Future Evolution?

[dannieyankee]

I've discovered this very interesting article on the future of human evolution.

Human evolution at the crossroads - Evolution- msnbc.com

Now, I understand that this article is four years old, and if there is any new information to add on to this, I would greatly appreciate it.

What are your opinions and ideas for future human evolution, or the end of it?

[Moontanman]

I think that if we do indeed discover how to travel to and colonize other planets, especially if they are around other stars human will by necessity become separated enough to evolve into different species. I see no way for it to happen here on the Earth as long as we can travel to any place on the earth within a few hours. Evolution almost always requires some isolation of the gene pool in some way. This is not possible under current conditions here on the Earth

[dannieyankee]

But what about evolution out of necessity? One of the ideas from that link was that humans would evolve due to a mass sort of 'attack' - a large-scale nuclear war, for instance, would isolate us from other groups of people, for instance, and we would develop different characteristics. One possibility, since we are hypothetically talking about a mass nuclear explosion, is that our skin becomes partially or fully resistant to radiation. Does that seem possible to you? How about other possibilites; could there be a chance for humans to develop special skills not available to modern humans, such as, forgive my sci-fi reference, mind-reading, or other psyche-related skills?

[Moontanman]

Unless we become too stupid to build boats such a disaster isolation scenario would not isolate us long enough for humans to evolve into separate species. The only real way for this to happen is for us to colonize other planets or merge with machines or Genetically engineer our selves into new species.

[dannieyankee]

Originally Posted by Moontanman

Unless we become too stupid to build boats such a disaster isolation scenario would not isolate us long enough for humans to evolve into separate species. The only real way for this to happen is for us to colonize other planets or merge with machines or Genetically engineer our selves into new species.

All right, how about the changing environment? Is it possible for us to screw it up so much that we need to adapt to our new surroundings?

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by dannieyankee

All right, how about the changing environment? Is it possible for us to screw it up so much that we need to adapt to our new surroundings?

I think that is indeed possible, I do how ever think the process would be so slow we as a species wouldn't notice as we slowly changed over time. I think it is indeed possible that if we compared our selves to humans from 30,000 years ago we would see enough significant differences in at least behavior if not appearance that we might not think of that human as "us"

[lemit]

I remember seeing something on television a few years ago about Chernobyl, including the seven (?) people who were locked inside. They all died, of course, except one guy, who was still alive and healthy when the show was made.

So, potentially 14% of the population might already be immune to radiation.

--lemit