[vaseline2008]

As I have been more conscientious about the world around me I have come to one conclusion regarding Human Evolution: The next stage in Human Evolution will be the result of a catastrophic event where a large portion of the human race dies off.

How can I be so sure of this you ask? I look back at the not so distant past when the Black Plague and Spanish Flu killed off many of the humans that were on the planet. Those that survived gave birth to generations of humans better adept to handle future diseases such as HIV/AIDS. This is human evolution happening right before our eyes.

With advancements in biotechnology and medical science humans have been able to combat and win over many ailments and diseases. Vaccines for all sorts of diseases have been invented as well as preventive measures and treatments. The chances of a biological disaster in the human population is quite low now with all of our advancements in all areas of technology including the ability to communicate more rapidly and efficiently.

Ray Kurzweil confidently predicts that in the future man and machine will meld to create a "Singularity" (not a black hole), what I call Humanity 2.0. He predicts that through science humans will one day be able to achieve immortality, most likely in a number of stages (uploading your brain onto a "drive", using cloned organs, etc...). Weather or not humans end up looking like The Borg or not we are already fiddling around with cybernetic implants and genetic manipulation with the ability to sequence synthetic DNA to create a new and unique lifeform. With advancements in medical technology it really isn't too far-fetched. As scientists get ever more powerful tools at their disposal scientific and medical advancements accelerate. For example, it took over a decade to complete the Human Genome Project. Today NEC has invented a DNA Analyzer that is about the size of a large briefcase that can analyze DNA in 25 minutes.

For all intents and purposes, it could safely be said that humanity is now in control of our evolutionary process and future. So on to Natural Selection. Because of technology we are now able to bypass environmental disasters with relative ease. Think of all those who evacuated New Orleans prior to Katrina. Now you might say, not everyone made it out, many died. Now that brings up my next point, and the most critical of my whole piece. The majority of the people who didn't make it out were the "have nots". All those who had the ability and resources to get out of town when CNN first broke the news did so.

With advancements in robotics and Artificial Intelligence research, it is not inconceivable to picture a future where human labor is going to be replaced by robots. Cars that drive themselves, aircraft that fly unattended, why would it be so difficult to imagine a Combiner that would run off of GPS and harvest an entire field without human supervision? This would pretty much make the Middle and Lower Classes obsolete. If you remove those humans from the equation, then there is plenty of energy resources to power such devices.

With the current state of the world, wealth concentrating at the top with policies and sentiment to reinforce this, the wealthiest are able to marry the best looking, smartest, brightest and healthiest among the human race. Should immortality be achieved, it will the be wealthy who get it, not the poor. The future of human evolution will be the dieoff of the "have nots" and the "haves" will lay the foundation for the next stage in human evolution. All technology is only available to those with the purchasing power to obtain it. The rich do live longer than the poor because of the technology and resources available to them.

Most members of PO do believe that we are consuming Earth's resources at an unsustainable rate. When the majority of the human population is priced out of necessary resources, arable land, water, energy, etc... what incentive will the Haves have to "spread the wealth"? Why would the Haves give up the quality of their lifestyle to help out the Have Nots? Peak Oil doesn't seem to help matters, unless you are a Have, aka the 1%.

Although the future is not yet written, the chances of such a future from my observations has the highest probable chance. One other note, although many of the Haves inherited their wealth, many have obtained wealth on their own, so it is possible for someone to rise to the top and "make the cut". Please post any faults and arguments against my observations and hypothesis.

[vision-master]

As I have been more conscientious about the world around me I have come to one conclusion regarding Human Evolution: The next stage in Human Evolution will be the result of a catastrophic event where a large portion of the human race dies off.

The next stage in Human Evolution will be thru Psychedelics -> The Psychedelic Experience

[Plantagenet]

I look back at the not so distant past when the Black Plague and Spanish Flu killed off many of the humans that were on the planet. Those that survived gave birth to generations of humans better adept to handle future diseases such as HIV/AIDS. This is human evolution happening right before our eyes.

