What happens when animals evolve

Hi

Sorry if this has been discussed before though I did not find it when searching for it

I was busy reading another thread about mans evolution and how we are cousins to the apes and so on and so on.... then a question popped in to my head

What happens when animals evolve more and they get to the state that us Humans currently are at intelligence wise, yes I know us Humans will be a lot more evolved, but what happens when the animals start to understand and communicate with Humans and start to think for themselves and understand their rights, what happens when they realize just how much Humans have messed up the world.

I know it a long long time and maybe even hundreds of thousands of year away but its something to think about

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

What do you think will happen when the 1st animal asks to have its rights and its own part of earth and all the other complications that would come with it?

Any thoughts would be great

THey become space bound as the rest WE ARE ANIMALS TOO CORRECT?

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.

lamarkian evolution

Humans will continue to do everything they can, whether on purpose or not, to continue our dominance over other animals.......like eating them, killing them, allowing them to live in deplorable conditions, destroying their natural environment, making them pets, etc. In a way I think we are holding back their evolution or sending it in a different direction, at least.

Originally posted by bluedrake
lamarkian evolution

Originally posted by Signals
Humans will continue to do everything they can, whether on purpose or not, to continue our dominance over other animals.......like eating them, killing them, allowing them to live in deplorable conditions, destroying their natural environment, making them pets, etc. In a way I think we are holding back their evolution or sending it in a different direction, at least.

Absolutely. Every interaction with the environment we are altering our own and other animals evolution. Look at the research on deep sea fish getting smaller, because we are catching the big ones! Scary stuff.

Every creature that exists is a transitional species. Yes even us humans, as hard to believe that might be to some people. Hypothetically speaking, it is possible that in millions or thousands of years another one of Earth's species becomes intelligent enough to be considered human-like.

However, animals don't "decide" to evolve. Nature's course takes care of that. Intelligence in an animal species will appear only if it is necessary for that species to survive in it's environment. In other words natural selection will take care of allowing the smartest animals to procreate while the ones missing the genes to survive in an environment die out. It's a really long process too.

Humans, for example, we have no claws, are physically weaker than almost all the bigger animals, slower runners, and can't even survive naked in cold environment. Which is why we needed our brains to develop in order to have a chance of surviving. Nature took care of that over for us, over millions of years.

However, by the time some animal species gains sentience, we humans will probably be in some other planet or extinct.

Originally posted by xelamental



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.

its not that we are changing. its out offspring. that's why viruses evolve quickly, because they have a high reproduction rate. while humans and most mammals reproduce slowly (especially humans, you know because of all those pesky morals people seem to have).


and not to criticize you or Lamarck but most of his theories have been proven false by modern genetics.

Originally posted by Doc Tesla
and not to criticize you or Lamarck but most of his theories have been proven false by modern genetics.

Look it up. The evidence is mounting. My point is that the jury is still out - it's too soon to make the call, but epigenetics is a fast growing field, lamarckian in nature.

scholar.google.co.nz...

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.