Fundamentalists, this is not the thread for you.

I've been thinking lately about human evolution. Evolution is a process that affects all species, and there is no reason to believe it has stopped working in mankind. In fact, it is well known that species which have to suddenly adapt to a new environment evolve more rapidly than others. Now, in the past 10,000 years, just 1% of the time in which modern Homo sapiens has existed, we've witnessed the creation and flourishing of civilization, by far the most dramatic change of environment our species has ever faced. Change in our environment has been accelerating at even more incredible rates since the Industrial Revolution.

It stands to reason, then, that human evolution must also be accelerating, right? No doubt that with a new environment there will be new criteria for selecting who lives to pass on their genes, and those criteria will manifest themselves in the genetic code of our descendants.

But are we overlooking a critical factor? With the rise of sanitation and modern medicine, it has been possible to save the majority of people who, in the wild, would otherwise have died from poor genes. People with debilitating disabilities and diseases of a genetic origin are often now able to stay alive and reproduce. Certain symptoms of these conditions that might otherwise repel potential mates are also minimized, and they may even appear to be perfectly normal. So, if all these people with poor genes are allowed to live in safety with the help of modern civilization, might we actually be slowing down the process of evolution?

What are your thoughts on this? Is our evolution speeding up, slowing down, or staying the same? What do you think is the next evolutionary step for our species?

P.S. Here is another thing to think about. How much is mate selection these days based on genes, and how much is it based on personality characteristics? And what effect does that have on our evolution?
ermitonto Reviewed by ermitonto on . Thinking About Human Evolution Fundamentalists, this is not the thread for you. I've been thinking lately about human evolution. Evolution is a process that affects all species, and there is no reason to believe it has stopped working in mankind. In fact, it is well known that species which have to suddenly adapt to a new environment evolve more rapidly than others. Now, in the past 10,000 years, just 1% of the time in which modern Homo sapiens has existed, we've witnessed the creation and flourishing of civilization, by Rating: 5