What happens when animals evolve, page 1
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reply posted on 5-10-2009 @ 09:00 AM by xelamental
There are two things to understand about evolution, which at first seem entirely nonsensical:

1. Evolution of a species is entirely without "direction".
There is no "good" or "bad". It's entirely on the reproduction of genes, which ones survive and which don't. If a virus comes along that wipes out all people with genes for an IQ over 100, thats evolution. If an asteroid comes and means that anyone who doesn't have a Vo2Max over 70 will die, that's evolution. Repeat with me: evolution is directionless.

2. Every organism on the planet is a transitional form. We are changing, ever so slightly, and given enough time, will be something entirely unrecognisable to us.

So to answer your questions:
Animals may or may not develop higher functions like us. Whether they do or not is entirely dependent on the environment (e.g. the genes which are selected for). It's likely we could selectively breed more intelligent animals if we wanted to for example, that would be considered evolution too.


"In fact we are helping them get there faster, not only in labs but also in our homes were our pets watch tv all day or listen to the radio all day... they must be catching on to something even if very slowly "

Evolution doesn't work like that (within an individual), or at least we don't think it does at the moment. This is called lamarkian evolution, and I personally hope it does, but sadly there is little evidence that it works this way.


reply posted on 5-10-2009 @ 10:07 AM by Lasheic
reply to post by bluedrake



What happens when animals evolve more and they get to the state that us Humans currently are at intelligence wise


Well, to begin with, we should dispel the meme that Evolution is a ladder to perfection. Our perceptions of what is "better" or "more highly evolved" are merely our perceptions - and have no bearing in the reality of genetic drift or factors of environmental attrition on allele frequencies in a population (selection).

That being said, certain motifs are apparently favored by our environment. For instance, we've continually seen examples for flight/gliding adaptations rise independently in Mammals, Birds, Insects, Reptiles, and even some fish species.



However, our current state of intelligence and cognitive ability is unique only to us in regards to our descent. Octopus, African Grey Parrots, Elephants, Dolphins, Crows, Gorillas, and other animals have shown preference to intelligence as a beneficial trait favored by natural selection. However, it's not like ours, and when you get down to it... evolution doesn't actually seem to support the idea of intelligence being a favorable trait. At least, an abundance of it. Consider that, at least in our own species, the price we pay for higher intelligence is a cranial cavity nearly too large for the pelvis to successfully give birth to. Before modern medicine, on average about 1/6 women died in childbirth. Consider, also, that our brains consume 20% of our daily caloric intake. ONE organ consumes 1/5th of our bodies total intake. Consider, also yet again, that we are the last of hominid species. Out of the dozens we know about, and the hundreds yet to be discovered, we represent the last of our line.


.... and we live in a world where, two decades after the end of the Cold War, we still live in a world where Mutually Assured Destruction remains the best defense against Nuclear Attack. And that means, they're armed and ready to go at a moment's notice to make good on that deterrent.

AbdultheImpaller asked AronRa a similar question on YouTube a few months back you might find useful in light of Aron's response.


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