Just because your great grand-dad survived the 1918 flu epidemic doesn't make you any more resistant to HIV/AIDS or any other disease. You probably aren't even immune to the 1918 flu virus. People are evolving, but random mass die-offs due to plagues and diseases probably doesn't contribute much in the way of evolution.

The chances of a biological disaster in the human population is quite low now with all of our advancements in all areas of technology including the ability to communicate more rapidly and efficiently.

Hard to say. Since major pandemics like the Black Death only occur every few hundred years, nature probably hasn't produced a real killer virus since the 1918 flu epidemic.

Because of technology we are now able to bypass environmental disasters with relative ease.

Much of the 3rd world doesn't have access to high technology. In poor countries, more people are killed by natural disasters now then at any time in the past, because human population is so large. The Indian Ocean tsunami alone killed 250,000 people. Hurricanes hitting Bangladesh in the mid-1960s killed many hundreds of thousands of people each time a storm hit.

This would pretty much make the Middle and Lower Classes obsolete. If you remove those humans from the equation, then there is plenty of energy resources

Your ideas here about the future are similar to Hitler's plan for eastern Europe----Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

Most members of PO do believe that we are consuming Earth's resources at an unsustainable rate. When the majority of the human population is priced out of necessary resources, arable land, water, energy, etc... what incentive will the Haves have to "spread the wealth"? Why would the Haves give up the quality of their lifestyle to help out the Have Nots?

Many people actually do want to help the less fortunate.

Please post any faults and arguments against my observations and hypothesis.

Your vision of a future world divided into rich people living long lives in luxury while the poor live mean, brutish and short lives below them is similar to the vision of the future that HG Wells put forward in his famous novel "The Time Machine" over a century ago where the human race winds up divided between the blonde wispy Eloi people and the dark, bestial Morlock people. I suggest you read his novel.

[Rod_Cloutier]

Extinction is a common natural phenomna as well. Anyone who say's humans are exempt from this is telling you a tall tale.

This former atheist who had a near death experience; where God showed him the future of humans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFh988kskZM

A low tech future where people can telepatically grow their own food. (I've had a NDE myself, but even I had difficulty believing this).

[vaseline2008]

Your vision of a future world divided into rich people living long lives in luxury while the poor live mean, brutish and short lives below them is similar to the vision of the future that HG Wells put forward in his famous novel "The Time Machine" over a century ago where the human race winds up divided between the blonde wispy Eloi people and the dark, bestial Morlock people. I suggest you read his novel.

And that is not happening in this day and age?

Yes, a favorite read of mine as well.

As for the Black Plague and resistance to AIDS, please research CCR5-delta 32.

Since Evolution is based on competition, what other measure of competition in human society is there other than wealth? Just because you have great genes in this day and age does not guarantee survival. On the other hand, lots of money and wealth increases your chances significantly but with no guarantees, I.E. JFK, Jr, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Lee, and the list goes on and on...

[SeaGypsy]

The concept is much older, it was first prophesied in the Bhagavad Gita. Orwell plagiarized it.

[Outcast_Searcher]

republicans are anti-science. Their platform denies global warming, is against reasonable population control, anti-environmental, desperate for unavailable energy, and against sensible national health policies. I find it curious one would lecture on medical issues?

PSTARR, you're right as far as the anti-science issue and the GOP.

However, the left is insane when it comes to economics. The idea that you can have endless redistributive programs and support unproductive behavior (like not working or paying federal taxes but wanting endless entitlements) is just as unworkable and unreasonable long term, as the GOP is about science denial.

So -- if you want the GOP to quit lecturing (unreasonably) about medical issues -- let's see the left quit lecturing (unreasonably) about endlessly increasing untenable giveaway programs and whiningly saying things like "shame shame shame" to anyone on the right who points out economic reality and wants to avoid becoming Greece.

Of course, THAT'S gonna happen...

