Natural selection has stopped for the human race.

lol
natural selection
may be perfection
but now what?
perpetuation?
naught remains but darwination

a reply to: Danbones

natural selection
may be perfection

No.
But it works.

Human intelligence hasn’t altered in millennia the ancient Greeks could have landed on the moon 2500 years ago if they had amassed the practical knowledge needed. Its not any physical change in our brains that has brought about modern technologies it is the accumulation of knowledge via thousands of years of experimentation discovery and analysis.

Compare a computer of 1990 to a computer of 2014 today’s computers are far superior although the people who designed them are no more intelligent than in 1990 in fact they may be the same individuals. Natural selection in humans will decelerate as our technology renders the natural process obsolete at that point we will probably acquire the ability to artificially accelerate our intelligence if desired.

Mankind will not cease or regress in its ability but natural selection will become irrelevant as we control our own evolutionary destiny ultimately we will merge with out technology and then we will spread amongst the stars as totally different entities that is unless we destroy ourselves or are destroyed within the next few centuries.

i disagree, human cognitive reasoning hasnt changed but intelligence has certainly increased in some cultures and decreased in some. just go to an inner city school. those people do not have the same intelligence as leonardo da vinci, einstein, or my personal favorite, Neil DeGrass Tyson. Intelligence is a learned attribute, you cant be intelligent if you do not have the capacity or motivation to learn.

a reply to: V22tech

You read ATS and realize natural selection has ended. In an age of the internet, with masses amount of information available you'd think people would be wiser, and more intelligent.

But sadly no. All ATS does is propagate the madness, but it's still fun to watch.

Not to be a buzzkill but people are still evolving and we're not actually becoming less intelligent. Idiocracy is a movie. Google something like "are humans still evolving," spend a few minutes looking through the results, update your worldview and move on.

originally posted by: V22tech
What makes you think population of a species has anything to do with the evolution superiority of that species? India has over a billion people and they are barely above throwing spears at eachother.

What makes you think propensity toward violence is a hallmark of a superior species?

It still does take place in the real world, with all the biological invaders that infect the system, although modern advances have helped only temporarily, or at least avoid fatalities. Psychology wise, we have somewhat calmed down, just the means of deadly machinery have gotten more technical and large scale, and social-media technology has dumb ed the population somewhat.

Also, with the large amount of population concentrated in areas like cities, objects(peoples) are more then likely to crash. The jungle becomes a concrete one.

Intelligence is a tricky one, but that is the point of intelligence, being tricky.

The overall point of natural selection, so far seems to be to avoid death what ever environment, circumstance or predator.

I totally understand your objective stance. As horrible as it sounds, there are children who have genetic diseases which would have killed the child in the past. Now with medicine some diseases are able to be cured but that medicine doesn't change the genetic predisposition to that condition. The child grows up to have children which carry on these defective genes. Also with the elderly who are demented, unable to care for themselves put in full time nursing homes. These people are shells totally feebled pumped full of medication when they would have naturally died many years ago. Instead they are in state care which is a drain on the public health system. If euthanasia were introduced it would eradicate this suffering.

I'm only stating objective observations - I personally feel very different.

really? i had no idea it was a movie. We are becoming less intelligent even if you don't think so. I didn't state we weren't evolving, i said natural selection stopped killing off the stupid and the weak, producing a low IQ majority of people as is evident in inner city schools. I can google things to back up my OP as well pal.

i never said a propensity for violence is a hallmark of a superior species, i simply was making a point.

yes, unfortunately the most brutal but assured way of eradicating genetic diseases and disorders would be to test every human, identify those who are carriers and eradicate them. cruel i know, but it is reality. As far as i know you cant test for intelligence in an unborn, all you can do is mix "superior" eggs and sperm and hope for the best.

What is the name of our solar system???
I don't remember learning it in school!

India up till recently has been relatively improvished and uncoddled. Living was very much a struggle for many of it's citizens! It even included a whole class of people that were forced to struggle to survive!

Going by your theory that lower class should be very much genetically pure by now and yet the amount of birth defects in india seem to be higher than ours!

What is killing america is that we have leaders who want the people stupid and dumb!
These leaders who write the laws will kill any new idea before it gets off the ground to preserve the the established ways on behalf of their friends who have firmly embedded themselves into a position to dominate an industry!
We don't need to inflict more hardship on the people to correct anything. We need purge our leadership and replace it with sane leaders!

a reply to: dawnstar

What is the name of our solar system???
I don't remember learning it in school!

That's a joke, right?
I get it.

a reply to: V22tech

Modern geneticists claim that when modern humans appeared, evolution was essentially over.
I will quote Stephen Gould (he was an American palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist and historian of science):

" There’s been no biological change in humans in 40,000 or 50,000 years. Everything we call culture and civilization we’ve built with the same body and brain" --Stephen J. Gould, 2000

So all the modern immense advances in science and medicine, were all achieved without further evolution....we have not changed in the past 50000 years.

a reply to: V22tech

How about the degeneration of the "Y" chromosome.

In 15,000 years or so, it is likely that the Y chromosome will have sustained enough damage to become inviable. This means that there will be no males anymore.

Surely the intelligence to either repair or replace the damaged Y is an evolutionary advantage of intelligence on the human species.

If we fall back into a dark age again, it is likely that it will be the end of the species,

Idiocracy ... no truer movie has ever been made. It's unfolding before our eyes. Take a long hard look. What's in the movie is the future world as it will be. Betchya.

a reply to: Phage
lol

darwination

this planet has some chance to be perfectly sterile by the time we are done evolving

a reply to: V22tech

While I agree with your general premise, what I saw missing was a solution to a very bleak yet user-friendly future.

(oooh! Something shiny. . . . . . )

a reply to: Phage
no the op is knocking people for not knowing the name of our solar system!
I got news for him!!
I did a google search and it seems that there are many people that don't know the name of our solar system!
Mainly because there is no formal name for it!!!
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