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/sci/ - Science & Math

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2625198 No.2625198 [Reply] [Original]

(Reposted from /tg/)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12535647

>>While polar bears evolved thick coats of blubber to insulate them from the Arctic cold, humans could skin that polar bear, and use the pelt as clothing to keep warm.
>>Does this mean that, at some point, technological advances have stopped us evolving?

>my face

>> No.2625202

Yes.

Gene therapy will practically stop us from evolving.

>> No.2625218

Lactase persistence

>> No.2625225

Everybody knows that creatures evolve through years of inbreeding. We haven't evolved since we decided it was a bad idea because of all the retard babies or "missteps in evolution" as I like to call them.

>> No.2625259

>>2625225
Can you refrain from commenting on topics like this if you know nothing about biology.

>> No.2625260
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2625260

>>2625225

>> No.2625261

Technology, especially medicine, has reduced the disadvantage from having bad genes, and mixed with our society idea of everyone being equal, it makes us degenerate.

Not stopping evolution, we are just evolving to fit an artificial environment where you have human rights and where other people are responsible for your mistakes.

>> No.2625281

We're still evolving, only that the view we have of humans are only a couple of hundred thousand years old, social and technological evolution has completely overtaken the biological one. Now, humans are still developing though, I think the average height in western europe has risen with some 20-25cm (8-10 inches) the last 500 years.

>> No.2625316

>>2625281

>I think the average height in western europe has risen with some 20-25cm (8-10 inches) the last 500 years.

[citation needed]

I was under the impression that the height difference between modern and mediaeval Europeans has been greatly exaggerated by popular culture.

>> No.2625323

>>2625202
It'll be more like we stop using dice for stats and instead we get access to pointbuy.

>> No.2625346

>>2625316
And even if it isn't thats more than likely due to greatly improved diets, doesn't matter how tall your DNA is if you get a very poor diet as a child.

>> No.2625516

for humans to evolve it needs two things.
1. benafitual mutation to happen at random.
2. natrual selection

both still happen, therefore we evolve. and bitch slap the muppet who wrote that. understand biology BEFORE righting a news artical on it.

>> No.2625705

There are usually many different ways for evolutionary development to solve the same problem. The ability to reason, and the posture and appendages necessary for tool use evolved partly because they provided an advantage in situations like this.

>> No.2625730

>>2625516
what if mutation and natural selection's significance is no longer very great compared to other factors determining selection.

example. evolution has little play in domesticated animals as artificial selection has taken over. what if man now artificially selects himself?

>> No.2625751

>>2625730
mind = blown

>> No.2625762

>Does this mean that, at some point, technological advances have stopped us evolving?


So humans use their brains to negate some needs that would be provided for by the rest of their physiology.


Which means that the human brain receives more evolutionary pressure than the brains of other species.

I doesn't mean we stopped evolving.

God damn the BBC is fucking stupid.

No I didn't read the whole article but I've heard other fuck wits claim human beings have stopped evolving.

As if varying degrees of reproductive success haven't and do not occur within human populations.

Fuckwits

>> No.2625780

genetics influences cultural which influences environment which influence genetics(through natural selection)


Humans develop through a feed back matrix between their genetics and societies.

Human societies are simply another environmental layer that effects natural selection

>> No.2625805

>>2625780
>>2625762

to elaborate further why do you think we evolved such high levels of intelligence in the first place?

Once we reached a certain cognitive threshold the feedback mechanism between brain development and survival become so great that intelligence became highly selected.

>> No.2625833

man is pretty much in equilibrium, so evolution is not very great at the moment.

>> No.2625852
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2625852

We're still evolving we just redefined our evolutionary path with technology. In fact some studies report that the modern world brought about pressures that hastened our evolutionary progress. There in fact has even been some speculation that we might evolve into two distinct species sometime in the future.

http://www.news.wisc.edu/14548
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6057734.stm

>> No.2625857

>>2625852
oh really, you needed the BBC to tell you that? ever read the time machine, ass-hat?

