What Could Be The Next Great Thing In Evolution?

sorry i didnt know how to word the title. but heres my idea...

what if intelligence and a good brain isnt the pinnacle of evolution? what could be the next big thing? i thought it was an interesting thought.

i dont mean something like a badass offensive weapon of some kind that could kill all the humans and become the dominant species(although that would work). i guess im talking about the next step beyond intelligence. a whole knew evolved system that changes everything, like the brain did. what if another species were to evolve this, thus becoming 'better' than us?

let me know if i need to explain better

From Lemuria to Lemuria. That would be my guess. Sentient beings. At the very least it looks like something peaceful.

funny cause i have been contemplating the same thing as of recently. I think that we will not live to see these changes, but i believe eventually, there will be a new leap in human evolution. This homo species will be much smarter then us, stronger then us and better adapted to the worsening environment. I think the next step in evolution will come from one of our senses, be it vision, smell, touch, acoustic, (man im really high, cant remember the last one) and these will begin to appear sporadically all around the world. In our attempts to segregate and study them , they will rise up against homo sapien and make us their slave.

Half monkey / humans

olylifter420 said:

funny cause i have been contemplating the same thing as of recently. I think that we will not live to see these changes, but i believe eventually, there will be a new leap in human evolution. This homo species will be much smarter then us, stronger then us and better adapted to the worsening environment. I think the next step in evolution will come from one of our senses, be it vision, smell, touch, acoustic, (man im really high, cant remember the last one) and these will begin to appear sporadically all around the world. In our attempts to segregate and study them , they will rise up against homo sapien and make us their slave.

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yes. but ONLY if we can bring forth the scientific advances to do it ourselves. when we learn to really manipulate DNA good, its on like donkey kong.
our culture doesnt really favor survival of the fittest anymore since most people survive past mating age. its a lot more random, and we(at least in america) have a really wide gene pool. plus people can survive more genetic disorders now, passing them on to offspring more frequently.

It is my penis.

Imo the next big thing will be when we learn to have conscious feedbeck into the very structure and function of the meat with which we think. Positive feedback cycle and the sky's the limit. If it comes to pass, it'll be the biggest evolutionary breakthrough since two cells decided to form a partnership. cn

cannabineer said:

Imo the next big thing will be when we learn to have conscious feedbeck into the very structure and function of the meat with which we think. Positive feedback cycle and the sky's the limit. If it comes to pass, it'll be the biggest evolutionary breakthrough since two cells decided to form a partnership. cn

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hmm that would be interesting. if we see faults in our brain, and know they are faults, we could tell our brain that it made a mistake and needs to correct itself. conscious maintenance instead of the background rewiring that it does now. hopefully it doesnt cause problems resulting from too much information for our consciousness. like if we were to remember every single face we saw, or consciously calculated ever decision we made, it would be too much for us to handle.

although it may not be too much for us to handle if science advanced enough so that we were provided with sustenance. we could theoretically run a much more advanced brain than we do now, if we had enough calories to run it. and were evolved to do it of course.

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/17-04/ff_perfectmemory?currentPage=all

The girl who never forgets.

Luger187 said:

sorry i didnt know how to word the title. but heres my idea...

what if intelligence and a good brain isnt the pinnacle of evolution? what could be the next big thing? i thought it was an interesting thought.

i dont mean something like a badass offensive weapon of some kind that could kill all the humans and become the dominant species(although that would work). i guess im talking about the next step beyond intelligence. a whole knew evolved system that changes everything, like the brain did. what if another species were to evolve this, thus becoming 'better' than us?

let me know if i need to explain better

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You understand evolution stems from environmental pressure, right? I'm not so sure a jump in evolution can be made quick enough to facilitate what you're talking about.

Beefbisquit said:

You understand evolution stems from environmental pressure, right? I'm not so sure a jump in evolution can be made quick enough to facilitate what you're talking about.

