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amnda

- 2 years ago

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How does our culture affect the evolution of our species?

Evolution used to be simple. Over time, a species would develop (or lose) set features and characteristics based upon its needs and environment. How did it do this? Simple: The longer you lived, the more opportunities you had to reproduce. (And vice versa.) Human beings are still evolving, but we've changed things up a bit. We sit at the top of the food chain. We try to control our environment as much as possible. We really are not concerned with survival of the species when we mate... though I can think of a lot of other things we think about in that department. And some of us reproduce, some of us don't. What does this mean for the human species in the long run? Have we finished evolving? Could this be our downfall, or are we simply perfect as we are?

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@amnda it has always been our downfall throughout natural selection. were we ever 'truly' perfect? even as we are? we still have room to evolve as better human beings through intelligence, to the point that Earth hardly has any problems. and that's where we, the youth come in.

Culture keeps law and order. It keeps outdated traditions that keep people stuck.

I think we have a long way to go...in another million years? hoo ha. Hard to imagine, but I bet things are way different and much the same. Hope I can "see" it somehow!

"We try to control our environment".... the earth will do as she thinks is fit for us.. when we understand that ... then we will move to the next level..

I don't know that evolution has ever been quite that "simple". a species probably does develop some characteristics based on its needs and environment. So how do you think that has changed? humans still have "needs" and still are developing characteristics to meet the needs of thier evironment. Hopefully we haven't peaked.

Technology, more and more, is becoming intrinsic to our species. If you follow evolution, you know that when a trait is selected, it is adapted very quickly (which is why the fossil record of times like these is sometimes sparse). I'm going to use my magic 8-ball and say that within the next five-hundred years (a blink of the evolutionary eye) we will experience a revolution in medicine (most likely nanotechnology) that will cause such a change to occur, and man and his technology will become inseparable. It has already begun. Are we at the tipping point? Answer hazy, ask again later.

I have always pondered on this question of how we will fare as a species due to our (now ingrained) tendency to prevent the weak going to the wall - the way we have become "too soft" if you like. But to me the question is not one of evolution ceasing - that will never happen, it is endless. natural selection could decide to take the human species out in quick time with a major climate change event- on the other hand the fittest of us (and that might be a surprising group in its own right) may survive and breed and we would begin a new climb on a different shaped branch of the evolutionary ladder...

@amnda Charlotte, North Carolina

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SoulPancake

amnda

How does our culture affect the evolution of our species?

DanielPotashov

@amnda it has always been our downfall throughout natural selection. were we ever 'truly' perfect? even as we are? we still have room to evolve as better human beings through intelligence, to the point that Earth hardly has any problems. and that's where we, the youth come in.

Hummingbird

Culture keeps law and order. It keeps outdated traditions that keep people stuck.

kdmask

I think we have a long way to go...in another million years? hoo ha. Hard to imagine, but I bet things are way different and much the same. Hope I can "see" it somehow!

eclipsia

"We try to control our environment".... the earth will do as she thinks is fit for us.. when we understand that ... then we will move to the next level..

melb2

zamfir

flashbanding

How does our culture affect the evolution of our species?

@amnda it has always been our downfall throughout natural selection. were we ever 'truly' perfect? even as we are? we still have room to evolve as better human beings through intelligence, to the point that Earth hardly has any problems. and that's where we, the youth come in.

Culture keeps law and order. It keeps outdated traditions that keep people stuck.

I think we have a long way to go...in another million years? hoo ha. Hard to imagine, but I bet things are way different and much the same. Hope I can "see" it somehow!

"We try to control our environment".... the earth will do as she thinks is fit for us.. when we understand that ... then we will move to the next level..

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