Homo Sapiens

awmygawd · Guru

Homo Sapiens

abre les ojos · Guru

If George Bush has his way we don't stand a chance...

Seriously tho. I think we have a fair shot at being around for at least another 500 years. Every generation has had armageddons too. WWII remember killed over 50 million people. The black death, several millions. AIDS, nuclear weapons. Somehow we always seem to pull through. Its taken us billions of years to get to this point; a mean feat considering all the organisms that have died out...

Truth is we don't know. No one knows for sure; not even Nostradamus I'm afraid...

game · Guru

what?how?are you sure?are you saying we are headlong into extinction?i dont think so.i think the human race has just found a new sense of meaning to life.since what was abnormal has now become normal,and the west is in disarray,its values have become increasingly discredited,revolutionaly movements from across the globe now challenge the assumption that western societies are the best there is.

instead of religions,people now create their own avenues of trust,since everything imposed by the west is in limbo of uncertanity,we tend to create our own directions and muddle through them to survive.this is in no way a sign of extinction,look at the impending threat of overpopulation,mass migration of people from one place to another.it means that everyone is in search of something new,do you call that mutation?

NYASALAND · Senior Member

Awmygawd, are you sure we are getting the right opinions to this posting here? I see one of the views here being part of the problem we wont be able to have homo sapiens and see them the way we have been able to know them in future.

awmygawd · Guru

Right Nyas'. I'm not talking of extinction per se. Think Darwin. For instance, when it becomes possible to concieve babies to spec, how long will it take before people start having really outlandish features like 300 IQ for 'normal'. Will 'people' eventually decide to call themselves something other than Homo 'Sapiens'? How soon will that be? Has the process already started?

abre les ojos · Guru

awmygawd wrote:

Right Nyas'. I'm not talking of extinction per se. Think Darwin. For instance, when it becomes possible to concieve babies to spec, how long will it take before people start having really outlandish features like 300 IQ for 'normal'. Will 'people' eventually decide to call themselves something other than Homo 'Sapiens'? How soon will that be? Has the process already started?

One thing you have to understand is that even our intelligence as humans (or at least some of us) is a result of evolution. Our ability to understand DNA and modify future generations is a learnt one. We've evolved to be here, to know what we know and to be able to design ourselves.

The things that have become standard today, like IVF, organ transplants and cloning would have been scary or impossible 100 years ago and had the church screaming. Our ethics change too and we might think its going to far now, but soon it might be common place.

awmygawd · Guru

We evolved to be here, yes. Evolution is a constant process. The next phase of human 'evolution' interest's me in that while the main driver of our evolution to this point has been the need to adapt to the natural environment, this time new man made factors e.g economics & scientific knowledge are likely to affect the process, particularly in terms of how fast it unfolds.

game · Guru

awmygawd wrote:

Right Nyas'. I'm not talking of extinction per se. Think Darwin. For instance, when it becomes possible to concieve babies to spec, how long will it take before people start having really outlandish features like 300 IQ for 'normal'. Will 'people' eventually decide to call themselves something other than Homo 'Sapiens'? How soon will that be? Has the process already started?

do you know that man's intelligence evolves but not in biological context?as homo sapiens,we are still intact in growth,still walk upright unless you have a crocked back,200 years from now even a million, homo sapiens will still be the same but the thinking gradually changes according to the status quo,its common sense.right now genes and DNA is used to make clones,come two hundred million years from now the same will be used for IQ inplants,its the thinking that evolves.

there is a sense of underlying panic which is intensified by some factors in human existance,and these have never been previously figured in calculations for the future,you think of darwin,i think of the spectre of nuclear holocaust,this in its own is an outlandish feature which is regarded as normal,remember when neuclear weapons and nerve gases were a quick solution to world peace,now they are a threat to humanity,what was normal then is abnormal now,does this tell you that the process has already began?

abre les ojos · Guru

awmygawd wrote:

We evolved to be here, yes. Evolution is a constant process. The next phase of human 'evolution' interest's me in that while the main driver of our evolution to this point has been the need to adapt to the natural environment, this time new man made factors e.g economics & scientific knowledge are likely to affect the process, particularly in terms of how fast it unfolds.

At the end of the day isn't it wise that we all enjoy the life we have now and make the most of it, don't forget to reproduce before you go too.

We have an obligation to posterity don't we?

I don't think evolution comes in phases as such. There are no intermediary states leading to an outcome. For instance bird's feathers might have started out as scales and there several phases of changes all important to its survival that led to feathers. Feathers are probably not the end of the change, but the content of our atmoshpere; gravity etc, make feathers seem perfectly designed for the purpose. Okay I'm rambling.

Adaptability is what its about. Even now. Scientific discovery is part of adaptability. Everything you mentioned above is part of it. Even the manmade factors you talk about are evolutionary i.e. the ability to modify our environment and create tools.

Nature is completely dispassionate about it. Even if we are not ourselves. A simple disease could wipe out mankind.

awmygawd · Guru

We could even end up evolving in the wrong direction. People generally live in highly controlled environments, completely insulated from what the natural alternative would be. That's why any loss of that control leaves us completely helpless e.g in the aftermath of natural disasters (c.f Katrina)...

-- Edited by awmygawd at 17:46, 2006-06-22

abre les ojos · Guru

awmygawd wrote:

We could even end up evolving in the wrong direction. People generally live in highly controlled environments, completely insulated from what the natural alternative would be. That's why any loss of that control leaves us completely helpless e.g in the aftermath of natural disasters happen (c.f Katrina)...

I see what you mean. That we might create a situation that is deterimental to our own survival due to our hubris or carelessness. The more "modern" a society is the further it is from the "natural" environment. The trade off is that we have indoor plumbing, less exposure to germs that might kill us etc. But then again there's more air pollution, cancer, heart disease...

Loss of control has always resulted in helplessnes. In humans and all animals too. Probably the evolution of the belief in a deity and subsequently religion is one of the results of this knowledge. Religion gives us hope, albeit false hope, to free our minds to keep on hunting and mating and basically getting on with life.

We have to accept that in some future period we all will be exinct. Whether we'll be the cause it it (highly likely) or some unforseen natural disaster. We can't help it. Dinosaurs died out, so did other seemingly well adjusted animals. We're not sure why or how.

Life is so fleeting and yet so precious I suppose we ought to enjoy it the best we can eh? I mean think of the pain other animals have to endure, other humans around the world too.