And BTW, before you attack me as being selfish, I am personally providing work at a good living wage to three unemployed folks, who aren't afraid to do some work in exchange for a good wage -- mainly to help them out. And I would LOVE to see my tax money spent for high quality (effective) education K-12, college grants, AND retraining programs for adults -- educated people are more employable and more productive (generally).

[sparky]

.
pandemics are not unusual and are a recurring event
they have quite a large influence on human evolution
they discourage inbreeding

inbreeding favorise local adaptation
inbreeding decrease genetic variability

that's why sex was such a success , it keep mixing the gene pool
the larger the pool the more options there are to avoid or survive an infection
it's like a moving target for the bugs

the Amerid populations evolved from a narrow group of hunter- gatherers
the natural tendency for local inbreeding pruned further their gen pool ,
when they go exposed to the full range of old world diseases ,
they had a inadequate set of genes variation to work some ( relative ) imunity

inbreeding and incest are some of the oldest tabus ,through times and place
the often mentionned Egyptian pharaons is only partially true ,
all the children were from the same guys but there was plenty of wives
a constant flow of new genes would keep the pool clean

of course there is deep instinct to protect one's gene line ,
it is one's capital in the stock market of life
if an haplogroup breed another out , it's the end of this line

[SeaGypsy]

republicans are anti-science. Their platform denies global warming, is against reasonable population control, anti-environmental, desperate for unavailable energy, and against sensible national health policies. I find it curious one would lecture on medical issues?

PSTARR, you're right as far as the anti-science issue and the GOP.

However, the left is insane when it comes to economics. The idea that you can have endless redistributive programs and support unproductive behavior (like not working or paying federal taxes but wanting endless entitlements) is just as unworkable and unreasonable long term, as the GOP is about science denial.

So -- if you want the GOP to quit lecturing (unreasonably) about medical issues -- let's see the left quit lecturing (unreasonably) about endlessly increasing untenable giveaway programs and whiningly saying things like "shame shame shame" to anyone on the right who points out economic reality and wants to avoid becoming Greece.

Of course, THAT'S gonna happen...

And BTW, before you attack me as being selfish, I am personally providing work at a good living wage to three unemployed folks, who aren't afraid to do some work in exchange for a good wage -- mainly to help them out. And I would LOVE to see my tax money spent for high quality (effective) education K-12, college grants, AND retraining programs for adults -- educated people are more employable and more productive (generally).

There is always a gamble with 'retraining'/ upskilling investment, a percentage in any program will 'fall off the wagon'. On the other hand it has been widely proven that about 10% of adults are literacy impaired due to dyslexia alone, many of these can now use adaptive technologies to become far more capable and productive, sometimes with a quite minimal investment. On the other hand there are always people who fail to thrive in any system. It is not usually ok to just doink them on the head.

Capitalism has historically done best with unemployment between 5% & 8%. Below this band, skills dry up and it becomes very expensive to take on new hires. Above the band, unemployment creates a drag on the economy, people spend less, wages flatten.

We should remember that the social dynamic created under growth based economics is going to naturally have some serious fallout victims, many of whom may never become 'economically productive units' in a world where productivity is redefined altogether.

The left has itself stuck in a quandary right there. It cannot admit any more than the right can that there will be soon an end to growth, overall, if we are not already 'There'. There can be no admission publicly that things are actually utterly beyond control and the very foundations of our economies require urgent and utter re-evaluation.

There will need to be a Kibbutzim style evolution mandated by the welfare state at some point in the not too distant future. That or FEMA camp- prison- farms- debt and welfare bondage. Deep down I think both sides know that's what's really coming, it's in neither's interests to speak loudly of the real long term basis of the equation.

[Plantagenet]

The anti-science democrats are an embarassment to the country. Obama's destruction of multiple major NASA science programs so he can divert the money to food stamps is a disgrace.


