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Given that there’s so much technology available to keep humans alive, will human evolution continue? It seems like it could give rise to a lot of negative trait

Given that there’s so much technology available to keep humans alive, will human evolution continue? It seems like it could give rise to a lot of negative traits propagating that would usually mean death before producing offspring a couple hundred years ago.

thunderbird120 5y ago
Evolution is the propagation of traits of individuals who survived and reproduced and whose offspring survived and reproduced. In a modern developed country survival is less uncertain but reproduction of healthy individuals is actually more uncertain as can be seen by looking at the birth rates in essentially any developed country. As a result, traits that affect certain behaviors, such as underlying desire to reproduce, are likely under more intense selection pressure now than any traits in all of human history.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
> will human evolution continue? This is a nonsensical question; it isn't possible to have reproduction without evolution.
- echelon 5y ago
  > This is a nonsensical question; it isn't possible to have reproduction without evolution. It's possible to have reproduction without evolution. We have monoclonal immunocompromised mice with fixed genomes. We created them.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    You say that like clonal organisms aren't out in the wild, evolving. It is not possible to have reproduction without evolution.
    - echelon 5y ago
      Monoclonal mice aren't out in the wild. Some of the lines are incapable of breeding, yet we keep making them.
woleium 5y ago
right, so without external pressure we get diversification, making a more resilient pool of phenotypes.
jl6 5y ago
In general it's hard to make value judgements about which traits are positive and which are negative. Natural selection cares only for survival advantage of offspring in the immediate environment. A good example is sickle cell trait, which provides a higher resistance to malaria, but a risk of a variety of other complications. In areas where malaria is a severe threat, the survival advantage of the higher resistance outweighs the other drawbacks. Medical intervention such as administering a malaria vaccine might reduce the threat of malaria such that there would be selection pressure against the sickle cell trait instead of for it.
nradov 5y ago
Evolution will continue. It just won't be heavily influenced by our ability to survive in the natural world. One evolutionarily change I predict is that certain forms of birth control will become less effective over the next generations. Hormonal birth control isn't 100% effective and there's probably a genetic component to that. So the women for whom birth control doesn't work as well will tend to have more offspring and pass those traits on.
- koheripbal 5y ago
  Obesity as well, since birth control is less effective on women who are very heavy.
  - nradov 5y ago
    Perhaps, but obesity also causes infertility. So it's harder to predict how humans will evolve for that trait. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456969/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456969/
WalterBright 5y ago
> will human evolution continue? Of course it will. For example, social media has completely changed the way people date and pick partners. This will inevitably change the next generations.

thunderbird120 5y ago

Evolution is the propagation of traits of individuals who survived and reproduced and whose offspring survived and reproduced. In a modern developed country survival is less uncertain but reproduction of healthy individuals is actually more uncertain as can be seen by looking at the birth rates in essentially any developed country. As a result, traits that affect certain behaviors, such as underlying desire to reproduce, are likely under more intense selection pressure now than any traits in all of human history.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> will human evolution continue? This is a nonsensical question; it isn't possible to have reproduction without evolution.

echelon 5y ago
> This is a nonsensical question; it isn't possible to have reproduction without evolution. It's possible to have reproduction without evolution. We have monoclonal immunocompromised mice with fixed genomes. We created them.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  You say that like clonal organisms aren't out in the wild, evolving. It is not possible to have reproduction without evolution.
  - echelon 5y ago
    Monoclonal mice aren't out in the wild. Some of the lines are incapable of breeding, yet we keep making them.

woleium 5y ago

right, so without external pressure we get diversification, making a more resilient pool of phenotypes.

jl6 5y ago

In general it's hard to make value judgements about which traits are positive and which are negative. Natural selection cares only for survival advantage of offspring in the immediate environment. A good example is sickle cell trait, which provides a higher resistance to malaria, but a risk of a variety of other complications. In areas where malaria is a severe threat, the survival advantage of the higher resistance outweighs the other drawbacks. Medical intervention such as administering a malaria vaccine might reduce the threat of malaria such that there would be selection pressure against the sickle cell trait instead of for it.

nradov 5y ago

Evolution will continue. It just won't be heavily influenced by our ability to survive in the natural world. One evolutionarily change I predict is that certain forms of birth control will become less effective over the next generations. Hormonal birth control isn't 100% effective and there's probably a genetic component to that. So the women for whom birth control doesn't work as well will tend to have more offspring and pass those traits on.

koheripbal 5y ago
Obesity as well, since birth control is less effective on women who are very heavy.
- nradov 5y ago
  Perhaps, but obesity also causes infertility. So it's harder to predict how humans will evolve for that trait. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456969/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456969/

WalterBright 5y ago

> will human evolution continue? Of course it will. For example, social media has completely changed the way people date and pick partners. This will inevitably change the next generations.