Technology's effect on evolution

[fuckass365]

One great thing that set us apart from the other animals was the ability to manufacture tools and create easier ways of doing things. How do you think this will influence the evolution of our species? Will humans evolve in ways to better use technology? Longer fingers, larger eyes, etc? Or will we just take "evolution" into our own hands, via technology implants and enhancements? I'm interested to see your points of view.

[Tiberius]

Humans don't evolve to better use technology, technology evolves to better suit humans. The advantage of technological evolution is that it takes a fraction of the time human evolution does.

[fuckass365]

Correct, but how will this effect the way in which we evolve?

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Surely we won't stop evolving?

[The Grand Nudger]

I think that's what Tib was trying to express, that technology has the effect of subverting the process. If we can come up with a technological solution to an environmental pressure then there is no survival benefit conferred solely to those with an adaptational solution. Sexual selection seems to have become the major driving force for human beings, and if chicks start digging the 6 fingered man then we might see that become the norm. Suppose that having 6 fingers was a survival benefit though, us 5 fingered types would just come up with a better keyboard wouldn't we? Biological evolution would be hard-pressed to outpace technology.

Technology is not an environmental pressure, it is a tool to alleviate environmental pressures.

No, it's unlikely that we would stop evolving (unless we can start making exact copies of ourselves genetically(and if we could pull that off, what would stop us from making "improvements"?), but we don't evolve in in some directed process to better suit a specific thing (like technology), and we never have. This is not some steady march towards a goal or improvement. It's just the weight of what remains against what does not.

[FallentoReason]

It's already had a huge effect, like increased heart diseases from not enough exercise due to work and not having to physically move around for food.

[frankiej]

Have you ever seen the humans in Wall-E???

[The Grand Nudger]

It's already had a huge effect, like increased heart diseases from not enough exercise due to work and not having to physically move around for food.

That is an effect of sedentary lifestyles that has always been a glitch in the machines of our vascular systems. Technology didn't cause that. It just exposed the limitations. If you don't use muscular tissue it becomes weak, this would be as true of our paleolithic ancestors muscular tissue as it is of our own.

Such a fine line isn't it? We have all these adaptations for survival, but some of them are so succesful that they would seem to impact our survival..lol. Pro-tip, evolutionary processes don't give a shit whether you live or die, and as soon as you have procreated they are done with you. You're unlikely to have a heart attack before you are capable of knocking someone up (or getting knocked up), a sedentary lifestyle combined with a lavish diet does appear to have the effect of accelerating sexual maturity and infant survival rates, ergo success.

[Tempus]

With natural selection those best suited to their environment survive. In society today basically everyone survives so the best adapted mechanism - while probably still having an affect at some level - is much less of a factor. There's plenty of people alive today who in a 'natural' setting (that is, devoid of technology) would never have made it. I'm not particularly sure what I think about that. I used to support a sort of loose eugenics but eh. I'd be lying if I said I cared about the future of the human race very much.

As for people growing longer fingers and larger eyes to adapt to technology - that's pretty unlikely, I think. Unless there's a penalty (in terms of producing offspring) for short fingers / smaller eyes it's pretty doubtful. Because society's goal is the preservation of human life we've essentially paused natural selection. That doesn't necessarily mean that evolution won't continue via other means though, I guess.

[The Grand Nudger]

My wife and daughter wouldn't have made it (and thusly my other daughter and son would be in a similar position). Of course my wife would never have made it to this stage at all, she had to have a pretty awesome surgery for a defect of the heart when she was a child. I wouldn't have made it either, I would have been selected against before procreation by failure to survive armed conflict (competition for resources...so I'm told) without medical technology. Fuck NS, yay for technology!

[FallentoReason]

It's already had a huge effect, like increased heart diseases from not enough exercise due to work and not having to physically move around for food.

That is an effect of sedentary lifestyles that has always been a glitch in the machines of our vascular systems. Technology didn't cause that. It just exposed the limitations. If you don't use muscular tissue it becomes weak, this would be as true of our paleolithic ancestors muscular tissue as it is of our own.

Such a fine line isn't it? We have all these adaptations for survival, but some of them are so succesful that they would seem to impact our survival..lol. Pro-tip, evolutionary processes don't give a shit whether you live or die, and as soon as you have procreated they are done with you. You're unlikely to have a heart attack before you are capable of knocking someone up (or getting knocked up), ergo success.

Oh yeah....! I see what you're saying. I didn't realise there was that distinction.

I'd say evolutionary processes do care about you living or dying to an extent. The two go hand in hand: you evolve to better survive so that you can pass on the genes that will slowly evolve so that you can survive so that...etc.