>> No.2625859

the mating system nowadays is more or less a function of living long enough to fight off disease

there is little to no selection pressure for greater or lesser intelligence, greater or lesser height, or greater or lesser strength

the only selection pressure is adequate disease resistance and being competent enough to procure a source of income

so there is no "directional" selection pressure for a trait, at least apparently, but all organisms are currently evolving because the frequency of alleles in a population drift due to the nature of randomness, per genetic institutions and mate selection

>> No.2625873

>>2625859

Sure is first world in here.

>> No.2625878

>>2625833


SO all groups of humans everywhere are having equal reproductive success?

Birth rates don't vary at all in the world right?

Such ignorance of the evolutionary process on /sci/

>> No.2625888

I dont believe we are evolving biologicaly.
Mutation and generic shift still happens, but natural selection does not. Especialy in modern society where everyone has same chance to reproduce and death is only ocuring randomly.
But we have replaced need for biological evolution with technology that can advance much faster and on greater scale than evolution.

>> No.2625894

>>2625873

tell me what society only allows tall or short people to reproduce?

if you live long enough to fight off disease, you will on average have children, in all parts of the world

>> No.2625902

>>2625894

Not the guy you're talking to, but societies don't limit reproduction that much, it's the people who do it.

In poor countries these decisions actually matter. Just because WE don't need to select our mates very carefully doesn't mean other people don't have to either.

>> No.2625908

>>2625894

your an idiot

>>2625888

so your too

>> No.2625917

>>2625908
>your an idiot
>so your too
>your

Sure are strengthening your own intellectual credibility there.

>> No.2625924

>>2625917
>doesn't know the "your an idiot" meme

>> No.2625928

>>2625924
excuses

>> No.2625935

>>2625917

>implying individual implications on an anonymous message board

sure are strengthening your intellectual credibility there

>> No.2625967

>>2625198
I don't think it is because of technology , it is because the characteristics that gives us the more chance of having a wide descent are not genetically encoded.

>> No.2625974

>>2625967

wrong, but here is a correct statement

your an idiot

>> No.2625975

>>2625967
not all of them or not totally at least.

>> No.2625981

>>2625974
I know i am an idiot. That's not the point though.

>> No.2625993

>>2625981

well thats a refreshing statement.

so>>2625975 this is true, but you don't need all of them to be directly encoded, just some of them.

>> No.2626029

>>2625993
Yes. But maybe that the proportion of "barely genetically encoded beneficial characteristics" is larger among the human specie than other species.

This is why evolution could be slowing down.

>> No.2626035

Genetic evolution is largely retarded, as the effects of negative genes are largely diminished. Beneficial genes still affect baby-makin', though, so it's not entirely done with. Most of human evolution now occurs through memes.

>> No.2626050

humans are the fastest evolving species. current evolution has to do with keeping up with digestion of food and rate of oxygen metabolism by mitochondria.evolution occurs at a constant rate regardless of parametersso it will never stop.
what artificial environment and technology slows is adaptation, which is the killing off of those less suited. but since the environment is everchanging and people die evey day this is only slowing it donw not stopping it. although anomalies of people who should have survived surviving give us that feeling evolution isnt happening

>> No.2626072

>>2626050
Dying is not the problem. Dying with or without descent is.

>> No.2626093

>>2626050

this person has no fucking idea what they are talking despite sounding sciencey. they don't even deserve your an idiot, more like your an poop

>> No.2626124

>>2626093
lol. you so funny.

>> No.2626166

>>2626050
my thoughts exactly. evolution hasn't stopped, there just isn't any major need for human physiology to change drastically when we can solve any problem with technology. though evolution will always continue as it is defined by nature. we will probably start actively guiding our own evolution soon through genetic manipulation. evolution never stops, our tools just evolve faster than our hands.