Are humans evolving to be pretty ans stupid?

Question

Its no longer survival of the fittest but the prettiest. Ugly people don't get to breed (pardon my bluntness as there is no other way of saying it). Also, statistically, people of lesser education generally have more children. Following this logic, each succeeding generation is slightly prettier and more stupid than the last.

So what will the human race be several thousand generations from now given its natural course? I think the only reason why this phenomenon isn't so apparent in the last few generations is that nutrition and advanced educational systems reach further in people's brain potentials.

am i wrong?

Answer 1

In a word, yes. ^_^

To elaborate. The instinct to select mates on the basis of "prettiness" or "cuteness" is a long-standing trend that tends to select *for* intelligence in a very specific way.

Search the sites below for the whole phrases "neoteny of prolonged immaturity" and "human evolution":

http://www.sciam.com/

http://www.sciencenews.org/

The point of it is, human beings have a neoteny, specifically of prolonged immaturity, relative to other apes like chimpanzees. We don't grow fur....the angle at which our skulls join with our spines is more like the fetal angle (which encourages a bipedal, upright posture), our jawlines are smaller relative to the size of our heads, our eyes and brains are larger relative to the size of our heads and our heads are *Big* relative to our bodies. All of these, it can be argued, are fetal or infantile traits that we carry over into adulthood. Why?

Because they select for upright posture and higher intelligence--and to a lesser degree, a higher sexual drive. And all of this, in turn, is selected from a desire for prolonged immaturity, also known as "cuteness"

Another source on the subject you might want to look into is the book, _The Naked Ape_ by Desmond Morris. The book itself is out of print but should be available in *any* collegiate library of note. It really spells it out, how human neoteny of immaturity--the keeping of fetal, infantile and childlike traits into adult life--encourages upright posture, higher intelligence (by way of larger, more developed eyes and brains) and higher levels of sexual drives (from the lack of fur, among other things).

So yeah....if anything, I'd suggest the problem is that we aren't paying *close enough* attention, and making sure the linkage between cute features and the *kinds of* intelligence we want, are there before we try to breed and have kids. Or.....

that the genes are there, but that we haven't been paying enough attention to *our society*, meaning the best DNA in the world *goes to rot* if we don't *teach our young* properly, about manners, science, technology and civilization. Among other things. ^_^

I hope this helped and made some sense. Thanks for your time! ^_^ Did I mention I *like* these kinds of questions? They really *demonstrate* that people are still *thinking*, you know?

Answer 2

It has always been " the survival of the prettiest. " The coin evolutionary success is paid in is reproduction.

Answer 3

99.9% of all plant & animal species that have ever lived on the earth, are now extinct...

Though we prefer not to acknowledge the truth of this fact, extinction, is the ultimate end of the evolutionary (or de-volutionary) process...