Humans Have Stopped Evolving

Human beings have stopped evolving and should be persuaded not to have large families, Sir David Attenborough has said.

The TV naturalist, 87, said he was not optimistic about the future and "things are going to get worse".

He said he did not believe humans would become extinct, but told the Radio Times: "I think that we've stopped evolving.

"Because if natural selection, as proposed by Darwin, is the main mechanism of evolution - there may be other things, but it does look as though that's the case - then we've stopped natural selection.

"We stopped natural selection as soon as we started being able to rear 95% - 99% of our babies that are born.

"We are the only species to have put a halt to natural selection, of its own free will, as it were."

The broadcaster said of the future: "I don't think we are going to become extinct.

"We're very clever and extremely resourceful - and we will find ways of preserving ourselves, of that I'm sure. But whether our lives will be as rich as they are now is another question."

Speaking about the one-child policy in China, Sir David said: "It's the degree to which it has been enforced which is terrible, and there's no question it's produced all kinds of personal tragedies. There's no question about that.

"On the other hand, the Chinese themselves recognise that had they not done so there would be several million more mouths in the world today than there are now.

"If you were able to persuade people that it is irresponsible to have large families in this day and age, and if material wealth and material conditions are such that people value their materialistic life and don’t suffer as a consequence, then that's all to the good."


Do you think that he has a point? Have we stopped evolving and has that cost the human race something with regard to evolution of the species?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/david-atten...2.html#aBLoo1J

Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving

He certainly does have a point - the world will eventually 'tip' from the billions of people on it !!

Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving

To be honest, I've never thought of it the way he said it and just assumed we were still evolving - maybe we're not!

I smiled at you saying the world will eventually tip from the millions of people on it, I've often wondered if it will be like a big custard tart and just collapse under the strain and we'll all sink into a mushy middle

Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving

Yea - thats another way of looking at the worlds demise !
Oooo - Fracking might help that along ......

Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving

If you look at a few of the celebs in celebBB this year you would imagine we are devolving - bed wetting, pooing herself, bragging about sexual encounters Charlotte is really taking us back a few thousand years !

Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving

Unfortunately too few a people take heed of people like Sir David Attenborough and we still celebrate birth as something special when it is a causal factor of overpopulation which will become unsustainable on earth.

Furthermore to feed all the people humans breed to excess animals like cattle and sheep which does not help the environmental balance.

Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving

Please tell me that was a joke ... surely no one did all that on screen ?

Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving

What a load of cobblers. How does he know? A new specie could already be evolving from us and we won't know for thousands of years.

Presumptuous galah.

Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving

He knows because it is obvious. If 95-99% of babies survive to live to old age, then the "survival of the fittest" has ceased to operate. In fact, we are probably going backwards as it appears that the most intelligent members of the species are having less children later in life, while the least intelligent are having more children from an earlier age. The result of this is that the mean intelligence of the species will drop and evolution may go in reverse.
For an example of the implications of this, see the film Idiocracy - a comedy with a very serious theme running through it.

Re: Humans Have Stopped Evolving

Well of course humans are devolving. I'm surprised anybody would be surprised at the idea that it isn't.

Humans today are more likely to commit crime than has happened in our history. Crimes of murder, rape, sexual abuse, animal abuse, vandalism, drunkeness, unacceptable behaviour, peeing and defacating in the streets, kids having kids, all of which happened in the past, so we haven't come a long way, have we, because this still happens?

Fortunately, the majority of our species knows right from wrong and don't commit such ugly and unacceptable behavioural patterns, but there are still the sub-humans amongst us so no, human behaviour has not evolved, despite technology, many are regressing, and those regressing are having children who will follow their patterns.

Animals don't do that, and I hate it when a killer or abuser is called an animal because that's an insult to animals. Animals don't murder; animals don't rape in the truest sense of the word; animals don't get drunk and pee in your gardens - I'll stop there, but I think you'll get my meaning.

For those of you who remember the 60s, think back and remember how gentle those times were. Yes, there was still crime, but nothing like it is now.

I agree with MickB, but indeed a new species of human is now developing, and most certainly not for the better.