What is the end of evolution?

Originally posted by Aggie Man


You clearly are not a geneticist. Have you even studied evolution/genetics? The fallacy in your logic is that we have control over external stimuli...we do not. Even if we did, evolution is not something one experiences in one's own lifetime. You are born the way nature intended you to be born...and genetically speaking, we remain that way until we die. During the process of procreation, we pass on our genetics and in that process there is something called genetic recombination....that, my friend, is uncontrollable and is totally random. Nature selects the fittest (those with traits favorable to the environmental conditions).

EDIT: it sounds to me like you are talking about a spiritual awakening. That is not evolution and it can not be passed on via genetics.

[edit on 23-10-2009 by Aggie Man]

Originally posted by Essan


Actually, I think it'd be the opposite.

Evolution is all about groups of one species having to change to adapt to a changing environment. If there was no change then there would be no evolution.

It's catastrophes that speed up evolution - though they don't need to be global. Hence 2 groups of the same species my find themselves seperated. One experiences a change in environment and evolves to survive it, the other does not. Thus a new species appears - but it's ancestral species may still exist (hence, homo sapien may have coexisted on Earth alongside homo erectus)

With no environmental change there will nbe little or no evolution. Without the odd meterorite impact, flood basalt eruption or plate tectonics we'd still all be dinosaurs.

There is no destination for us to reach. The destination is only a human virtue. The purpose of life is to live. There is no other purpose.

Originally posted by Mike_A
reply to post by Conclusion

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What I meant was that evolution does not follow a linear path of forms.

In other words it doesn't go amoeba > fish > mammal > human etc

The future evolution of of any organism today cannot be predicted because it depends on environmental drivers that are currently unknown. It may be that our evolutionary future is back to something like a chimp, if that's what the future environment favours.



But then that would be de-evolution. But that is a good point.


# development: a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage); "the development of ...
# (biology) the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

By definition evolution will especially go toward a more advanced stage so de-evolving back to primates could not happen.

Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
reply to post by spy66

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No we're not. You must not be terribly familiar with human behavior at all Hate to tell all the woo-woo dreamers and would-be rock band gurus on this thread... but about 80% (rough estimate) of the stuff you do every day is an automated, instinctual response to stimuli in your environment. We are animals. We behave like animals, we respond like animals, we live, breed, and die like animals and carry the exact same urges and drives.

Trying to pretend you're something special is a sign of insecurity in your own nature

Our human behavior is done by our own choice. How we act and interact is done by choice. Your personality is yours by choice. You can also change your personality by creating a new one. No other animal can do what we can do with our mind. And no other animal has the ability to make the choices that we can make.

Originally posted by Conclusion
reply to post by Annee

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I like the way you break things down. Very easy to understand. Which means very good form. Very nice.

Originally posted by ZenOnKwalsky
sorry but cant stayn silent
There is one flaw in Your reasoning- if there was such a thing as evolution, and we are not quite sure, the Evolution as postulated by the sciencists is over for the human kind...at least for the the Westen Culture and civilised parts of it we can say more about de-Evolution...
Why? simply: evolution is the survival of the fittest...where you can see it in the West?? The new born deaths rate is infinitely close to zero. And teoreticly the fittest as winner always is able to spread his genes to the next generations.
How many top sciencists has more than 1-2 children?? And who is breeding without limit??? Atetntion!- Im not judging them but the final product of our world will be not pure energy but rather the social aid "raper" peoples...

Originally posted by IAF101
Scientifically speaking the natural end to evolution is extinction.

All creatures are meant to get extinct.

As for modern day humanity, due to medical science and the like, one may be duped into thinking that we as a species are not evolving but on the contrary evolution is an ongoing process. Some evolutionary mutants may be ignored if they severely affect a person's life but other favorable mutations that make people smarter, stronger etc are allowed to propagate through out the human gene pool.

Pretty soon when selective embryonic genes can be manipulated, most babies will have all the negative traits taken out of their DNA eliminating the need for a LOT of medical care. In essence humanity will be able to direct its own evolutionary path.

Ultimately, it is not nature but humanity itself that will decide what we will become as a species.

Originally posted by Annee
Death of thought.

As I believe nothing really exists but energy - intelligent conscious energy.

That everything is an illusion created by energy thought. Only Death of thought - cease of energy existence is the end of all.

Originally posted by sicklecell
Like others have already said, animals (including humans) dont necessarily 'keep evolving' if they already survive and function in their environment. There is no need to.

A good example of this is the 'Great white shark' which has survived for millions of years unchanged because it is already perfectly suited to its environment.

Originally posted by Conclusion
reply to post by redoubt

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Dang it. Your reply was better than mine. lol. Good job.