Given climate change, living patterns, eating trends, etc., what will humans look like 5000 years from now?

Question

It's been suggested that people will become more isolated from the natural environment and soon eat more processed foods to compensate for depleted ecosystems.

Answer 1

This is an awesome question. I'll explain a bit but need some setup.

Your question presumes we survive. If we make that happy asumption and (importantly) don't destroy our technical capabilities then it's likely we will colonize the solar system. If we do then things get interesting because almost inevitably we will eventually make starships to go to other stars then you'll have people looking all sorts of differently. Barring some really tragic events and the rate of technology our first starship could leave within the next 100 years or so.

But it's important to understand that we actually wouldn't look too much different from ourselves than what people looked like 5000 years ago - they were almost a foot shorter (on average) and perhaps a bit hairier and perhaps we would consider them a couple of points low on the IQ scale.


Naturally speaking - if we didn't actively mess with our genome too much we would look perhaps a bit more "childlike" than we currently do. This has been going on for some time now. People will probably be at least a few inches taller on average and better adapted to sedentary lifestyles. Additionally we will be more symmetrical - one of the more subtle traits is good symmetry of individuals - symmetrical individuals have more partners, generally more kids, etc. We'll be smarter - smarter since using technology over time will allow us to enhance our learning capabilities - again without genetics - think learning machines (Brainstorm, the Matrix).

The Rough Ride to Middle Earth - Lets' assume the worst - but that we still survive - after some plague or war there will be winners and losers. It's possible the planet is so damaged that while humanity survives we're not able to redevelop our technologies and leave the Earth. We're not dead just yet we're just not living among the stars, things would be bad, technologies scarce.

This would be something like a permanent middle-age - where society reverts to a "tree and water" driven economy - think Lord of the Rings. In theory, if a meteor or giant volcano or something didn't wipe us out we could live more or less in a “low-energy” way like this indefinitely as long as the planet's environment permits agriculture. Knowledge would reduce to what was needed and not much more. The average person would look a lot more like the average person in 1500 or so, probably shorter , a bit stronger.

But it's unlikely once we know how to manipulate our genome more effectively that we will not take advantage of that. So you will have a whole new set of families in the Homo Sapiens.




H. Sapiens - Machina - Think a cross between the bulk of humanity in pods in the Matrix and/or the Borg from Star Trek. If environmental conditions degrade significantly, large superstructures (arcologies) will have to be built to house people.

At the very least, population control in these arcologies could be an issue prompting the popular choice to live all or most of their lives in a high-quality virtual reality "Matrix like" conditions.

H. Sapiens - Aquatica - Mermaids / Mermen - Humans adapted with gills or gill/lung hybrids, the eyes would be adapted to be better at low-light environments.

H. Sapiens - Astros - Space Adapted Men - Developing some sort of chitinous exoskeleton , selecting for 4 arms instead of 2 arms & 2 legs - it sounds bizarre but it could be quite handy in a zero-g environment.

H. Superior - It's likely we will develop something like humans 2.0 where the immune system works better, individuals are stronger, smarter etc.

Depending on how machine intelligence develops you could have a couple of possibilities.

1. A matrix type scenario - where some/all of mankind is enslaved into something like the "Matrix".

2. A benevolent supermind - it's also possible that machines vastly smarter than us with nearly Godlike capabilities could keep humans around (like pets) and choose to do so in nearly paradise form. http://www.orionsarm.com.

3. Paging Dr. Moreau - It's possible there will be multiple sub-families of mankind based on genetic enhancements of animals or human-animal hybrids (http://www.orionsarm.com), so "people" might be anything from Squid-men to Parrot-people.

Offworlders

Low Gravity Worlds - These folks would be TALL , +6 feet or more every one of them depending on the level of gravity but they would be weaklings - unable to lift what we would consider heavy objects without weight-training and very easily able to break bones which could be elongated and less strong, they would feel distinctly uncomfortable on Earth with standard gravity.

High-Gravity Worlds - These folks would be stocky if not short, and seriously strong - 1-3 times as strong as a regular person , higher bone density would mean they would weigh more on earth than a standard person.

Answer 2

I think people *already* are more isolated from the natural environment and eat more processed food than ever before! But as for what we'll look like in 5000 years: I think that's impossible to tell, because it's impossible to predict what trends will continue for that amount of time and how bodies will react. Hopefully people can develop a better relationship with their environment before then, where we eat healthier and develop cleaner technologies that prevent excessive warming.

Answer 3

Climate change will result in some massive changes to humans. If the Greenland icecap melts, the sea will rise enough to flood many of the world's major cities, and cause a lot of calamities including famine. But more likely we'll see a major volcanic eruption causing another year without a summer, as happened in the 1800's and so many people starved. Or we may have a monstrous earthquake that causes significant landmass change--we have been lucky so far.

Answer 4

Because we will be living on another planet, probably mars due to climate change and stuff we will lose our muscle mass and due to the lack of gravity we will become really tall.

Answer 5

Dead from some asteroid impact or nucleur holocaust

Answer 6

Fat and tanned.