• Question: How will mankind evolve given changes in technology and climate?

    Asked by to Daren, Lynne, Phillip, Simon on 20 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Lynne Thomas

      Lynne Thomas answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      The great thing about evolution is that it happens without us knowing it! So I think it is something that we wouldn’t be able to predict. Some people suggest that our thumbs might evolved due to our increased use of them whilst using mobile phones. But any changes would be over several generations so we won’t know for a while yet!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 21 Jun 2014:

      Evolution only really happens when it gives you a greater chance of survival or a greater ability to reproduce.
      I think technology makes us all far more equal – it means that people with disabilities are able to get jobs and lead the same lives as the rest of us. Both people who are good at maths and people who aren’t are able to do the same sums thanks to things like calculators. So I think technology will stop us evolving.
      Climate change is a completely different story. If the world gets extremely polluted, only people with strong lungs are going to survive, whereas those with respiratory problems will struggle. Over time the people with stronger lungs will live longer and have more children, so humans will evolve to have stronger lungs. You can apply the same thought process to heat etc
      At the same time, though, technology will find ways to help people who are disadvantaged, so there probably won’t be much difference.

    • Photo: Daren Fearon

      Daren Fearon answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      I agree with Jenny that technology will probably stop us evolving. Evolution happens because it offers benefits in terms of survival of a species. With all the technology we have now we can control our environments a lot better and so we don’t experience the same pressure to evolve. Whether we evolve because of our habits (good or bad) we will need to see but this is a very long and slow process that will take generations, technology is advancing on a much faster time scale than evolution can keep up with. Humans in northern Europe evolved to produce less dark coloured pigments in their skins as they didn’t need it to cope with the northern temperature. Now the climate is warming and it is more common for people to travel to and live in different countries but as we have things like sunscreen we don’t have the same pressure to evolve back to producing more dark pigments.

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