Evolution in general has not stopped. Evolution of humankind hasn't even stopped, although it is now dramatically different, because we're selecting for different things. In the old days, it was survival of the fittest, only the strongest/smartest/toughest were able to spread their genes into the gene pool. Now, we keep the infirm, retarded, sickly members of society alive, usually long enough that their genes go right back into the pool. Not to mention that the smartest members of society tend to think long-term and with global population rising so rapidly, and resources to support the population shrinking, they tend to have fewer children. And the dumbest and/or least educated members of society tend to have *lots* of kids, which pushes their genes to the forefront in the global genetic pool. So, while evolution is still occurring, we're probably not really evolving in a positive way anymore.

That's just humans though; other species are improving, because for them it is still survival of the fittest. It's easy to see the effects on rapid-turnaround species, with diseases selecting for drug and antibiotic resistance and so on. Heck, there are 39 *new* diseases in the last few decades, that didn't exist at all 100 years ago. (Of course, there are far more species that have gone extinct in that time, so I'm not sure the planet is evolving new species at the same rate as it is losing old ones. Probably not.)

Our lack of finding signs of intelligent life via SETI and so on is a little troubling. Granted, we haven't looked very hard at all. But it occurred to me that there could be a scary reason why we aren't picking up the signals of other intelligences in the general vicinity (say, within 10,000 light years). My theory is that we *are* picking up such signals, but the other intelligent races keep their data encrypted to the extent that it just looks like garbage noise. (Open up a .RAR file with a hex editor, for example, and you will see that it is almost entirely garbage, or at least looks like random data.) But then, *why* are they encrypting their data so that it's not intelligible to other races in other star systems? And my theory is that there's some race or species out there that is hostile to all others and when *it* detects signalling indicative of intelligent life, it wipes them out, leaving only those races smart enough to keep their data encrypted. And it's heading our way, or will be as soon as it hears our signals. We first began announcing our intelligence in a big way beginning with the first live video broadcasts of the 1939 Olympics in Nazi Germany, so anything within 68 light years has now probably heard about us. Hopefully 'The Destroyer' is further than that, and won't get here in my lifetime.
jamstigator Reviewed by jamstigator on . Seed of intelligent life The Hubble picture of the galaxy at first got me thinking how insignificant we really are which then got me on to something i had banging round my head a few years ago which was this. Maybe we are the only intelligent life in the universe, sure they maybe micro-organisms ,aquatic life possibly even land based mammals scattered all over the place but as far as being able to communicate, plan and act upon, i think it's quite possible, given the critical planetary and climatic conditions that Rating: 5