The End of Evolution
Geplaatst: 07 dec 2007 16:11
Hallo, ik zou graag jullie mening horen over onderstaande !
The end of Evolution:
Evolution is what got us, human beings, to our current position in the natural chain of life. From ape to homo sapiens we evolved into our current form and shape. Our biological evolution, however, has stopped. No longer do we develop new or altered traits that bring our species to a new evolutionary level. Ofcourse, there are some physical traits that keep evolving. For example, we keep growing taller. But the evolutionary stop I'm talking about is not so much the physical one. I'm talking about the grinding halt to our mental evolution.
The welfare state, or any variety on it, makes it possible for everyone to survive and reproduce. Most western countries have some kind of welfare system to insure the survival of as many humans as possible. The amounts of time and money we put in the care of all human beings who would have died in a normal proces of natural selection, is insane. We're keeping people alive who barely know they exist, who have no sence of who or what they are We are keeping people alive who are so physically ill that they would have died shortly after birth. In some cases we even let these humans reproduce, almost invariably resulting in offspring that also needs intensive care.
In third world countries, where by far the largest part of the population is poor, people are often poorly educated aswel and will most likely lack decent welfare. The general standard of living, however, is still high enough for most to reproduce at least some offspring. Families in poor countries tend to be even bigger than in rich countries. Not all of those children survive childhood, or reach the same age as people in rich countries do, but that's not the point.
The ones that do reach an adult age, will probably have even less of an education then their parents had. A vicious cycle is at work here. Dumb parents will not stimulate their children to think, so their children will be even less intelligent then their parents are. And the children of these poorly educated and unstimulated children will be less intelligent then they themselves are and so forth. This ,ofcourse, works both ways. Intelligent parents will stimulate their children to develop their intellect, which will eventually result in smarter children.
On average the highly educated, the people we want to evolve and donate their genes to the next generations, have far less children (statistiekje zoeken?) than the poorly or averagely educated.
All this brings the process of natural selection to a halt. Almost every single human being who is able and willing to reproduce, can. Regardless of how smart they are, or how physically fit they are. This leads to an end of evolution. To compensate for this, we have science.
With the evolution of science, we keep progressing. Because the human species has a certain level of intelligence, and its top levels have a fairly stable level of higher intelligence. Therefore it is possible for us to continue evolving through science. 'Standing on the shoulders of Giants' so to speak. It is not that we get smarter through biological evolution of the human brain, it is through the work of other people who went before us that we can to continue to expand our scientific wisdom. That is all the evolution we have left.
Cheers,
Fithvael
The end of Evolution:
Evolution is what got us, human beings, to our current position in the natural chain of life. From ape to homo sapiens we evolved into our current form and shape. Our biological evolution, however, has stopped. No longer do we develop new or altered traits that bring our species to a new evolutionary level. Ofcourse, there are some physical traits that keep evolving. For example, we keep growing taller. But the evolutionary stop I'm talking about is not so much the physical one. I'm talking about the grinding halt to our mental evolution.
The welfare state, or any variety on it, makes it possible for everyone to survive and reproduce. Most western countries have some kind of welfare system to insure the survival of as many humans as possible. The amounts of time and money we put in the care of all human beings who would have died in a normal proces of natural selection, is insane. We're keeping people alive who barely know they exist, who have no sence of who or what they are We are keeping people alive who are so physically ill that they would have died shortly after birth. In some cases we even let these humans reproduce, almost invariably resulting in offspring that also needs intensive care.
In third world countries, where by far the largest part of the population is poor, people are often poorly educated aswel and will most likely lack decent welfare. The general standard of living, however, is still high enough for most to reproduce at least some offspring. Families in poor countries tend to be even bigger than in rich countries. Not all of those children survive childhood, or reach the same age as people in rich countries do, but that's not the point.
The ones that do reach an adult age, will probably have even less of an education then their parents had. A vicious cycle is at work here. Dumb parents will not stimulate their children to think, so their children will be even less intelligent then their parents are. And the children of these poorly educated and unstimulated children will be less intelligent then they themselves are and so forth. This ,ofcourse, works both ways. Intelligent parents will stimulate their children to develop their intellect, which will eventually result in smarter children.
On average the highly educated, the people we want to evolve and donate their genes to the next generations, have far less children (statistiekje zoeken?) than the poorly or averagely educated.
All this brings the process of natural selection to a halt. Almost every single human being who is able and willing to reproduce, can. Regardless of how smart they are, or how physically fit they are. This leads to an end of evolution. To compensate for this, we have science.
With the evolution of science, we keep progressing. Because the human species has a certain level of intelligence, and its top levels have a fairly stable level of higher intelligence. Therefore it is possible for us to continue evolving through science. 'Standing on the shoulders of Giants' so to speak. It is not that we get smarter through biological evolution of the human brain, it is through the work of other people who went before us that we can to continue to expand our scientific wisdom. That is all the evolution we have left.
Cheers,
Fithvael
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