With advances in medicine and public health, natural selection is no longer a major shaping force for humans. Some noted modern scientists have declared that human evolution is over. An exploration of human evolution in the 21st century and beyond. One of the possibilities of human evolution is that we are done evolving. Evolution made us what we are, but no fundamental principle stands in the way of our developing the capability to intervene in the default course of events in order to steer future evolution towards a destiny more congenial to human values. Pdf on jun 1, 2009, arthur saniotis and others published future brains.
We have changed the world irrevocably and may soon transform ourselves as a species. This is the last in a 10part livescience series on the origin, evolution and future of the human species and the mysteries that remain to be solved. This article provides two areas of possible future evolution, diet and physical activity levels which have been dramatically altered in industrialised. The future of human resources a scenario approach s 04. Starting from primitive, unconscious life, biological evolution has led to the development of ever more advanced organisms, including creatures that have minds, consciousness, language, and reason. The panglossian view can we trust evolutionary development to take our species in broadly desirable directions. Such forces have taken millions, or even billions, of years to accomplish any notable forms of evolution. Starting from primitive, unconscious life, biological evolution has led to the development of. There is a tendency in both scientific and humanistic disciplines to think of. Maria martinontorres is a palaeoanthropologist, director of the national research centre on human evolution cenieh in burgos, spain, and an honorary reader at university college london. Various influences on human evolution are discussed by way of specific examples.
Sherlock holmes, in the following few lines, we too shall dare to predict the future evolution of presentday human beings, based on as many facts as we can gather. The human evolutionary tree is a complex structure, branching and rebranching at several points along the timeline. More recently, cultural and technological development, which exhibit some parallels with biological evolution, have enabled our species to progress at a vastly accelerated pace. These international organizationswe know them wellfritter away billions of dollars for their own partying they call them conferences, the remnant dollars dribbling supposedly into the lands of the needy, but really sucked up by the gangsters who run the tragic show of the third world. Maria martinontorres weighs up an original study on where we come from and where. Studies of the genetic variation of humans, the concern of the field of molecular. Though a complete study of human evolution is beyond the scope of one article, it endeavors to highlight the main stages, and also tries to makes predictions about the next step in the ongoing process of human evolution.