Thursday, October 19, 2006
We Going Soft?
I just read an article on monday in the papers, it's really funny how these things cant be pushed outta ur head once they get in, so i thought i'd just ramble on, and tell everyone about it. Oh, for the record, i tried to get a link to the actual article, but i couldnt find one, stupid NZ papers charge u to read stuff on their website(even tho there isnt much in the way of news anyways..bishes..)
So yeah, this evolutionary expert called Dr. Curry predicts that in the long run, human beings will become weak, both physically and mentally. Following the trends of human evolution, i honestly dont know if he's that far off the mark. For one thing, he says that in the future, humans will grow taller and taller, reaching an average population height of about 6ft 6 in, which isn't far off from Yao Ming, and that we will all live to an average of about 120 years, because of technological advances in medicine, and better understanding of human physiology. However, because of this same advancements, our immune system will be really really weak, as we're lots of us drugs dependent to cure illnesses. And it's true, since our ancestors were supposedly immune to many of the cross species diseases that we find ourselves so susceptible to these days; ie: bird flu, JE, Dengue etc. Because of natural selection(more like human selection) favouring ppl with better physical appearances, it is also predicted that in the future, men will have a more angular jaw, more symmetrical features, and a deeper voice, while women will have pert breasts, glossy hair, hairless skin and symmetrical facial features.(which actually means, no more looking like chu par for the most part la..), and a smaller jaw for both sexes(which is true, i mean, how many of us need braces these days is an indication of maybe that our jaw is not as big as it should be or had been). All this sounds quite true if we actually think about it, especially if gene patching is made more viable in the future, where all our genetic codes can be controlled, and fixed, if anything turns up. While this seems like an advantage, it actually kinda reduces gene variation, and makes us very vulnerable towards any kind of genetic disorder that could wipe out the whole population.
After that, his predictions get a little more fictional. He thinks that HG Wells was right in his novel 'The Time Machine' where he writes that humans degenerated into 2 separate, distinct species, the working class, which would degenerate into ape-like, short, stout and strong, but less intelligent creatures and the rich upper class, which would be tall, thin and physically weak, but more intelligent creatures. He also believes that by that time, we will have lost a lot of our ability to eat tough food, relying instead on food processors to produce burgers and stuff that we eat easily, as well as a lot of our communication and emotive skills. Dr Curry predicts that as a race, we would have lost most of our ability to cooperate as well as our ability to feel, love and care for one another, because of our overdependence on technology as well as our current isolations from one another.
To be honest, I dont really know how much to believe, but as I said, some of his predictions do ring true, since, looking at historical evidence of homonid evolution, we have evolved from becoming short, stout, vegetarian creatures with minimal intelligence, to taller, thinner, omnivorous creatures(which explains the reduction in size of teeth and jaws), with an increased intelligence. Also worth noting, someone told me that they once watched a programme on Discovery that said that if humans ever got wiped off the planet, or driven back to degenerating into apes, the next species likely to 'take over the world' as it were, would be the squids, 'coz of their already huge brain to body size ratio. Freaky eh?
So yeah, this evolutionary expert called Dr. Curry predicts that in the long run, human beings will become weak, both physically and mentally. Following the trends of human evolution, i honestly dont know if he's that far off the mark. For one thing, he says that in the future, humans will grow taller and taller, reaching an average population height of about 6ft 6 in, which isn't far off from Yao Ming, and that we will all live to an average of about 120 years, because of technological advances in medicine, and better understanding of human physiology. However, because of this same advancements, our immune system will be really really weak, as we're lots of us drugs dependent to cure illnesses. And it's true, since our ancestors were supposedly immune to many of the cross species diseases that we find ourselves so susceptible to these days; ie: bird flu, JE, Dengue etc. Because of natural selection(more like human selection) favouring ppl with better physical appearances, it is also predicted that in the future, men will have a more angular jaw, more symmetrical features, and a deeper voice, while women will have pert breasts, glossy hair, hairless skin and symmetrical facial features.(which actually means, no more looking like chu par for the most part la..), and a smaller jaw for both sexes(which is true, i mean, how many of us need braces these days is an indication of maybe that our jaw is not as big as it should be or had been). All this sounds quite true if we actually think about it, especially if gene patching is made more viable in the future, where all our genetic codes can be controlled, and fixed, if anything turns up. While this seems like an advantage, it actually kinda reduces gene variation, and makes us very vulnerable towards any kind of genetic disorder that could wipe out the whole population.
After that, his predictions get a little more fictional. He thinks that HG Wells was right in his novel 'The Time Machine' where he writes that humans degenerated into 2 separate, distinct species, the working class, which would degenerate into ape-like, short, stout and strong, but less intelligent creatures and the rich upper class, which would be tall, thin and physically weak, but more intelligent creatures. He also believes that by that time, we will have lost a lot of our ability to eat tough food, relying instead on food processors to produce burgers and stuff that we eat easily, as well as a lot of our communication and emotive skills. Dr Curry predicts that as a race, we would have lost most of our ability to cooperate as well as our ability to feel, love and care for one another, because of our overdependence on technology as well as our current isolations from one another.
To be honest, I dont really know how much to believe, but as I said, some of his predictions do ring true, since, looking at historical evidence of homonid evolution, we have evolved from becoming short, stout, vegetarian creatures with minimal intelligence, to taller, thinner, omnivorous creatures(which explains the reduction in size of teeth and jaws), with an increased intelligence. Also worth noting, someone told me that they once watched a programme on Discovery that said that if humans ever got wiped off the planet, or driven back to degenerating into apes, the next species likely to 'take over the world' as it were, would be the squids, 'coz of their already huge brain to body size ratio. Freaky eh?
# posted by ia3 @ 1:17 PM 
