Will humans evolve further? If so, how will they evolve?

Answer 1

Evolution is an ongoing process but it is very difficult to predict. A mutation would need to be beneficial to the organism to make it permanent. If you have ever watched "Ripleys believe it or not" there are may examples of people who are born with very different abilites. Some are mutations which cause the person to be considered a freak. But every now and then a mutation comes along that improves the individual. For instance there are alot of marathon runners from Kenya. They all seem to have a certain tie to a certain Kenyan village. Scientists have found why. They studied the feet of the people in this place and found cavities in them. This makes their feet lighter and gives them the ability to run longer. The cavities are caused by a gene only found among these people. That is one example of how evolution is constantly at work. Another is the "water gypsies" of Indonesia. They are able to focus their eyes under water making it much esier for them to find fish and pearls. This is also caused by a gene that is beneficial to them. But in this case the gene is not local. All humans have it but in the water gypsies it is activated. Scientists have found that any children can actually learn to focus their eyes under water. So this is an ability we have and used once upon a time suggesting humans have had a much closer tie to water in a distant past.

In humans evolution, or rather natural selection, is put out of comission because of the way we regard life. We try to cure genetic diseases that would have killed the individual had it not been for our medical science. And so the genetic defect live on. We use glasses to counter genetic eye defects. For these reasons how we will evolve in the future is especially hard to predict.

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Intersting you should mention telepathy and sharks so close to each other. It´s like you read each others minds and mine! Think about what sharks can do. They can sense how an animal is going to move and where it is by sensing the biomagnetic field all animals emit. What is that if not the infrastructure for telepathy? Suppose humans had the same organ. With our greater brain power we would be able to read information from others as our brains emit a magnetic field as we think. The shape of the magnetic field is determined by what we think. A human born with this organ and having the ability to read minds would be very powerful indeed. Forget about that flying man in "Heroes"...

Answer 2

I agree with many of the answers which suggest that human evolution continues. One point I think has been missed. It has been assumed that we humans with our technology can change our environment so we don't need to adapt anymore. Even if that were so, our technology could certainly not change our environment to suit our needs given a catastrophic event such as that which wiped out the dinosaurs. Many evolutionary changes stem from these kinds of events, indeed mankind's rise to prominence may have been the result of a meteorite impact. Super volcanoes and meteorite impacts are such sudden events which would leave mankind absolutely powerless. Another sudden event caused by technology and perhaps even more likely in the near future is nuclear war. Our technology would help some escape no doubt, but human evolution would take a different route as a consequence, a blind aimless way forward, with little control by technology. Evolution is punctuated by such catastrophic events, and there's no reason to suppose they have ended. Should such an event happen, would such a changed environment make ever greater intelligence a survival advantage?

Answer 3

Depends what you idea of 'further' is?
The human race will undoubtable change over the next few hundred years, with the increase of technology will there be a need for long term memory - we are already seeing evidence of an increase of brain diseases such as alzhiemers - and also an increase for machines doing the thinking and remebering for the human race, whereas hundreds of years ago, stories and hunting tactics were passed down through memory. The chiefs in tribes were always revered for having great memories and holding the keys to good crop years and bad crop years.

So on a wee negative slant - yes the human race will evolve!!

Answer 4

Assuming that we don't kill each other off in massive gang wars, road rage incidents, acid rain, nuclear holocausts, and the like, then it is a given that homo sapiens - - and other species as well - - shall evolve. Keeping in mind that any such changes are predicated on our environment, I believe that we will all resemble "Jabba the Hut" at some near-future date! ;)

Seriously, though, here's an educated guess at our form:

- Unless anti-noise laws are passed, excessive noise levels will cause hearing to atrophy.

- Unless anti-littering laws are improved and trees are not destroyed to put another parking lot or hovel of a home, our eyes will become useless.

- Unless better diets and exercise are started, our bodies will turn into muscle-less blobs (see? I wasn't too far off with the "Jabba" joke!). ;)

- Unless better anti-smog controls are enacted, our noses will fall off.

- Since we will not call the police to rid our towns of bullies, gangs, thugs, etc, our sense of touch will become so acute that we will only be able to hug ourselves without pain in the darkest closets.

- Since we live everyday listening to the bile spewed by the media, our intestines will double in size leading to much larger - - well, you know where I'm going with that! ;)

- We will lose our ability to speak due to the chronic screaming from the horrors surrounding us.

- Given all the above, our brains will atrophy to the point that nobody will be able to do anything, and the smartest creatures remaining on earth - - dolphins and chimpanzees - - will take over.

It's a very cynical outlook, I know, but, let's face facts, it's the way we're heading. Of course, it won't be OUR problem, so, by all means, let's not do anything about it! ;)

Answer 5

An extra finger on each hand , for typing wouldn't go a miss :P

On a more serious note, i really dont know where the human race is going to go next! I find evolution so fasinating!
In the theory of 'The Survival Of The Fittest' it will always be the most advanced who will survive over the rest, being 'The Fittest' already.....do we need to evolve???

Answer 6

Good answers so far. Mutations are random- those that are favourable are enhanced by a competitive environment or a catastrophic one. Humans have virtually eliminated the threat from large predators and have fairly extensive measures in place to ensure the protection and survival of people with potentially lethal genetic traits. The only thing that would trigger a current evolution would be a lethal pandemic of some new virus. Social rather than purely biological factors would dictate the pace and direction of human evolution now.
If we were to assume that humans selected partners for breeding on the basis of intelligence for example, larger brain size would drive human evolution, but very slowly.
The best data we have on this is from the 'dragon bone' hill cave in China, where over a period of about 700k yrs to 400k yrs BP continuous occupancy, the mean brain capacity among homo erectus skulls increased from about 1050cc to 1150cc- significant but based on the data from about 50 individuals.
Perhaps when humans begin to explore space properly, radical evolution in response to radically different environments will take place.
Please do not confuse real evolutionary theory with lyshenkoism!

Answer 7

No. In fact we'll devolve! Evolution occurs in response to environmental pressures. However technology has the effect of insulating us from these pressures. For example, roughly 50% of the population now has sub 20-20 eyesight. Without preditors ready to pounce, there is no slection pressure towards better vision. In addition, statisics tell us that a high birth rate is inversly correlated with income. So the future: we'll all be blind, stupid, and.. yes, we will have small heads, and big eyes, and long fingers, like monkeys!

Answer 8

Sure they will. We never really stop evolving. It just happens to slowly that we don't notice it. For instance, people are generally bigger now than they were 'back in the day'. Also, our pinky toes serve no purpose anymore now that we wear shoes, so they are becoming weaker. In years upon years form now, we may not even have them.

Answer 9

Sharks we are told are the ultimate of the waters.
We are the top of the food , chain,be it fish , mammal or fowl.
Therefore we will either evolve to help or kill all/ plus ourselves.

Answer 10

That is the big question...are we evolving. Who knows and what defines further evolution?? Is our technology evolution?? Have our brains evoloved?? difficult!!