Are we right now witnessing corporations influencing human evolution?

Question

By compelling the younger generation via technology to abandon actual words in favor of things like, "Hi, how r u? What r u doing rite now? IDK? WTF do u mean?", are they actually trying to create a new species of human predisposed to pressing buttons labeled...

[BIG MC]
[BIG MC W/CH]
[QTR LB]
[QTR W/CH]
[SM FR]
[MD FR]
[LG FR]
[COKE]
[DT COKE]
[TOT]
[TAX]
[CHG]
[THK U]

I think the verbose among us may already be on the path towards extinction!

Answer 1

Your examples are silly. But indeed, multi-national corporations that poison the air we breathe and the water we drink, and genetically modify the food we eat are *altering the environment* in such drastic ways that we may find ourselves adapting to this changed environment within a few generations, if the changes aren't so drastic that we CANNOT adapt and survive.






"Telling a non-Christian that she's going to "burn in hell" is like calling offsides on the *spectators* at a football game"

Answer 2

▪ Fact: All scientific research indicates that life cannot spring from nonliving matter. Question: What is the scientific basis for saying that the first cell sprang from nonliving chemicals? ▪ Fact: Researchers have recreated in the laboratory the environmental conditions that they believe existed early in the earth’s history. In these experiments, a few scientists have manufactured some of the molecules found in living things. Question: If the chemicals in the experiment represent the earth’s early environment and the molecules produced represent the building blocks of life, whom or what does the scientist who performed the experiment represent? Does he or she represent blind chance or an intelligent entity? ▪ Fact: Protein and RNA molecules must work together for a cell to survive. Scientists admit that it is highly unlikely that RNA formed by chance. The odds against even one protein forming by chance are astronomical. It is exceedingly improbable that RNA and proteins should form by chance in the same place at the same time and be able to work together. Question: What takes greater faith—to believe that the millions of intricately coordinated parts of a cell arose by chance or to believe that the cell is the product of an intelligent mind? ▪ Fact: The extraordinarily complex molecules that make up a cell—DNA, RNA, proteins—seem designed to work together. Question: What seems more likely to you? Did unintelligent evolution construct these intricate machinisms, or were those machines the product of an intelligent mind? ▪ Fact: Respected scientists say that even a “simple” cell is far too complex to have arisen by chance on earth. Question: If some scientists are willing to speculate that life came from an extraterrestrial source, what is the basis for ruling out God as that Source? ▪ Fact: All living organisms share similarly designed DNA, the “computer language,” or code, that governs much of the shape and function of their cell or cells. Question: Could this similarity exist, not because they had the same ancestor, but because they had the same Designer?

Answer 3

I can see other ways the corporations are influencing how humans evolve. One of them was covered on Yahoo News the other day--our cities and towns are "obesogenic." That is, the structure of our living space is geared towards the sedentary, spoon-fed, eat-at-your-desk lifestyle. They feed you and feed you and then ask you to do the deskwork of two people, so that you are FORCED to think and write in shorthand in order to keep up. Your use of the abbreviated fast-food menu brought this to my mind, but it is only one symptom. Another is "no child left behind," which, instead of raising the literacy of children, tends to slow learning in classrooms, bog down teachers and administrators with endless paperwork and teach less to the children overall (because no child can be left behind, the bright ones have to be slowed up). Also, I think the clunkiness of texting on cellphones has contributed to the syndrome you note.

So, yes, this is a symptom of consumer/corporation driven monoculture and dumbing-down, but it isn't the only one. It is pervasive.

Answer 4

Ah social evolution. I think technology has really had a huge impact on language in the past 10 years. Communication in my opinion has become lazy. It's frustrating that nobody can form a thought and express it in writing with all of its syntactical elements. Please, when referring to yourself, use capital 'I' and take the time to spell out a word or a phrase. The end of a thought should end in some type of punctuation. Technology has allowed us to do these things more efficiently with things like spell check and grammar check so we should use them. Frustrating.

Back to your original question about corporations influencing this type of evolution. I don't think that they are doing it directly but they are enabling society to be like this through products and services they offer. Text messaging you are to blame.

Answer 5

I love you. I have always wanted to ask this question but failed to find a way to do so in a witty and non-abrasive manner. You have outdone yourself! But u forgot the chocshk and chburg. I swear to you, I see people writing in this way back and forth to one another and it literally pains me for society. It is indeed a tool used by corporations to dumb down our youngest and ensure a perfect totalitarian regime for the future.

As an English major, this makes me especially sad. I truly believe IQ points have dropped due to this tactic.

Answer 6

We're being trained. I went into an Arbys in California and told them my order. They just stood there looking confused. Then I noticed a touch screen on my side with all the pictures of food. I had to touch the pictures myself because they didn't speak english.

Answer 7

Funny stuff. I don't know that this qualifies as an evolutionary change, as language is constantly changing. It's a linguistic change. But I understand -- the evolution thing sounds a lot funnier.

Answer 8

The text communication style comes from users, not from corporate heads. It is truly grass-roots. I think of it as just the new thing that kids are using to annoy grown-ups.

Answer 9

Darn. I thought I was going to get to talk about franken-foods and petrochemicals.

Answer 10

Not while I am still kicking! I believe in the beauty of language. of English, and I teach it. I won't let it be reduced to either improper usage by my students, or to WTF and IDK.

Horrifying thought, that.