Next Evolutionary Step?

ballsymchugh

Rabies wrote: »

Humans are no longer adapting to their environment, we've been adapting it for a thousands of years.

yeah we are. like someone said, we're losing wisdom teeth, but it's not that they're useless, it's because the lower jaw is getting smaller and there's just no space for them. this started about 40,000 years ago when the lads discovered fire and began cooking their food, which was then easier to chew.
then in a few generations when everyone is all the same colour, we'll have to go back in time to get jobs and put the money in the bank so that it'll get enough interest to pay for our lives in the future... taking their jerbs!

now, what i would like is a detector that will tell you which girl not to bother trying to chat up either because she's got an unbelievably annoying squeaky voice, or she's got no intention of lobbing the gob.

Capt'n Midnight

a prehensile tail would be good
the ability to digest grass and leaves and fruits
seeing in infrared and uv
selective hearing and movable ears and ability to hear from low freq to high freq
gills
the ability to remember stuff properly

Capt'n Midnight

Malty_T wrote: »

Most cells contain water (correct?) water is such a unique substance that it specific heat capacity is lowest at a around body temp (namely 37ºC), which means we're more energy efficient - Good for survival methinks.:D

most reactions double their rates for each 10ºC termperature rise. So mammals can process food and energy and muscles and stuff faster than cold reptiles. Also means our emzymes and stuff can be optimised, instead of needing several different pathways for different temperatures.

37ºC is a compromise between needing to burn up too much energy to keep us too hot and being able to run away from warmed up reptiles. Also once we settled on a temp we can't go much above it, becaue we are so optimised for it. This is why reptiles can take greater heat then we can.

specific heat capacity ?
doesn't change much with temperature , and we use evaporation for cooling , whereas reptiles just go with the flow

Smart Bug

That's a complex question to answer. I'm a layman in this field but I'll stick my oar in anyway.

If things remain the same (environment, economy) I reckon human evolution will remain at a standstill as we will just invent new technology to fulfill whatever needs/wants we have, thus negating our bodies needs to adapt to differing circumstances.

However the environment is not going to remain the same, it's going to change for the worse. Leaving aside the question of whether humanity will survive this change, if we do we will have to adapt to it. Now technology could negate evolution here, unless economies collapse rendering civilisation to a pre-industrial state. If this happens, all bets are off. Only the strongest will survive and there'll be no mass immunisations, no abundant antibiotics or medical procedures to save lives.

Ah, I love baseless conjecture.

WeeBushy

Riddle101 wrote: »

Hey i'm not pretending to be an expert on Evolution or anything, and i'm not claiming to know anymore then I do. But evolution is a mystery and you are right,

Evolution is not a mystery, it very well understood by many people.

Riddle101 wrote: »

Evolution does not have a mind of it own(Depending on what you believe). but it finds a way.

I dont care what you (or anyone else) believes, it doesn't change the fact that evolution does not have a mind of its own.

Riddle101 wrote: »

As for whether humans will evolve anymore, well I was only guessing in terms that humans proberly want evolve significantly. I mean we've come a long long way from our primitive ancestors. Any new evolution to us will proberly be small such as being able to cope in a new enviornment. But you're right again, we can't predict the future and that's why this thread was made, so that we can atleast guess what might be next for evolution.

That's grand speculate away, but base it on something sensible at least.

trinity troll

+1 on infinite sets of teeth and gills.

Also

tastebuds on fingertips (like a fly)
Increased range of smells detecteable (only a case of switching on inactivated genes)
tetrachromal vision (like a birds)
infrared pits (like what a snake)
a "defence mode" where male genitalia can be retracted into the body (like a rhino)
Air sacs in our lungs for increased oxygen intake (like a bird)
Increase in the range of frequencies detectable by our ears
Better night vision

Smart Bug

trinity troll wrote: »

+1 on infinite sets of teeth and gills.

Also

tastebuds on fingertips (like a fly)

What happens tho when you have to clean out your jacks and you can't find the rubber gloves?

Or when you encounter the dreaded hole in the wad of tp you're using to mop up the outer rim?

antodeco

Im going to throw something extra in this thread. If we combine all of us becoming the one colour, having smaller lower jaws, our bodys becoming less physical (smaller muscle tone) and becoming more intelligent (with an increase in brain size) it leads to something very odd. Perhaps in the future, light will be lower (large cloud formations/toxic air limiting the amount of sunlight through) our eyes will need to become bigger to allow for better vision. Adding up all of these, makes you realise that we could theoretically look like this. This is why if the whole "time travel" thing does exist (in a time where the population is extremley low) we have people seeing these now.

I know its a weird conspiracy bit Im throwing in, but makes you wonder!