Evolution! Humans have reach their utopia!

asgoodasitgets

According to this report humans have reach their peak where evolution is concerned.

What do you think?

I'm gutted,all I ever wanted was to be in X-Men :P Or Heroes it would be now wouldn't it?

And not surpirsed actually. From my limited understanding of evoloution, those who had beneficial genetic mutations lived and those that didn't died, therefore those that lived, bred. Since we no longer live or die according to what we are or are not born with, thanks to modern soloutions to our defects, it seems logical that we would not get any better.

Guess I will keep my fingers crossed for a spider bite or some radioactive waste :P

Now I hope other animals catch up, so there would be like other speices of 'people' :P

After billions of years evolution comes to a grinding halt....no more small changes over time for man.   There's no more evolving or evolution because there never was such a thing.  

Just as i suspected,

"Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be..."

And growing more predictable common by the second.

It's a load of hogwash.

As long as DNA continues to replicate, there will be tiny random mutations that, if they be beneficial (or for that fact, non-deleterious), will continue to be passed into the human gene pool. It doesn't matter that selection pressures have changes (no longer fighting saber-toothed tigers, for example) it just means that evolution will adapt itself to whatever pressures exist now (dodging traffic, surviving obesity, etc).

To say that evolution has ended means certain extinction.

Evolution as is understood by science is merely the process of adapting. I agree with Peg. We've still got adaptations to make. I think the remainder of man's evolution will occur in the mind.

I really think we can't be finished because obviously we're not perfect.  We can't breathe water yet! :)

Original Post by pegamoose:

To say that evolution has ended means certain extinction.

Oh, we'll all go together when we go.

Every hottentot and every Eskimo.

There's a certain freedom that comes with certain extinction.

Morality goes out the window.

In short, I don't see how this is a bad thing.

As long as a species is procreating, evolution is occuring.

Keep in mind that selection pressures have to operate before the age of reproduction. It doesn't matter that obesity is killing middle age people if they successfully spawn before their ticker gives out.

The OP read the article a little more optimistically than I did... I don't think he's saying we've reached utopia, he said this is as close as we're going to get. We plopped down in the middle of the road and stopped traveling. Which of course invokes the fallacy that evolution is traveling in the direction of some ideal, but whatever.

If anything in modern culture has snuffed out selection pressures though, I don't think it's genetic medicines so much as the internet. Nowadays any freak or misfit (and hooray for them! :) can find someone to love and mate with. And if you can't or don't like who you find, you can buy some zygotes or hire a surrogate. OK, the internet and capitalism have killed evolution.

It's not dead for good, though. We've been cruising along complacently for a really long time, but sooner or later we'll blow our infrastructure to bits or just overpopulate until there's a food crisis and good old evo will be back in business. Never fear! We could get super sight or speed, or fur! yet.

Oh, and it's too early to articulate why, but for some reason I'm tickled that the creationist is a follower of the wise disciple Chris Farley.

i think it could be true.  the thing is, we've changed our environment so radically, i think we've effectively destroyed the relationship between our species and our environment.  most of us hardly interact with our natural environment at all; everything we do is mediated by technology.  to adapt to our environment the way it is now, we'd have to start evolving in huge leaps rather than in small variations - and that's not going to happen.

edit: BUT if we continue on the path we're on now, making our planet effectively uninhabitable to our species as we are, it's likely that a few of us will survive (maybe at the poles?) and will have adapt to an entirely new environment (not to mention new predators).  maybe two new branches of human - one at each pole.  that could be interesting, no?  maybe we finally will develop gills again!!

Original Post by pgeorgian:

edit: BUT if we continue on the path we're on now, making our planet effectively uninhabitable to our species as we are, it's likely that a few of us will survive (maybe at the poles?) and will have adapt to an entirely new environment (not to mention new predators). maybe two new branches of human - one at each pole. that could be interesting, no? maybe we finally will develop gills again!!

and lots of body hair again to keep warm there...maybe obesity is preparing us for the blubber insulation we'll need.

Original Post by corduroyfirekills3:

Which of course invokes the fallacy that evolution is traveling in the direction of some ideal, but whatever.

