De-evolution is evolution as well.

To ZvLoD: These individuals do not indicate evolution. They're absolutely not significant because they are only individuals, and their difference is way too big. Evolution makes extremely small changes every generation, which aren't even measurable.

Also, evolution only happens when it will make your chance of surviving bigger. Being able to draw extremely detailed pictures, or to memorize 1000 digits of pi, will not make increase your survivability. Hence, this is not part of evolution.

That doesn't work for the Chinese in countries other than China Each day I see more and more of that yellow shit -.-

i think our definitions are different. de-evolution is when something goes backward, meaning homo sapien would go back to homo erectus. this doesnt happen.

evolution is all about mating. in the past you would have to be alive to mate, the weak (dead) persons genes were lost because they never lived to breed. nowadays we breed with hot people, not smart people. this is going to eventually fuck things up.

there are already countless examples of evolution being harmful to humans. look at alzheimers for instance. thsi is something that could have been eradicated if our ancestors hadnt mated while young (before the unwanted disease takes root). if they mated with older companions (of age where if the disease would have taken effect it would be showing by then) there might be no alzheimers. late blooming problematic mutations arent factored in to evolution because of this.

even hear about turtles that live for centuries? they also mate at all ages, helping to rid their gene pool of unwanted disease and defect.

This post was edited by juliusjuice on Jan 18 2010 09:07pm

False. Genetic drift.

This post was edited by Sioux on Jan 18 2010 11:08pm

Devolution won't go that quickly. If it took us X years to evolve from homo sapiens to homo sapiens sapiens, it'll take us at least 1000x years to evolve back. Metaphorically speaking.

Devolution shows itself in minor, insignificant things. Things that are insignificant since they no longer make our surviving chances bigger. For example: You probably know somebody who is really athletic, and can run for miles without feeling anything. Compare this person to an average Neanderthal, and your friend will be ashamed of himself.

Don't mix it up with the common, Devo-like "devolution". People getting more retarded every generation is not devolution; that's just an educational phenomena which has nothing to do with genetics. Example: People use calculators frequently, so their math(s) skills decline. This is because they don't practise maths anymore; not because they are genetically less intelligent.


Which, in case it makes no difference to your chance of surviving / mating, is obsolete and insignificant.

We have homogenized our species; biodiversity is the only way to survive and we are killing it all around us. I say no, not unless we have a change in vision and stop acting as we are now.

imo 4 legs >> 2legs while doing anything that doesnt require arms


we dominate in everything ??? we dominate in only 1 thing and that is intelligence, the rest we got dominated in

im pretty sure we are getting taller

This is based entirely on perspective.

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.

Well, I got bored of reading about 25 posts in.....
All the same, here are my two cents:

The human race is breeding out the extremes that have allowed us to survive drastic changes in our surroundings before. In order for "us" to be forced into evolution there would have to be something catastrophic to our species taking place, something we wouldn't be able to cope with at all. If the sea level rose and drowned a bunch of us, that doesn't mean we'd grow gills. We would still just utilize what we already have to overcome the obstacle until we were no longer able to do so. That is when some evolutionary steps would be made.
It would take a mutation that is positively attributed to those surroundings happening to many people of a generation, and for all those people to be able to still breed with the general populous in order for it to become commonplace.
Mutation + natural selection = evolution.