Brad's Tiny World

Evolution in Cyberspace

Posted on 17. Apr, 2008 by Brad in Science and Technology | Twitter: @ |

In honor of Pope Benny’s 81st birthday and nearly Darwin’s 200th, I give you “Evolution in Cyberspace” New Scientist hooked up on the theme of Charles Darwin’s birthday when it published Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions.  it is a fascinating read and Digg worthy which is where I found the article in the first place.

John Hawks, a noted anthropologist, put out a paper last December detailing the hows and why of our recent evolutionary changes and why it is going faster than ever.  His notion is within the last 40,000 that humans have started to settle down in permanent communities we have seen a faster rate of genetic mutations and put out some good evidence for this.  It takes me back to some of my own posts on our increasing population that I have done.

Evolution for those that don’t know is not about smartest, fastest, or the toughest it is about adaptability and making babies.  As population we have become very good at both things.  In my mind, we have gotten too good at it. We produce without regard to the natural resources of this planet either now or in the future. Furthermore we are doing everything in our power to keep people alive to pass on traits that would have killed them in times past.

No matter what creationists have to say about evolution most of them can and do acknowledge the relevant portions of animal husbandry. I know many cattle, horse, and dog breeders who are also creationists. The one thing they will all tell you is it is important of weeding out bad traits in your breeding stock. Why is this so hard to push for in humans who are just one more animal on this planet?

In truth we have done more in the last hundred years to improve the breeding of horses, dogs, cattle, and even rabbits than we have done to improve people. Where marriages were once about economic well being and children were little more than chattel, we have gone soft. While I am all for marriages made from love and having kids because we want them rather than need them, we have gone too far.

We are rapidly over populating the planet, beyond its means to support us and doing nothing to improve ourselves. More and more variations are evolving in us the faster we breed, but the fact is we aren’t doing much to spread them around for the benefit of all. Why? The answer is pretty simple, racism and religion.

These benefits often creep up in isolated population often because of close interbreeding over many generations. Yes there are bad traits that creep up too, but those aren’t ones we need to be looking at since most of those traits die out in those populations for lack of good medical care.

The other factor here is race. As minorities struggle in mixed communities to maintain a racial identity, especially among the new immigrated they don’t mix, marry or even have flings with outsiders. Perhaps if we did a little more to welcome them and their differences into out our lives all of humanity would benefit from it…

Stumble! for WP

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Tags: adaptability, Age, Art, Charles Darwin, Darwin, John Hawks, noted anthropologist, Religion, Scientist