 This is the first thing I thought when I read the title - evolution is not some defined game theory with a set goal.  As long as the environment changes, however slight due to social factors and technology, and as long as people procreate, evolution is going to happen.

It's not like there's some document with a checklist of items, and just recently some scientist in the sky just checked off "average lifespan of homo sapiens now above 70, check...Well, I guess that's about it."

The notion that, as a species, we are currently "perfect" is rather hubristic.

Original Post by tommywantwingy:

After billions of years evolution comes to a grinding halt....no more small changes over time for man.   There's no more evolving or evolution because there never was such a thing.  

 Fully agreed.  Evolution takes more of a leap of faith to believe than creationism or intelligent design.  How could a series of consecutively occurring small beneficial mutations (an oxymoron, if there ever was one) lead to an entirely different species?  Or turn a rock into an intelligent being? 

Micro evolution exists.  Macro evolution was not proven. 

Are we really going to get into this debate again? there is a fossil record to prove evolution, no leap of faith required. Creationism has nothing to do with evolution. just sayin'.

Agree, wholeheartedly Santo.

I submit PG, that humans have survived ice ages (which neccessarily were preceded by warming) so I think we've got the evolutionary chops to deal with climate change. I think the mutations will be man-made from here on out as we seek to unravel the secrets of our DNA.

and yes, I did just watch "I am Legend" so my thinking could be somewhat biased ;D

 Fully agreed.  Evolution takes more of a leap of faith to believe than creationism or intelligent design.  How could a series of consecutively occurring small beneficial mutations (an oxymoron, if there ever was one) lead to an entirely different species?  Or turn a rock into an intelligent being? 

Micro evolution exists.  Macro evolution was not proven. 

Wait, so the jump from micro evolution, observed in laboratories, to macro evolution is bigger than what? It's *bigger* than the leap of faith required to believe in a magic man in the sky? Did someone find a micro magic man in the micro sky and not tell me about it?

And to answer your questions,

1. a series of consecutively occuring small beneficial mutations (which is only an oxymoron if you don't understand what a mutation is) will produce an entirely different species when the mutations aggregate to the point where the members of the two sub groups of the previous species can no longer produce offspring with one another. This usually requires isolation of the sort that was discussed in the article posted by the OP.

2. it couldn't. In fact, it couldn't even turn dumb old water into wine! If the person who taught you about evolution claimed that it could turn a rock into an intelligent being, you should seek out additional sources of enlightenment. cuz you iz getting brainwashededed, sister.

Original Post by jezebelina:

 Fully agreed.  Evolution takes more of a leap of faith to believe than creationism or intelligent design So a theory with lots of evidence supporting it (but not proving it) is more of a 'leap of faith' than a theory with absolutely zero evidence supporting it? huh?.  How could a series of consecutively occurring small beneficial mutations (an oxymoron, if there ever was one How is that an oxymoron? small changes in genetics cause favorable results, it's not rocket science) lead to an entirely different species lots of changes over time yields something completely different, again not rocket science?  Or turn a rock into an intelligent being Show me one place where anyone has ever claimed thar rocks turned into intelligent beings? 

Micro evolution exists.  Macro evolution was not proven. And intelligent design is based on fairy tales. 

Original Post by jezebelina:

 Fully agreed.  Evolution takes more of a leap of faith to believe than creationism or intelligent design.  How could a series of consecutively occurring small beneficial mutations (an oxymoron, if there ever was one) lead to an entirely different species?  Or turn a rock into an intelligent being? 

Micro evolution exists.  Macro evolution was not proven. 

"beneficial mutations" is only an oxymoron if you forget that not all mutations are beneficial.  mutations happen; that's a given.  the beneficial ones are passed along through procreation.

which brings up a whole new issue, doesn't it?  through the magic of medicine, many of our nonbeneficial mutations are also being passed along. 

that's what I'm thinking. nonbeneficial mutations. the end of the species, baby.

we're going down in an all-consuming orgiastic fire sale of mood-enhanced, viagra laden de-evolution, rife with and facilitated by a cocktail of viruses we have the hubris to think we control.

or, not.

(but I do feel better now)