I always get kicked off YA for asking this, but I SWEAR I am serious: I've had a life long interest in evolutionary biology. My question is: If condoms were used by humans 100% of the time, would Homo Sapiens go extinct, or would evolution find a way around it???
If so, what might it be?
2007-08-30 18:11:10 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
Well, since condoms aren't 100% effective, obviously there is a way around it. If everyone were using them, the population would probably go down, sure. But total extinction? I think not.
2007-08-30 18:22:02 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Evolution works over thousands of generations so if condoms were used 100% of the time and were 100% effective, that would be the end of the human species in 50 or so years when all the living females became too old to give birth even without using condoms. That's not enough time for some super-powered sperm to evolve.
If this is really a serious question, and if you really want to know this kind of stuff, you need to read and learn something about evolution. Things happen via evolution over many generations - and by many, I mean 1000s, not 5 or so. Thus, bacteria and the like can evolve rapidly from our perspective because they can produce multiple generations while humans are having lunch.
You won't get kicked off YA if you do a little homework and convince people you really are interested and not spewing out creationist and ID myths.
2007-08-31 02:13:13 · answer #2 · answered by Joan H 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Welll getting at the meat of the question and assuming that you mean that condoms are used effectively 100% of the time, I would say homo sapiens would go extinct because an evolutionary solution to get around using condoms would not arise in a single generation.....
2007-08-30 19:34:10 · answer #3 · answered by BP 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Evolution has already kind of solved this little problem. Think about it. Do we mate like other animals during short periods of time? No. Humans discovered long ago that we can have sex during "special periods" where the female has a low risk of getting pregnant. So we can have sex for fun whitout the fuzz of having babies. So although we have sex all the time we don´t have babies in the right proportion. And our biological purpose is to have babies. Natures sollution? Make it even MORE fun to have sex. Then we would have sex EVEN MORE often... And to make sure let´s give the human males exceptionally long penises. Maby that would help the humans have more babies. So as we are getting better at preventing pregnancy sex will become more and more fun and important to us. So the condom problem is not a problem even if we did use them 100% of the time. They are not 100% proof. On occasion they break...
2007-08-30 18:33:13 · answer #4 · answered by DrAnders_pHd 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would be the inclination to postpone or forget or skip the condom ... it'd probably increase our abandonment of judgment that we already have a tendency to, at least a little bit, when it comes to sex.
I know someone who has had 3 abortions (and she hates it very much) because she and her lovers just can't bring themselves to take contraception seriously in the heat of the moment. That'd be the already-present variation which evolution would take and run with, IMO. It's not a realistic scenario that all humans would use a technology all of the time.
2007-08-30 18:42:40 · answer #5 · answered by zilmag 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This may actually be a pretty timely question:
Women who have other options are choosing not to have children, all over the world. When women are socially and economically equal, how many of them would choose to interrupt their earning and career advancement years to be nursemaids, losing ground to male competitors? And why would they marry, considering the poor outcome rate of marriages? Birth control *is* nearly perfect for those women who want it...
Maybe itty bitty sperm to get through ever smaller holes in condoms. Frozen condoms get micropores from ice crystals, and some condoms will always freeze...
Rubber eating enzymes? and antibodies that bind spermicide?
A preference for condom stressing behaviors?
Ridiculous volumes of sperm difficult to contain in a condom that will stay on?
A total lack of vaginal lubrication?
We would all descend from rapists?
Everyone would consciously concieve, out of catalogues?
Replacement societal units would be manufactured?
Let's say every woman is on the pill... maybe semen would come with a load of hormones to induce ovulation.
2007-08-30 20:16:43 · answer #6 · answered by Gina C 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, some condoms would break and some would have small holes or tears that semen would leak through. Condoms are not a fool proof form of birth control..nothing is 100% effective. Yes, birth rates would greatly decrease but there would still be some pregnancies.
2007-08-30 19:00:22 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would probably take many generations of selection but whatever makes them come off or break would be favored. Perhaps the women have something to do with the cause.
Small size might slip off? Just a suspicion. Probably not a favorable direction for evolution.
2007-08-30 18:49:24 · answer #8 · answered by bravozulu 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, I think if humans used condoms 100% of the time, then we would go extinct.
2007-08-30 18:19:05 · answer #9 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It would be sort of a "natural selection" for those humans who were near a defective condom factory.
2007-08-30 18:32:57 · answer #10 · answered by Franklin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