m00ner

This is for all of the Evolutionists who actually know what they're talking about...

If Darwinism is correct, and we evolved from a chimp sort of physicality, what is the next part of our evolution? What will be our next physical state? Will a lack of so much body hair be next, for it seems that we've lost hair over time as earlier we were monkeys?

Is it possible that we are not the highest stage in evolution, and the higher beings above us just plain left Earth?

Peez

I like to pretend...

Quote:

If Darwinism is correct, and we evolved from a chimp sort of physicality, what is the next part of our evolution? What will be our next physical state? Will a lack of so much body hair be next, for it seems that we've lost hair over time as earlier we were monkeys?

The "if" there is curious. Would you ask "if heliocentrism is correct..."? It is a scientific fact that we share common ancestors with chimpanzees.

It is just about impossible to predict where human evolution might go from here. It will depend mainly on the kind of selection that acts on humans. Will humans evolve to have less hair? To answer this question, ask yourself: will humans with less hair have more children than other humans?Evolution is not an advancement from "lower" to "higher" organisms. Humans are no "higher" than earthworms, yeast, grass, diatoms, or bacteria.

Peez

Nic Tamzek

Well, there is an episode of Voyager where they come upon a super-advanced reptilian alien race, and DNA sequence analysis shows that they have many DNA sequences similar to humans. They work out (with the "complete fossil record of earth" that they evidently have in the 24th century) that the last shared common ancestor was a primitive reptile (it looks like a mammal-like reptile, but whatever), and conclude that dinosaurs must have produced an intelligent race that left earth to avoid the asteroid impact, or something.

This contradicts some aspect of dinosaurian legend and so all sorts of complications ensue for the dinosaurian scientist, and the dino-aliens don't transwarp themselves and voyager over to the alpha quandrant to say hi (and end the show), but it was far more realistic than, say, alien-human hybrids.

Lobstrosity

If something else in our past had the ability to use technology of the level required to leave Earth, I think the fossil record would probably show it.

m00ner

What if something evolved to be super-intelligent and was able to leave without a trace? Or even possibly a microscopic organism became the super-intelligent one...

omarsright

What about speciation - perhaps it is happening already?

If we continue with the same levels of social and economic disparity are we not creating levels of different environments with different adaptive pressures?

Is the individual who is best 'adapted' to survive in a modern techology-supported urban environment also best 'adapted' to survival in a primitive African village?

If this continues for a few thousand years could we not see two or more species of homo branching from root homo sapiens?

Has anyone read HG Wells 'the time machine' - do you remember the Eloi and the Morlocks?

Dr. Evil

The next stage in human evolution is already here!

Jayjay

I think it's impossible to say what humans will evolve to. Cultural evolution is running loops around biological evolution as far as our species is concerned, we can't really be sure about any long term trends that might cause considerable selective pressure on humans.

Peez

Then they evolved to be super-intelligent and left without a trace. This seems highly unlikely, but why not ask "what if the universe does not exist and this is all merely a virtual reality?" Just about anything is possible. Not possible given our current understanding of the universe.

Peez

Peez

I doubt it.A credible argument could be made for this position.Probably not.In a word, no. For one thing, it would almost certainly take more than a few thousand years. More importantly, there is a great deal of gene flow between these groups of people, which would tend to damp out any differences in selective pressure. The simple model of speciation typically starts with reproductive isolation, so that each population may evolve independently. The situation can be more complex, but speciation in humans seems highly unlikely unless there are some significant changes in our population dynamics.Yup, great story.

Peez