Because we evolve our environment to fit our needs, will we ourselves stop to evolve?

Question

We are the only animal (at least so extremely) that changes our environment to fit our needs. Is this continuous process capable of stinting our evolutional growth?

good point guitar guy. Maybe the evolution has moved to our brains instead of being physical. The environment poses new threats and changes, we come up with new ideas...

All of these answers provide a great perspective - I can't choose...

Answer 1

We suggest, that it is a misnomer to state: . Further, to reason that this fallacy--the process by which a false English argument is proved to be true, . The question is based upon a false analogy and the fallacy of the antecedent. A concrete example is driving a car--hence burning gasoline--hence creating greenhouse effect, burning up the ozone and global warming certainly does not .
The question is based upon a false analogy and the fallacy of the antecedent by the statement which reasons:
Cesar is dead. Therefore Cesar committeded suicide.
Cesar is in point of fact dead.
However, as a matter of historical fact, he did not committ suicide. Cesar was murdered.

Answer 2

Actually, our ability to think and solve problems is a result of evolution. That ability is what set us apart from our primal ancestors and has allowed us to thrive. So as we get smarter and smarter we are evolving to better compete against our natural competitors. Some animals grow bigger beaks, others get faster or gain a resistance to poison, we got intellegence! Only time will tell if we are destined for success though. In reality, we are a relatively young species. Modern humans are only a few thousand years old. The dinosaurs lived for millions of years. We'll see if your intellegence can keep us around for that long before it destroys our civilization first.

Answer 3

You are thinking too "locally". Worldwide, people are dying at a young age from preventable diseases, so in a vast majority of the population, evolutionary selective pressures are still in place.
Advances in medicine which allow us to live longer, or indeed, any help we get after we have children, has no effect on evolution, as our genetic material has already been passed on. That is, only medicine which helps children who would otherwise not have survive to adulthood should be considered as helpful. Treatment for heart disease is, in the vast majority of cases, involves people who have already had children, or are past child bearing age.

The environment has, in fact, probably changed to increase the selective pressure. An increase in background radiation, caused by higher use of electricity etc, has been associated with an increase in childhood cancers and leukaemia (eg living under power lines etc) and a breakdown of the ozone layer has allowed a higher level of harmful UV radiation to hit the Earth, and us. Anyone who is resistant to such radiation damage has an increased chance of surviving to adulthood and having offspring. So the resistance to radiation may well be one of our next stages of evolutionary change.

Answer 4

yes we do but until we can figure a way to stop the sun from changing or the tectonic plates and continental drift from occuring the evironment will always be everchanging and thus we will need to adapt and the evolution will always be an ever occuring thing as long as the human race is alive in the distant future...

This doesn't include if the human race eventually colonizes space...we may change the environment to fit our needs but not enough to stop evolution

Answer 5

Anytime you manipulate the environment to suit your needs, you make life easier. And when you make life easier, you make it so you don't have to try or work so hard. And when that happens, evolution slows and eventually stops. There is a word in Biology for it, but I've forgotten what it is.
That's not really yhe question anymore for human beings. The real question is can the environment stand our manipulation of it much longer.

Answer 6

I think that you are correct. Already we have lots of people alive who would not have been. If you have a problem that would have killed you in the old days, there is technology to keep you going. So a faulty heart valve, losing a leg, having a congenital brain problem, even being deaf or blind and so being unable to hunt woolly mammoths will not kill you these days.

Evolution doesn't work the same way if the weakest aren't removed.

Answer 7

The environment is constantly changing, so there is no way of it staying the same, and consequently there is no way that us the human can stop evolving.

evolution is a never ending process, started when life began will NEVER end!