Human evolution?

Question

Is the human race still evolving? If so, what will the the next major physical change be?

Answer 1

I think the absence of tonsils or an appendix. Also, I think people will be taller, and less hairy.

Answer 2

The human race's descendants biggest change would be in intelligence. But other changes would be our health too. According to some findings, us humans nowadays have bigger cranial capacities or brains than humans before like centuries ago. But I'm not talking about the ones millions or thousands of years ago, I'm talking about the people in the Roman times to the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution. This probably was due to better nutrition rather than immediate evolution. But in the future this growth of the brain could be a different reason, not just better nutrition. Probably they are adopting to the wide knowledge humans will have at that time.

Answer 3

Yes, all species are evolving, all the time.

As far as major physical changes go, it's impossible to say. People have a hard time predicting what length jeans will be in style in 18 months, so predicting what human bodies will look like in 500 000 years is essentially impossible.

Aren't all changes physical?

Answer 4

A LIVING MISSING LINK ? still undiscovered?

Really, modern man is not all that old or all that modern it stands to reason there would be a living missing link to the past ,evolution wise. Indeed it might be autism!

Autism has a wonderful anthropology of very high functioning people that have met on line from all over the world and we seem to be the living missing link. Our thought process has never been in a book before,and once we lean it we can copy your normal thoughts. Our keen cave person senses and pain tolerance connect us to lots of things in man's past and link us to modern man.

OLD AUTISM before Rain Man was seen as in some respects as the living link it once had the legend of the Boy from Alvarez in the 1600s. This "autistic child" seemed half man half beast and also demonstrated many autistic traits.

Modern autism Post Rain Man after the the movie forgot 1/2 the facts of autism and made autism a dreadful condition it never had to be and also cheated mankind out of his core knowledge all in the name of progress. Modern Autism jumps threw hoops to keep our anthropology hidden and from uniting ,simply put we deflate their autism empire (unintentionally)

There are at least 200 more of us in our anthropology and we all have the same story to tell and the same links to make and we only met each other in later life ,online. One thing we have discovered is no matter what language we speak or country we are from the autism core language picture thoughts seem the same for all humans.

Answer 5

I'm not really sure that we are evolving into a new species. Evolution usually occurs as a process whereby organisms adapt themselves to changes in their environment. Those variations that are best adapted to these changes flourish and have the most offspring. Those that can't adapt have few offspring and ultimately die off. With humans, there are a number of countervailing forces.

Our technology and culture allows us to survive in almost any environment: the Arctic, the desert, the jungle, and even on the moon. We are incredibly adaptable. We can design our clothing and dwellings to deal with almost any conditions. Today, instead of suiting ourselves to the environment, we can alter the environment to suit us. (Sometimes this has undesirable consequences like global warming.)

In the modern world we rarely maximize our reproductive opportunities. In fact, we often use contraceptives to minimize them. In industrial and post-industrial societies large families cause numerous problems. Having to provide each of your offspring with their own bedroom and a college education is a strain on a family. We prefer to maximize our resources on a few offspring, thus improving the each one's chances of success.

Our ethical systems do not allow us to let persons to die because they're weak. A few societies such as Sparta or Nazi Germany were willing to dispose of those deemed unfit. Most societies, however, try to save individuals if possible. Evidence shows that even Neanderthals took care of their disabled. However, until a few centuries ago, the weakest among us would die of unpreventable diseases and famines. The reasons that native Americans died of European diseases in such huge numbers was that they had not evolved resistance to them. Now, nobody wanted their weakest child to die of smallpox, but it couldn't be prevented. Today it can. Smallpox has gone the way of the dodo. Conditions that would have been fatal, even a few decades ago, can be treated. Just look at the improved survival chances of cancer patients or premature babies.

Answer 6

Humans are still evolving. There are many diseases and conditions that place selective pressures on us. One thing to keep in mind is that humans have evolved to use cultural means to adapt. Culture/technology is now the main way we adapt to the conditions around us.

Therefore, while we still are evolving, I would not expect any visually obvious changes. It will be more in line with resistance to chronic diseases and the like.

wl

Answer 7

As long as the world around us evolves, so will we.

There's no way of knowing what the next visible physical change would be.

Answer 8

the question is almost pointless, if the earth stops turning will we still have night and day? to ask if were still evolving is a sell explanatory question , the answer is yes , look at the changes man has made in the last 100 years we've gone to the moon and back , of coarse were still evolving who knows we my even one day evolve back into fish!!!

Answer 9

Yes we are still evolving, but as for how is just a matter of speculation. As I have always said, its pointless to make hypotheses on a trend that will take up to 200,000 years based on trends we have observed for the past 100 years.

Answer 10

As radiation levels increase, anyone with inherent resistance to its effect on cancer will have an increased chance of reaching adulthood. Similarly for sun-related melanoma, darker skin will predominate. So, in the future, humans will be darker and radiation resistant. Assuming we survive - extinction is another evolutionary consequence.

Answer 11

i would say yes, but in a dramatically reduced way to what how we would have continued evelving without the advent of 'society' and science.

by caring for the sick and the weak and by having laws to protect people and property we lower the 'importance' of previously advantageous mutations which would help a primitive human survive in a harsh, 'wild' world.

having said that, we may simply be altering our evolutionary path by raising the 'benefit' of traits or mutations which ordinarily (ie to primitive man) could be classed as disadvantageous.