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...is it just a bs story that there are gaps in the chart? (real question)

eye exaggerate said:

...is it just a bs story that there are gaps in the chart? (real question)

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If you are referring to gaps in the fossil record, those are true. We however have many reasonable explanations for the gaps, and in fact expect them to be there. When bones go into the ground they are generally not preserved, the fossils we do have are gems. When most people refer to gaps they mean lack of transitional fossils. This is misleading in a couple ways. All fossils are transitional in the sense that they represent earlier states of evolution, so the term transitional is left ambiguous. Most people think of transitional animals as a cross between a duck and a frog, but evolution expects to see no such thing. We have many fossils showing examples of transitioning traits, just do a search for examples. In any case we could have no fossils what so ever and still have conclusive evidence of evolution.

If you are referring to large gaps in a species evolution, like not having eyes and then suddenly having fully functional eyes, I encourage you to cite some examples. I am not aware of any such mysteries, but i'm not a biologist, and I do think it would be interesting to be aware of if there are some.

eye exaggerate said:

...is it just a bs story that there are gaps in the chart? (real question)

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there might be some - but archeologists have been finding more and more fossils as time passes. I'm not sure if we'll ever find ALL the gaps - there has definitely been a steady increase of species that we have fossil records for.


Side note, it's quite rare for something to be fossilized. The conditions have to be quite precise; so it make sense for us to have some gaps...

Beefbisquit said:

there might be some - but archeologists have been finding more and more fossils as time passes. I'm not sure if we'll ever find ALL the gaps - there has definitely been a steady increase of species that we have fossil records for.


Side note, it's quite rare for something to be fossilized. The conditions have to be quite precise; so it make sense for us to have some gaps...

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Thanks. Yikes.

Heisenberg said:

If you are referring to gaps in the fossil record, those are true. We however have many reasonable explanations for the gaps, and in fact expect them to be there. When bones go into the ground they are generally not preserved, the fossils we do have are gems. When most people refer to gaps they mean lack of transitional fossils. This is misleading in a couple ways. All fossils are transitional in the sense that they represent earlier states of evolution, so the term transitional is left ambiguous. Most people think of transitional animals as a cross between a duck and a frog, but evolution expects to see no such thing. We have many fossils showing examples of transitioning traits, just do a search for examples. In any case we could have no fossils what so ever and still have conclusive evidence of evolution.

If you are referring to large gaps in a species evolution, like not having eyes and then suddenly having fully functional eyes, I encourage you to cite some examples. I am not aware of any such mysteries, but i'm not a biologist, and I do think it would be interesting to be aware of if there are some.

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...That's the one "lack of transitional fossils" - I guess I meant what is normally fed to people as our evolution. My mind always want to delve into the spaces between the dude that was dragging his knuckles and the one that figured out that it was painful and no longer necessary to walk anyway. I have no citations, only things I've heard people say. I'd be curious to know.

I think perhaps we may take technology too far... Years from now we may have created chips and machines smart enough to "get smarter" without our help or programming. Perhaps we will actually move into avatars and live as long as we can find an energy source. By the time we are capable of uploading our brains into machines we probably won't have any energy issues I am sure so that entry may be obsolete...

if we can bring forth the scientific advances to do it ourselves.

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who knows, the advancements in medical science are rather pedestrian, not in the sense of discovery and diagnosis, but in the sense of finding cures. Currently there quite a few diseases out there that do not have a cure which i think can put us at a disadvantage come evolution. As you say, in America there is a very large gene pool and a lot of these diseases can be found among us in every part of the country. The spread of these genes of patients that have survived that have been passed on might be predisposed to get such diseases easier and the chain continues. Man im high, good discussion.

when we learn to really manipulate DNA good

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I think this is right around the corner. We have been cloning animals for the past 10 years or so, could be more. What is to say the same cannot be done for humans. I think rules and regulations placed on research and experiments will play a big factor is such future studies or methods.

our culture doesnt really favor survival of the fittest

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I think that is why such a widespread of disease has ravaged our civilization. the weak would essentially die off, no medical treatment nor attention in fears of contracting the disease. healthy individuals would just move on, being that they were gatherer hunter.

i dont think brain size has anything to do with having an advanced brain. Although, a whales brain is very large and they have very complex methods of communication and direction

Luger187 said:

although it may not be too much for us to handle if science advanced enough so that we were provided with sustenance. we could theoretically run a much more advanced brain than we do now, if we had enough calories to run it. and were evolved to do it of course.

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