Evolution : ATOM 0.3

teresag @ 5/9/2008 1:49:06 PM

« Nicky666 : <<< I'm waaaay ahead on you when it comes to evolution. ;)

*L* I swear I didn't even notice those!

Nicky666 @ 5/9/2008 12:16:55 PM

« teresag : I concur.
Now how to grow those neat antennae...

<<< I'm waaaay ahead on you when it comes to evolution. ;)

teresag @ 5/9/2008 12:14:35 PM

« Nicky666

we should become ants

I concur.
Now how to grow those neat antennae...

Nicky666 @ 5/9/2008 12:12:01 PM

« teresag : Why not go smaller? Nanohumans.

Agreed, that would even be better!

The only thing is that a nanohuman won't be capable of much. Little weak creatures.

Maybe we should be built differently also, apart from being tiny, so we could carry big things, that are multiple times our own weight.

we should become ants

teresag @ 5/9/2008 11:57:56 AM

« Nicky666 : midgets

they use a smaller amount of space, and need less food.
Think about it...it's so obvious that that's the way to go.

Why not go smaller? Nanohumans.

Nicky666 @ 4/17/2008 5:01:43 PM

midgets

they use a smaller amount of space, and need less food.
Think about it...it's so obvious that that's the way to go.

chinook @ 4/17/2008 1:27:48 PM

« hypersapien : The only thing that limits us, in the end, is physics.

That's why I want F=ma on my headstone when I die someday, especially if I die in a crash of some sort.

hypersapien @ 4/17/2008 1:21:34 PM

Humankind's future evolution will be at our own hands. This being the case, there is no reason to believe that all humans will choose to evolve the same way.

Some will go the cybernetic route. Exchanging body parts, or even whole bodies for mechanical replacements. These could be indistinguishable from traditional organic human bodies, or they could be any of an infinite variety of form or function.

Others will genetically engineer themselves in different ways. Getting rid of all disease and disability is just the beginning. Imagine your body as a canvas for your whim. Rewriting your genetic code to create a body that you want, not one that four billion years of evolution locked you into.

And that's only just the body.

Once we map the brain and understand how the mind emerges from this vast network of neurons and chemicals, we will begin altering it in many varying and subtle ways, and then ways that are not so subtle. We will begin exploring the infinite possibilities of consciousness.

Some may forgo bodies altogether, choosing the 'brain in a jar' route and existing solely in a VR environment enmeshed in whatever the internet is replaced by in the coming centuries.

But even the brain dies eventually, doesn't it? Sci-fi writers have envisaged putting a person's brain directly into a computer. But is that the original person? Or just a copy? The original person still dies eventually, don't they? How about connecting a computer directly to your brain and living with it for years as the functions of your brain are gradually moved into the computer. Eventually, all of your cerebral functions are done from the computer, and when your organic body, and brain, dies, you don't.

When this is mastered, there will eventually exist beings who were 'born' in the memory of a computer, with no history of an organic body.

We are not bound by our origins. We do not need to be chained to tradition or the evolutionary paths that our environment has dragged us through in past eons.

The only thing that limits us, in the end, is physics.

coldbladed @ 4/15/2008 7:25:53 PM

« leehblanc : The same studies have shown that men prefer a distinct 3-2-3 body on a woman... the classic hourglass figure. So Damn us men too, I guess. But I'll never say that in public.

SH!T! I just did

It's not our fault, women programmed us this way. Damn those women and their stereotypes!!!

leehblanc @ 4/15/2008 7:16:54 PM

« coldbladed : Damn those women and their stereotypes.

The same studies have shown that men prefer a distinct 3-2-3 body on a woman... the classic hourglass figure. So Damn us men too, I guess. But I'll never say that in public.

SH!T! I just did

rambler @ 4/15/2008 7:12:15 PM

I keep hoping that our human race will evolve into something intelligent...

coldbladed @ 4/15/2008 6:59:29 PM

« leehblanc : Evolution and natural selection are not mutually exclusive. If we stopped walking and used scooters or wheelchairs, we wouldn't necessarily stop having legs. If people with small and/or weak legs mated, then eventually their offspring (over MANY generations) will have generally smaller and weaker legs.

If global warming melts the icecaps and we are faced with a world where there is no choice other than to swim from island to island for sustenance, we wouldn't magically evolve webbing in our hands. What WOULD happen is that people whose hands were significantly more webbed than others would thrive while others would perish. Eventually, through all of those with more webbing on their hands mating with each other, this trait would become more prominent. Again, this would take generations.

There is no way to NOT believe in this. It's very simple, and it happens every day to both humans and animals. Another example would be if our ozone layer continued to deteriorate. Pale people who are much more susceptible to melanoma would die at a much faster rate than olive or dark skinned people. This could happen at a much faster rate, since it's not an advantage that is influencing survival and mating habits, but life or death. Less pale people in the gene pool would result in the human race as a whole developing a darker skin tone. Eventually, pale people would become extremely rare.