Obama slashes science programs at NASA, diverts money to food stamps

[vaseline2008]

IBM 'Jeopardy' Winner Watson Gets Wall Street Job

Financial services is the "next big one for us," said Manoj Saxena, the man responsible for finding Watson work. IBM is confident that with a little training, the quiz-show star that can read and understand 200 million pages in three seconds can make money for IBM by helping financial firms identify risks, rewards and customer wants mere human experts may overlook.

[Loki]

The rich do live longer than the poor because of the technology and resources available to them.

Being rich and living longer does not equal prolific breeding. And the latter is what matters when it comes to human evolution. Dying at age 52 from Type 2 diabetes will have no effect whatsoever on breeding capacity.

For a more accurate vision of the future of human evolution, see the documentary “Idiocracy.”

As for the cyberhuman fantasy, I consider it just that: fantasy. I first heard this nonsense at a Stephen Hawking lecture back in the 1990s, he claimed humans would “evolve” from biological organisms to mechanical “organisms.” Then off to the stars!

This rather ridiculous, and disturbingly dystopian, vision for humanity assumes long-term continuation of technological progress, which is based on a BAU economy. But BAU ain’t what we have in store for ourselves. Peak oil, our Ponzi economy, and most importantly, climate change will see to that.

Besides, who’s to say that technologists will be able to accurately determine what fitness is? I wouldn’t bet on it. More likely is that the first to “upload” their souls into a robot body will get hacked by spammers and spend eternity advertising free Viagra.

[Shaved Monkey]

Dont hold out too much hope for evolutions ability to make us(Western civilisation) stronger and help us survive .
Interesting fact women would chose a partner who smelt different to them
this gave genetic diversity.
The pill makes women chose partners who smell like them,reducing the genetic diversity.

http://www.livescience.com/2781-pill-wo ... mates.html

[SeaGypsy]

One fact of biology I have very personal experience of which weirds me out still after years. A woman's ability to kill sperm, preventing a pregnancy. The female immune system has in some individuals at least, evolved spermicide. Not just that, selective spermicide.

[vaseline2008]

The rich do live longer than the poor because of the technology and resources available to them.

Being rich and living longer does not equal prolific breeding. And the latter is what matters when it comes to human evolution. Dying at age 52 from Type 2 diabetes will have no effect whatsoever on breeding capacity.

For a more accurate vision of the future of human evolution, see the documentary “Idiocracy.”

If you look at the Wikipedia List of countries by life expectancy (they have the 2011 CIA Factbook numbers too) you will notice a trend of wealthier nations at the top and the poorer ones at the bottom. I don't argue the fact that it affects breeding for usually a species who's lifespan is lower than another breeds more rapidly (shorter pregnancy terms) and in greater numbers, such as flies, fish and the like. But you really can't argue if one has food and one does not the one with food will most likely survive than the one without.

Idiocracy, one of my favorite movies (What's your name? "Not Sure" ). I'm not so sure humanity will lose all knowledge and applications thereof. Sure we can use calculators and computers to solve problems more quickly but they still teach the actual equations in school and quite conveniently, Wikipedia stores those same equations on their site as well. I really don't think that we will ever stop teaching the fundamentals in school, but who knows, the future has yet to happen. But I do agree, if all the smart guys get wiped out the average Joe really doesn't have a chance at figuring out any complex equation, let alone operate a CNC machine. Thanks again for your input.

[vision-master]

' But you really can't argue if one has food and one does not the one with food will most likely survive than the one without.'

No, the one without will take whatever is needed.

[SeaGypsy]

' But you really can't argue if one has food and one does not the one with food will most likely survive than the one without.'

No, the one without will take whatever is needed.

That is a stoner thought Vision. Firstly define 'one'? There is no such thing except in the movies. People band up in strife, so the 'One' is in fact 'many' or at least a few. Thinking of it on any scale it does not come down to your conclusion until the One, splits into component parts and eats itself. Up until then it's the breadth of military strategy & competing collectives. Individualization is a by-product of the oil age.