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The Evolution of Man through the Ages
Sir Edward:
Those are some excellent points.
But here's another way of looking at it. It's possible that as technology improves, it gradually reduces the influence of natural selection. Take my eyesight for example. With glasses, it's not much of a hindrance, but if I had only a stone-knife (and no glasses) and had to be on the lookout for wolves in the shadows, I'd be in real trouble. It would have gotten me killed several thousand years ago. Living in a village several hundred years ago, it would have been problematic, but not necessarily fatal. Today it's not a big deal. So perhaps it's not an "all or nothing" process, but a gradual removal from the environment's influences.
Sir Wolf:
burn him!! lol your now called "wolf fodder"
:)
Lord Dane:
Does that make you goat droppings?? :P lol
Ian:
While I agree that technology allows us to overcome certain aspects of natural selection, I think in the broader scheme it can be detrimental. Genetic conditions and illnesses that should probably not even exist today or at least in such remote numbers as to negate their significance, do solely because we as a species ensure through our technology that people are able to reproduce.
Technology is a compensation for our stunting of natural selection. We as a species are not improving our collective health, we're just compensating for our collectively declining fitness with advances in technology. Yes we achieved those technological advantages through intellect, but we're not smarter than our ancestors, we simply built on their foundation. That's why I maintain that we as a species go against natural selection. Compensation for problems does not make up for the fact that the problems aren't going away. Natural selection eliminates the problems altogether, it doesn't compensate for them. Without our medical technology, a lot more people would be dead, but the ones who are alive would undoubtedly be more 'fit' than us, more resistant to disease, etc...
Lord Dane:
--- Quote from: Ian on 2013-07-26, 15:32:39 ---While I agree that technology allows us to overcome certain aspects of natural selection, I think in the broader scheme it can be detrimental. Genetic conditions and illnesses that should probably not even exist today or at least in such remote numbers as to negate their significance, do solely because we as a species ensure through our technology that people are able to reproduce.
Technology is a compensation for our stunting of natural selection. We as a species are not improving our collective health, we're just compensating for our collectively declining fitness with advances in technology. Yes we achieved those technological advantages through intellect, but we're not smarter than our ancestors, we simply built on their foundation. That's why I maintain that we as a species go against natural selection. Compensation for problems does not make up for the fact that the problems aren't going away. Natural selection eliminates the problems altogether, it doesn't compensate for them. Without our medical technology, a lot more people would be dead, but the ones who are alive would undoubtedly be more 'fit' than us, more resistant to disease, etc...
--- End quote ---
I'll use a precept to the expected survival of mankind for the foreseeable future ....
"The simpler, the better ... as the more mankind advances, the more he regresses to his primal state of being. We tend to forget many of the aspects of the ancient societies of our ancestral past that are considered advanced by some modern measure as we study our own history. And as we recall what made them advanced, we are reminded of why those civilizations are now lost to modern day recollection and why we are proned to repeat their mistakes ...
Our very nature and history, though at times filled with good intention, is marked by repeats of fall-outs that predates any current advances in technological or societal achievements. While we claim to be an advanced society, we are far from a civil one that exercises sound judgement and moral character in our everyday progression. The more we advance our intellect, the less we concern ourselves over morality and the behavior that should be good guidance for how we advance and for what purpose it serves."
As I see it, there is a definitive difference in being smarter as opposed to being wiser. Being 'smarter' means you advance in your level of knowledge but being 'wiser' means you also utilize what you know with good intention and consideration for what it may impact. We do not hold anyone accountable for their actions or the outcome. Hence we repeat the follies of the past that have become our detriment and legacy for any future. Because we do not exercise wisdom as we advance our knowledge, mankind shall be on a continuous course to extinction by his own design.
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