[Poordogabone]

The human ability to innovate out of a jam is profound.That’s why Darwin will always be right, and Malthus will always be wrong.” -K.R. Sridhar

I keep smiling every time I stumble on the above quote that is used by another member as his signature. It makes for a catchy phrase but the author should have stuck to what he knows best like engineering.
A common misconception about evolution is that it has a particular direction. a sort of invisible guide force that always goes from simple to complex, mediocre to splendid, small brains to big brains, poor technological intelligence to high technological intelligence.
While it is true that you could point at plenty examples that fit that notion there is no such force in action. "Evolution" the word itself is widely misinterpreted.
Unfortunately there is no simple word for "adaptive changes of species to their present environment".
There is a lot of examples of creature evolving into what would appear to us as less complex, a mole comes from a creature that had useful eyes, penguins and ostriches ancestors could fly, a horse hoof was evolved over eons from an apparently more complex amphibian hand structure.
Evolving a big brain seem to have serve a young new bipedal specie very well so far, but it is too early to call. That powerful organ that once helped us survive when we were at the mercy of nature could become a liability now that nature is somewhat at our mercy. Current sciences points to negative effects from homo sapiens activity on the biosphere which sustains them.There is no rules in nature that would prevent us in the future, assuming we don't go extinct while still in our infancy, from evolving smaller brains if that is what is required to survive. The environment is the ultimate decider and human intelligence is over rated.

[Pops]

Pretty funny since Darwin considered Malthus' Principles of Population "the key to the idea of natural selection"...
"...I saw, on reading Malthus on Population, that natural selection was the inevitable result of the rapid increase of all organic beings..."
--Darwin's "The Variations Of Animals and Plants under Domestication":

Darwin intuited that evolution never sleeps, it never quits, it's never "done". Each recombination of dna is a crapshoot, every mistake in the code is an opportunity either for something good to happen or something bad. Given enough rolls of the dice, random chance will produce a winner while all the bad rolls crap out down evolutionary dead ends.

I think you could argue that the phrase "The human ability to innovate out of a jam" – especially a "jam" such as population overshoot, is actually more akin to the Flat Earthers who derided both Malthus and Darwin and saw humans as "perfected", post- or probably non-evolutionary, apart and above nature.

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[ralfy]

From what I remember, it's not mutation alone that's involved but the environment. Thus, it's the environment that will determine whether or not any "mistakes" in the code will be beneficial or not for the organism. Hence, "natural selection."

[Pops]

You'e right, I thought that it was obvious that the random genetic combinations that made me amazingly intelligent as well as incredibly good looking aren't necessarily beneficial in their own right but more in the context of competition in the natural world, i.e.; dive bars, wedding receptions, office parties, etc.

[ralfy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection

That is, the environment will allow some with particular traits to survive, thus ensuring that such traits are passed on to offspring.

In which case, we should see increasing numbers of intelligent and good-looking people worldwide.

[Rod_Cloutier]

We may cause our own extinction, but in the process of having a civilization, we are forcing other creatures to evolve or perish.

I've seen a few video's where scientists claim that we are 'Selecting for intelligence' with other animal species on the planet. Most evolutionary steps are tit for tat; one species creates a novel gene that allows it to get ahead for awhile, and then other species are forced to evolve or perish to catch up. The question becomes, what will replace humans when we've killed ourselves off?

Intelligent octopuses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kuAiuXezIU

Intelligent raccoons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoVwD8ZNNyg

By becoming intelligent as an evolutionary advantage, were forcing other creatures to become intelligent to compete with us.

[dolanbaker]

The question becomes, what will replace humans when we've killed ourselves off?

Rodents!

They may suffer a mass die-off when humans are gone, but are more likely to recover and fill the gap afterwards first.

[Tanada]

Our brain gave us the ability to become tool makers, and tools made us the top predator on the planet. A Bengal Tiger is out competed by a tribe of humans armed with Bamboo spears, and that change took place about 40,000 ybp.

[vision-master]

Our brain gave us the ability to become tool makers, and tools made us the top predator on the planet. A Bengal Tiger is out competed by a tribe of humans armed with Bamboo spears, and that change took place about 40,000 ybp.

Yes, BUT, where did this come from, who were our makers? The evidence points towards forbidden knowledge. We were not created by god and not created by apes to humans through evolution.

Do your own research, look at the actual physical evidence without preconceived ideas. Sometime in our ancient past, likely 12,000 + years ago 'we' or 'them' had advanced machining technology greater than what we have today.