" right now...and what I'm about to say will probably make some people angry, and I don't mean to offend, but it's the truth. First off, modern technology has ensured that many people who would not, by laws of natural selection, made it two hundred years ago are alive and having children today. I'm not saying this is bad, I'm just saying that for evolution, it's not good. Secondly, the people who are choosing not to have children are usually well-educated and successful, and pulling themselves voluntarily out of the gene pool. Again, I'm not saying you're dumb if you have kids, but many people with jobs requiring high levels of intelligence just don't have time for kids.

Answer 4

I think that humans have stopped evolving, as the forces that guide evolution no longer affect us. Survival is no longer really an issue for us; those that were never meant to survive do, through modern medicine.

Natural selection doesn't favor those more suited for procreation of the species; it usually favors the wealthy. But it still doesn't stop every couple that wants to from having way too many kids on an already overpopulated planet.

If anything though, we've apparently gotten taller (at least in the last 2000 years). Sadly intelligence doesn't go along with this as much; those that are intelligent often choose not to have children, and being intelligent isn't seen as a very 'sexy' trait.

Answer 5

Evolution doesn't really come in "stages": it's much more continuous than that. I think that people will continue to increase in height and weight, probably, and other than that, I don't think that we can say much. Too much depends upon changes to the environment.

If we DO have drastic climatic changes then the direction of evolution in the near future will be dictated by those changes. That might mean _decreases_ in weight, as extra body fat is selected against.

Answer 6

Actually, the Flynn effect shows that the child of two intelligent people will probably have a lower IQ than its parents, and the child of two people with below-average IQs will have a higher IQ than its parents. People gravitate toward the mean.

Answer 7

A few hundred years after human populations relocate to orbital or deep-space habitat, spending their whole lives in zero-G, evolution will favor a beachball shaped body with spindly limbs and a muscular, articulating, tube-shaped fundamental orifice. They will mainly subsist on a diet of cabbage, peas and beer, and propel themselves about their habitats via controlled flatulence. Sense of smell may become atrophied, accordingly.

Answer 8

For me, death
For the rest of humanity, better formed bodies. Thicker disks in the back. More efficient vein system. Our eyes will focus more on slightly different bands in the color spectrum than what we do now. More complex neurological system. But there will still be a$sholes.

Answer 9

It's unpredictable... That is of course assuming that we fix the problems of global warming etc. before it leads to our extinction...

By the way, there is no religion based on the teachings of Charles Darwin, there is no such thing as an "Evolutionist"

Answer 10

who knows? it will come from some mutation that proves adaptive to situations that arise. if we don't get wiped out by a meteor like the dinos.