Is human evolution over?

Answer 1

no- evolution is still occurring in all species, but it takes several generations to see tangible effects. you or i won't see any dramatic changes in our lifetime.

Answer 2

A very interesting question.
The quick and easy answer to the question is that it's not. Random mutations are still occuring in the human genome and some of them are being propagated with a higher frequency than others.
But to get to a more central point of the question, does the pressure of natural selection fall on humans anymore? I would argue that the pressure is only there in extreme cases, that the only traits being weeded out are the severely negative or lethal ones. Our decision making process for mate selection is much, much more complex than any other animal's, and it doesn't revolve as much around genetic traits as it does around many other socioeconomic factors. Sure, there are some genetic factors, lean people are in general considered to be more attractive then fat people. But do those lean people actually reproduce more? Statistics say no, that we are actually getting fatter. This might have more to do with lifestyles then genetics, but it's still food for thought. Between our ability to travel great distances and create a huge and diverse gene pool and our efforts to stamp out natural selection, I would have to say that while we are still evolving, we are evolving in a more random and slower fashion.

Of course, "society" has only been really influential for a few millenia, which is, evolutionarily speaking, a blink of an eye, so most of this debate isn't very significant at this point.

Answer 3

Many people feel that civilisation prevents evolution from happening because a civilised society will allow a disabled person to live and have children just as easily as an able-bodied person, so random variations don't give any breeding advantage.

I don't believe that - there are loads of things that could make one human have more children than another, and this will then be passed on. So I say that human evolution has not finished.

Answer 4

No. remember that evolution is not teleological. there is no ladder of improvement that evolution climbs. It is about genetic change and the influence of natural selection, genetic drift, etc. on genetic changes. Each time humans reproduce there are some 180 nucleobase transcription errors (out of 3 billion nucelobase sequences).

Already we are starting to use genetic screening for some heritable diseases. In the near future we will have the ability to effect large scale changes in our genome, something that will make the current debate over stem cell research look insignificant.

Answer 5

no. evolution is a process that changes things. it has a direction but not a goal.

Answer 6

Only if we kill oursevles off with war or ever-increasing pollution which causes global warming and probably eventually unbreathable air.

Answer 7

Yes, there is nothing that kills the less capable.

Answer 8

hello the x-men!!!!!