12-09-2013, 08:07 AM
61
Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving
Originally Posted by Abby
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Must agree with Mups on that seth
Not only is there more people they are fatter and breed a lot more animals to keep them that way
12-09-2013, 10:27 AM
62
Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving
Originally Posted by Mups
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Precisely how I feel BV. Like I said, man takes, takes, takes, destroying everything precious and beautiful. When we discover something breathtakingly beautiful, eg. the crystals growing underground, why can't we be thankful we have the eyes to see these things, why do we have to steal them instead. It's the same with wild animals, we shoot, or capture or cage them to make money. Thank God man can't yet control the sea, the weather or air we breathe - yet.
Bit of an illogical rant perhaps, but I know what I mean.
It's why I can't agree when people say that humans are at 'the top of the tree' and that human life is precious, it isn't - it's just another life form but one that ravages all around it with little or no regard to what lies further down the line. I think animals are more in tune with the planet than we are
12-09-2013, 10:28 AM
63
Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving
Originally Posted by MickB
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Living longer is a red herring and was not the point of my post. The point was that in our modern civilisation (in the West at any rate) not only do the "fittest" survive, so do the "unfittest" and, at present, the "unfittest", are reproducing at a greater rate than the "fittest." Hence, the "survival of the fittest" as the motor of evolutionary progress has ceased to function.
12-09-2013, 11:25 AM
64
Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving
Originally Posted by Abby
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Must agree with Mups on that sethNot only is there more people they are fatter and breed a lot more animals to keep them that way
It can however be transformed from one state to another - so chemicals in the soil are transformed into plants, plants are eaten and transformed into animals, animals die and are transformed into chemicals in the soil.
So, in a closed system, the weight of all the matter contained within it cannot increase or decrease.
The Earth is not a totally closed system however and matter can both come into and go out of it. Over millions of years, millions of tons of matter have been added to the Earth through meteorites etc. Some matter may also have escaped earth's gravity and disappeared into space.
People and animals have very little to do with decreases or increases in the world's weight.
12-09-2013, 12:54 PM
66
Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving
Originally Posted by ben-varrey
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That's how I see it - well explained Mick.
12-09-2013, 02:50 PM
67
Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving
You are probably right Bruce. I think we (certainly I do) tend to associate evolution with an irrational, emotional concept of positivity and progress. As you say, intelligence may no longer be a survival trait and evolution may, over millennia, take humanity (or what is now humanity) into totally different directions.
12-09-2013, 06:19 PM
68
Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving
I'm just rephrasing your post(s) to clarify what you are saying and adding my own perspective-POV- and terminology, or the terminology I'm used to hearing and reading.Most people do not understand or do not care to understand evolutionary biology.
"The study of evolution is the unifying concept in evolutionary biology. Evolutionary biology is a conceptual subfield of biology that intersects with other subfields that are delimited by organizational level (e.g., cell biology, population biology), taxonomic level (e.g., zoology, ornithology, herpetology) or angle of approach (e.g., field biology, theoretical biology, experimental evolution, paleontology). Usually, these intersections are combined into specific fields such as evolutionary ecology and evolutionary developmental biology."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_biology
Pardon my intrusion.
12-09-2013, 06:21 PM
69
Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving
Originally Posted by MickB
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You are probably right Bruce. I think we (certainly I do) tend to associate evolution with an irrational, emotional concept of positivity and progress. As you say, intelligence may no longer be a survival trait and evolution may, over millennia, take humanity (or what is now humanity) into totally different directions.
12-09-2013, 06:31 PM
70
Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving
Evolution advances in time. Advancement is not a qualitative term. The 'superiority' is simply the ability of the organism to adapt to the environment it exists in. If it cannot exist in that environment it will not reproduce because it can't function properly. It can't feed, it can't stand the climate, it gets too much sunlight or too little. It simply does not survive to procreate.Constant mutation provides the tools for adaptation or the organisms that can survive the change of the environment.
Some organism's adaptations include the ability to manipulate their environment so they may survive. That could include clothing, structures or tools.
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