MadSci Network: Evolution
Query:

Re: Has human evolution stopped?

Date: Wed Jun 24 20:26:20 1998
Posted By: Brian Miller, nil,BDM Marketing
Area of science: Evolution
ID: 897523095.Ev
Message:

Has human evolution stopped?

A fascinating question. Some leading and respected scientists, including 
Richard Dawkins, have entertained the notion that human evolution may have 
ceased because we are now curing more diseases, and thus maintaining and 
extending human life. People who once would have died young from, say, 
appendicitis, are now able to live on, reproduce more, and pass on to their 
offspring what would once have been a genetic liability.

Charles Darwin never used the phrase "Survival Of The Fittest" except to 
complain about it. The phrase was coined by Herbert Spencer, and preceded 
Darwin's publications. "Natural Selection" was Darwin's preferred term and 
is more accurate. It is not always "fitness," in the physical sense, that 
contributes to reproductive success. It may be camouflage, colourful sexual 
attraction (many birds), or just finding a suitable evolutionary market 
niche (jellyfish). It could be argued that many men "survived" the Second 
World war because they were to "unfit" for combat, but such an example is 
too short-term for the true evolutionary scale.

Evolution, via natural selection, takes eons for its effects to become 
apparent. Humans have barely changed, phsiologically, since Cro-Magnon 
times. The fact that we are now taller than some of our ancestors (judging 
by their door frames and suits of armour) has more to do with our improved 
nutrition and hygiene than it does with evolution.

Also remember that medical science is still only influencing a small 
proportion of the world's population. Most inhabitants of the third world 
are still sadly afflicted with the diseases of our ancestors.

Also, cultural (as opposed to natural) selective forces are now much more 
actively at work in all human, and domestic-animal, societies.

So, evolution (via natural selection) is still at work, though painfully 
slowly, and it will take much more than just 100 years of medical science, with 
limited reach, to stop it. 

I would welcome other views on this subject.

Brian




Current Queue | Current Queue for Evolution | Evolution archives

Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Evolution.



MadSci Home | Information | Search | Random Knowledge Generator | MadSci Archives | Mad Library | MAD Labs | MAD FAQs | Ask a ? | Join Us! | Help Support MadSci


MadSci Network, webadmin@www.madsci.org
© 1995-1998. All rights reserved.