5 ms·

I cannot even be bothered to read the article. Of course we didn't stop evolving - how on earth could we? If someone claimed to possess evidence that we did st

I cannot even be bothered to read the article. Of course we didn't stop evolving - how on earth could we? If someone claimed to possess evidence that we did stop, that is a paper I should read with interest.

Udik 10y ago
I think it is a popular misconception that human evolution is a thing of the past. One reason for that is maybe that evolution has been explained as a matter of premature deaths, more than of relative number of descendants. The idea is sometimes articulated as "there are no predators anymore, and medicine saves also those who would otherwise die of illness and accidents"- but of course the opposite is probably true, the fact that we're pretty much all fed and cured is a major driver of evolution today. Another even more naive misconception about evolution is tied to the idea of "mutants", individuals possessing obvious and possibly extreme characteristics (and their notable absence as a proof of the missing evolution); while in fact evolution is mostly variation in the relative proportion of existing, very subtle differences.
teekert 10y ago
Still you keep hearing people say this. Dad takes 5 pills every day, mother takes 3, kid needs 8. Complete bogus, and not only because sexual reproduction vents out genetic errors, there are a lot of other objections to such logic. Even the introduction of birth control is likely to lead to or has already started to lead to evolution. Women allow men to procreate after much more time and stop anti-conception only when a man has proven himself (at least to a higher degree than say 100ths of years ago). This will probably lead to short term behavioral/cultural differences but it is fun to think what it may do in the long term. One can go on for a long time doing such though experiments. People also often think evolution has some "forward" direction but if being short, ugly and smelly suddenly confers a reproductive advantage, natural selection will favor short, smelly, ugly people. It's all about niches and fitness in terms of "fitting".

Udik 10y ago

I think it is a popular misconception that human evolution is a thing of the past. One reason for that is maybe that evolution has been explained as a matter of premature deaths, more than of relative number of descendants. The idea is sometimes articulated as "there are no predators anymore, and medicine saves also those who would otherwise die of illness and accidents"- but of course the opposite is probably true, the fact that we're pretty much all fed and cured is a major driver of evolution today. Another even more naive misconception about evolution is tied to the idea of "mutants", individuals possessing obvious and possibly extreme characteristics (and their notable absence as a proof of the missing evolution); while in fact evolution is mostly variation in the relative proportion of existing, very subtle differences.

teekert 10y ago

Still you keep hearing people say this. Dad takes 5 pills every day, mother takes 3, kid needs 8. Complete bogus, and not only because sexual reproduction vents out genetic errors, there are a lot of other objections to such logic. Even the introduction of birth control is likely to lead to or has already started to lead to evolution. Women allow men to procreate after much more time and stop anti-conception only when a man has proven himself (at least to a higher degree than say 100ths of years ago). This will probably lead to short term behavioral/cultural differences but it is fun to think what it may do in the long term. One can go on for a long time doing such though experiments. People also often think evolution has some "forward" direction but if being short, ugly and smelly suddenly confers a reproductive advantage, natural selection will favor short, smelly, ugly people. It's all about niches and fitness in terms of "fitting".