Researchers have conducted tests that show that women prefer taller males, hence the reason that the average height of a human is significantly higher than it was even 200 years ago. Same theory...

Damn those women and their stereotypes.

leehblanc @ 4/14/2008 5:59:22 PM

Evolution and natural selection are not mutually exclusive. If we stopped walking and used scooters or wheelchairs, we wouldn't necessarily stop having legs. If people with small and/or weak legs mated, then eventually their offspring (over MANY generations) will have generally smaller and weaker legs.

If global warming melts the icecaps and we are faced with a world where there is no choice other than to swim from island to island for sustenance, we wouldn't magically evolve webbing in our hands. What WOULD happen is that people whose hands were significantly more webbed than others would thrive while others would perish. Eventually, through all of those with more webbing on their hands mating with each other, this trait would become more prominent. Again, this would take generations.

There is no way to NOT believe in this. It's very simple, and it happens every day to both humans and animals. Another example would be if our ozone layer continued to deteriorate. Pale people who are much more susceptible to melanoma would die at a much faster rate than olive or dark skinned people. This could happen at a much faster rate, since it's not an advantage that is influencing survival and mating habits, but life or death. Less pale people in the gene pool would result in the human race as a whole developing a darker skin tone. Eventually, pale people would become extremely rare.

Researchers have conducted tests that show that women prefer taller males, hence the reason that the average height of a human is significantly higher than it was even 200 years ago. Same theory...

coldbladed @ 4/14/2008 5:44:48 PM

I believe we will evolve into suns and consume one another, as well as our own sun, in a mad rush for power. The victor, who will be known as the Star Eater, will flood our solar system with his seething light while the survivors flee to the farthest reaches of the universe.

One by one he will seek out the survivors consuming all other stars in his path. Just when all hope is presumed lost a new star will be born from the stars of the people of earth. He will rise to challenge the Star Eater and defeat him in a battle that will crush thousands of solar systems and put the universe at risk of collapse.

When the Star Eater is vanquished a 'Big Bang' will occur creating a new world with a new people. And so the circle of life continues on and on.

SpamTrap @ 4/14/2008 5:29:41 PM

"Scottish paleontologist and geologist Dougal Dixon presents his hypotheses of how life would evolve 50 million years from now:"
Search insde
See also

SpamTrap @ 4/14/2008 5:16:05 PM

First of all we will be gone.

Maven @ 4/14/2008 10:50:21 AM

Please please tell me that you're being optimistic and asking for something you'd like to have rather than positing those changes ever taking place.

teresag @ 4/14/2008 9:51:00 AM

We will evolve noses that don't run, airways that don't constrict and skin that doesn't turn red and develop hives. These will be the more convenient manifestations of a moderated inflammatory response. Extreme inflammatory responses to (perceived) physiological threats are implicated in much human suffering: from allergies to asthma, atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, and so on. It's just gotta go!

badbud @ 4/4/2008 8:53:48 AM

worms don't have optic and/or sensory tentacles young man

don't ask me why I know these things

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj259/badbud1/513KH8XAW1L__SL500_BO2204203200_PIs.jpg

suckersklub @ 4/4/2008 8:46:51 AM

« badbud:that's a slug, not a worm

It's Slurms MacKenzie, the original Party Worm.
*Sigh* Oh, the generation gap...

badbud @ 4/4/2008 6:22:58 AM

that's a slug, not a worm

suckersklub @ 4/4/2008 3:39:34 AM

My understanding of evolution does not necessarily involve biological reproduction as we know it.

Assuming there's something (call it life, a selfish gene or an extrordinarily ambitious constellation of whatever) that has for the last few billion years had a remarkably observable urge for progress, and that has, on its way here, undergone unbelievable change, I think it's plausible to say that the next step is what we call A.I.

From a more abstract point of view, the leap from carbon-based, protein-driven sex addicts to silicon-based, self-organizing nano-neuro-network thingies isn't that big. Of course the basics of A.I. are man-made, but if I were life, I wouldn't give a sh*t if I had to give up a few time-honored traditions for the sake of an enormous speed boost. Just think of the first multicellular organisms - completely new thing back then, but life took its chance, and here we are. Today we mostly define ourselves as human through potentially (I know, I know) immaterial assets - ratio, emotions, you name it - and we're damn close (in terms of evolutionary measures) to transferring those into a completely new matrix, which will be able to repair and improve itself, and once we have taught it how to reproduce, we'll be obsolete. This is not some technophobic apocalyptians' vision, but simply the next evolutionary stage. We paved the way for something that'll be much fitter than man in no time, but that's how it goes - it's our minds, our selfish whatsoever that takes the next step, after all - what else were we expecting when we gave in to our inborn urge to progress? We might as well cheer, " we made it", OK, it's a bit like the case of the terminally ill mad scientist who clones himself including his memory in order to survive (poor guy, he'll never understand), but at least we can tell our grandchildr- ...wait.

