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Humans haven't stopped evolving

harvardmagazine.com

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Re: Humans haven't stopped evolving

#101

Post by jareklupinski »

serious_angel wrote: post #97
saidnooneever wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I for one am glad that now people can have a healthy serving of cheese without the side effects. Do you think we will become more and more tolerant? like with the happy people? One day maybe we can drink only milk and eat only cheese, even on the sweltering summer heat. For me those days i still struggle and sometimes reluctantly find myself reverting back to greens

> Do you think we will become more and more tolerant? I do not, sorry. This question feels quite odd to see, too, frankly. I became intolerant in ~20 years just "because", and only when I checked at medics for non-related general tests, and out of the blue it showed on the results paper. And And this is when I never had any abnormal meals with it, but just casually and normally as any other one, I believe. It was lik…

lactaid

Re: Humans haven't stopped evolving

#102

Post by spider-mario »

saidnooneever wrote: post #77
chr15m wrote: post #52

Lactose tolerance is a classic example of a recently evolved trait. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence

I for one am glad that now people can have a healthy serving of cheese without the side effects. Do you think we will become more and more tolerant? like with the happy people? One day maybe we can drink only milk and eat only cheese, even on the sweltering summer heat. For me those days i still struggle and sometimes reluctantly find myself reverting back to greens

A lot of cheese is naturally lactose-free. That’s not really where most of the “danger” is for people who don’t tolerate lactose.

Re: Humans haven't stopped evolving

#103

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

vitally3643 wrote: post #99
chaz6 wrote: post #93

Does anybody think that evolution just stops? A species only stops evolving when it is wiped out.

Or when they develop a society which removes all evolutionary pressures. Evolution isn't magical, it's purely probabilistic. You can drive the probabilities down real low and then genetically engineer the rest away.

As long as all offspring aren't 100% exact clones of the parents then you'll get evolution.

In practical terms it would be impossible to genetically engineer away genetic variation (assuming you could convince people to stop having sex and visit your cloning lab instead). There are all sorts of things like DNA damage, horizontal gene transfer, and just the inherent error potential of reproduction that you would never be able to eliminate.

Of course it would also be highly undesirable to stop genetic variation, since that's what gives a species the ability to adapt and survive.

Re: Humans haven't stopped evolving

#104

Post by seanmcdirmid »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #103
vitally3643 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or when they develop a society which removes all evolutionary pressures. Evolution isn't magical, it's purely probabilistic. You can drive the probabilities down real low and then genetically engineer the rest away.

As long as all offspring aren't 100% exact clones of the parents then you'll get evolution. In practical terms it would be impossible to genetically engineer away genetic variation (assuming you could convince people to stop having sex and visit your cloning lab instead). There are all sorts of things like DNA damage, horizontal gene transfer, and just the inherent error potential of reproduction that you would never…

You’ll get mutations, not evolution. You still need natural selection to sort out the mutations which gives us evolution, and that’s a bit harder now that we don’t have to worry about being hunted down by tigers.

Anyone can reproduce and pass down their genes, so what mutations are we currently selecting? Maybe looks, but I doubt even that.

Re: Humans haven't stopped evolving

#105

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

lomlobon wrote: post #2

Isn't this obvious? Why on earth would it stop? I don't actually believe that 'humans stopped evolving' was ever a widespread belief among scientists. This article has gotta be lying to me.

Yeah, seems like either a clickbait title, or maybe they believe their readership is so misinformed as to believe that human evolution could and has stopped. I'd not be surprised if, especially in the US, a large percentage of the public does actually believe this.

Re: Humans haven't stopped evolving

#106

Post by inigyou »

nozzlegear wrote: post #98
inigyou wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has that been proven?

There are some animals that come close to having what we'd call gender roles: bonobos, some other primates (not all), and a bird called a ruff. But as far as we can tell, those animals don't have an internal "I am X gender" self concept. (Interesting note: bonobos are very fluid and change their gender roles depending on the situation and context.)

We can't talk to them, so we don't know how they feel, so of course they don't have any known internal feelings.

If you observed humans from a distance in their natural habitat for a while you probably also wouldn't find any gender.

Re: Humans haven't stopped evolving

#107

Post by eudamoniac »

thrance wrote: post #96
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #18

Given that fertility rates are currently plummeting worldwide, the principles of natural selection would dictate that humans are currently undergoing very high selection pressure for specific traits. Basically, any genetic trait that causes people today to think "You know, I think I'm going to remain childfree" is specifically selected against, and any trait that causes people to want more children will be selected f…

Why did you just assume there are genes that predict "not wanting children"? It's happening uniformly all around the world, and is much better predicted by things like wealth and freedom than anything else: cultural reasons, not heredity.

It is safe to assume pretty much any proclivity has some, however minor, genetic basis. Separated twin studies have shown enough similarities in basically every aspect of personality that it's a plausible bet.

All over the world, some groups are deciding not to have kids and some are. Globally declining fertility rate says nothing about genetic proclivity to want children unless fertility rate goes to zero.

Re: Humans haven't stopped evolving

#108

Post by inigyou »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #95
inigyou wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evolution doesn't find a solution to a problem. Instead, it finds all possible solutions. Ones which don't fit through the problem are culled. During happy times, mutation creates a variety of individuals. During stressful times, individuals who happen to have traits that help them weather the stress are the ones who survive more. Sometimes much more. That's when the evolution happens. Both parts can happen concurren…

>Both parts can happen concurrently and gradually, like those butterflies who turned black to hide in coal smoke. Do you mean the black ones survived and procreated?

Yes, but gradually. The blacker ones reproduced more. There weren't any black ones at the beginning

The opposite is the Black Death. Some people had more aggressive immune systems that were able to destroy the bacteria before it destroyed them. This is thought to have caused a jump increase in the "immune aggressivity" of European populations, causing more autoimmune diseases in subsequent generations.

Re: Humans haven't stopped evolving

#109

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

adrianN wrote: post #27
lomlobon wrote: post #2

Isn't this obvious? Why on earth would it stop? I don't actually believe that 'humans stopped evolving' was ever a widespread belief among scientists. This article has gotta be lying to me.

There are a couple of species that remain essentially unchanged for the last couple million years. Why can't humans become one of them?

Crocodiles live in the river and mate with crocodiles in the same river.

Humans live in diverse ecosystems from artic to desert to city, each with differing environmental challenges, and mate with whoever they fancy when they swipe right.

Re: Humans haven't stopped evolving

#110

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

cubefox wrote: post #73

The most terrifying evolutionary trend is that nowadays fertility is negatively correlated with intelligence. That is, there is a strong selective pressure for humans to become dumber.

Maybe AI will fix this.

We'll all be out of work, surviving off our own wits, and ability to survive and thrive will go back to being based on things we judge as desirable.

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