Evolution...what's the next step?

Question

My question is - what do you think the next step to evolution is going to be...

Okay lets, see ... so we went from four legs, to two...flight would be my natural progression ... What is yours?

Answer 1

There is no evolutionary pressure to evolve flight - you would have to have a situation where predators are, for example, killing people that can't jump and not killing those that can, or where people live in trees and survive by jumping from one to another - those able to jump furthest ("fly") would be more likely to survive and so produce an evolutionary pressure towards flight.

The pressure towards flight is further negated by the fact that we can already fly - in aeroplanes - making further evolution unnecessary.

Several potential evolutionary directions can possibly be identified in trends today, unfortunately not all entirely favourable due to the fact that people with "defects" (from an evolutionary/survival standpoint) now survive whereas before they would not:-

+ higher birth weight and brain size. In earlier times this was limited by the size of the mother's pelvis, through which the baby must pass during birth. With the advent of cesarian section this is no longer the case

+ conversely there is also a trend towards premature birth as babies are surviving this more and more and may therefore pass on this characteristic to later generations

+ poor eyesight was at one time a considerable disadvantage... liable to result in the early death by predation. With corrective lenses and the elimination of predators this is no longer the case - in the future most if not all humans may inherit poor eyesight requiring some form of correction by artificial means

+ the increased reliance on drugs may result in defective immune systems as we rely more and more on antibiotics to fight infections

Answer 2

Natural Biological Evolution has no "next step"; it doesn't have a direction or an intention of where it wants to go - it simply randomly mutates until something happens that is better suited to survive.

Now if you mean evolution in a more general sense I would have to say the next step is already in progress: the building of machines that think and can do anything these biological bodies do - only better and with more resiliancy. The next step in our evolution is spelled out clearly in Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near". Read it.

Answer 3

Evolution does not have any specified goal. Secondly, I think humans are removing selection pressures, so I don't think we will evolve much at all.

Even with immune systems, I don't see the increased/reduced reproduction rates necessary for selection.

One possibility i see is colonizing another planet. In that case, there would be little if any genetic mixing between the two planets which could allow the two populations to drift apart, if left long enough.

A wildcard is genetic engineering. We may choose to make our decendents in a certain way, a form of artificial selection.

Answer 4

Since there is no way to predict future mutations or environmental conditions, there is no way to predict the direction that evolution will take us. Evolving to flight, however, would involve so many changes to the human body plan that I just can't imagine a scenario that would cause that to happen.

Answer 5

A.I. For space exploration. Since the human body cannot last long on a space flight, a combination of artifical body and a human brain and nervous system to control the new body.

Answer 6

First, all creatures on the planet are evolving, so the next step would be dependent on who's next step...frogs, birds, humans, etc. Second, human beings have a social structure that has dynamically change the constraints put on procreation. So, predicting the next step in evolution would be very difficult.

Answer 7

Flight isn't a natural progression.

Humans are tending to evolve due to technological changes.

It has been happening ever since the beginning of the industrial revolution.

Answer 8

Who needs wings when we have planes?

Evolution does not work in "steps". Specializing the forelimb for delicate tasks was a big advantage we give up for flight.

I suspect we'll see a gradual modification of the knee, pelvis and back to improve our adaptation to upright walking.

Answer 9

I think in evolutionary terms, especially for inhabitants of developed western nations, the trend is downwards. Already we have much lighter facial structure than say someone from the medieval period as they had much heavier jaw bones as they ate much more fibrous foods. The typical bad diet of someone in the US for example in conjunction with lack of physical exercise is likely to lead to much weaker people in the long run. Maybe ultimately our muscles will atrophy to such a degree that we will need a metal box (car) to get around.

Answer 10

expanded conscious awareness interdimetional communication and travel just by using the power of thought,that is for humans ,maybe then ants will start growing mushroom or farming aphids and milking the dew just as we harvest cows milk.it could go anyway that's the beauty of GOD MASTER PLAN ,not evolution the development of consciousness