Anyway, it's the taking part that counts.
Party on, party worms.

http://de.futuramapedia.net/images/b/b7/SlurmsMcKenzie.png

h2so4hurts @ 4/4/2008 12:06:54 AM

We could also go the way of the dinosaurs and get knocked off by global warming/an asteroid (Have they decided which it was yet?). Another 4Billion years of uninterrupted "Human" existence just seems unlikely to me.

maven @ 3/26/2008 9:41:16 PM

I'm sorry, I really tried to let this go, but I can't.

If a behavior or trait does not impact reproduction, it won't be impacted by or impact evolution. Survival isn't enough--if there's not offspring of the genetic material that drives it, it doesn't matter. EOS. To think otherwise is to go Lamarkian, and those principals only hold true for taught/learned behaviors, not for inherited conditions.

The reproduction of flawed genomes is more worrisome.

dOntEAtpOOp @ 3/25/2008 4:16:34 PM

« coldbladed:My opinion is that evolution springs from a need to survive by adapting to the world around us.

Humans are notorious for adapting their surrounding to suit them, hence no need to evolve. I imagine we'll be very much the same in terms of evolution but our technology (another crutch that makes it so we don't need to evolve) will be insanely different.

I think you're overlooking some of aspects the of evolution; first that it is occuring even now. Our "pinky toes" are much smaller than they used to be and will likely continue to shrink. The reason for this is because mankind has not been walking barefoot (for the most part) and no longer has the need for the fifth toe (which was/is used for balance).

Also, you mentioned out dependency on technology. You don't think that will have any impact on our physical characteristics? I think this will result in smaller body frames due to the lack of muscular use. Our eye site will likely continue to deteriorate due to prolonged exposure to artificial lighting.

/theories

dOntEAtpOOp @ 3/25/2008 4:03:13 PM

This thread is super duper. Well okay, the other one is pretty old... Nevermind... Carry on... Sorry about that.

moe @ 3/25/2008 3:57:42 PM

Borg

Blankspace73 @ 3/25/2008 3:12:38 PM

If Humans evovle at all any more, it will be our brains. Coming to understand the world and universe around us, as well as discovering new technology, will force us to increase brain capacity. Maybe by doing this we can be those big headed alien people that can control/read minds and use the forces of nature at will.

It'd be pretty cool. =)

tundramonkey @ 3/25/2008 2:59:21 PM

Evolution will be guided by aesthitics and brains. People will create superchildren, who will be beautiful and brainy. If humanoids are around in 4Ga, they'll have figured out how to get off this planet and be somewhere safe when the sun goes all Red Giant on us.

Kurt311c @ 3/25/2008 2:58:46 PM

lol wasnt a rule really but im mainly wondering exactly what cold said... will we allow ourselves to evolve again or will we cut the process off with our technology.

For instance... weve completely ruled out natural selection and the strongest survive by breeding things such as asthma and bad vision back into our population, when normally "creatures" with these defects would die rather quickly and not put those genes back into the pool.
perhaps i didnt explain enough. sorry lol

coldbladed @ 3/25/2008 2:49:09 PM

My opinion is that evolution springs from a need to survive by adapting to the world around us.

Humans are notorious for adapting their surrounding to suit them, hence no need to evolve. I imagine we'll be very much the same in terms of evolution but our technology (another crutch that makes it so we don't need to evolve) will be insanely different.

cheeselog1234 @ 3/25/2008 2:43:35 PM

I sat here for a few minutes thinking about your question. It confused me.

Every now and then I glanced at kurt's avi wondering ...what is up with that hair?

It was quite distracting.

Then I thought...doesn't evolution address occurrences in nature? Are man and machine hybrids considered evolutionary products or human innovation? And 'directing our own evolution' kind of contradicts itself does it not?

Last, I began to wonder if I 'believe in evolution' - is evolution something to believe in? Or is it more like something that just is?

That's when I realized, I don't 'believe' in evolution.

Then I hit the 'submit' button and totally disobeyed your thread rules.

I'm sorry.

unzercharlie @ 3/25/2008 2:26:56 PM

Implantable everything, technology moves faster than evolution, so we'll be cyborgs for a while, then we'll evolve to not need our mechanical components. Yeah I dunno, sounds cool though.

Kurt311c @ 3/25/2008 2:24:13 PM

It took humans 4 billion years to evolve to this point.
Assuming we dont destroy ourselves in the near future... the sun has about 4 billion years left in it before it owns the earth. Any thoughts on where evolution will take us?

Mind and machine interface? us directing our own evolution?
weird thread to start but.... oh well im curious on opinions.
and id rather leave out the people who don't believe in evolution and all that no offense but its not the purpose of this one.