Can we control our evolution?...

Maybe because of aliens.
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Originally posted by Cyd
Does anybody know why we become more intelligent and useful for ourselfs?... Why we evolve our environment, i mean, our tool work, our transportation, our machines?... Why doesn´t the others animals do that?...

I don´t know why, maybe because we are smarter than them. Or perhaps because we don´t depend on nature decisions at all. 😆

We can become stronger, smarter, faster if we want. Does any other animal can do this?. 😎

thats all well and good, but it has nothing to do with evolution.

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Originally posted by Cyd
What do you think about controlling our evolution?...

Evolotion is to change, and also to advance. All living beings evolve according to the changes of their environment.

A human being has sometimes to change or advance something in his live to become updated to the changes of the society.

Evolution is supposed to happen after several years, i mean centuries or millennia. But i think we can evolve everyday, because...

We evolve when we: Study and become more intelligent, work out and become stronger or faster. We evolve every time we practice something so much until we enhance an ability, sometimes a new ability.

So,,, that means that we can control our personal evolution?, what do you think?.

We change, but it's not the same as evolution. For starters, we can't become infinitely smarter. Actually, we can't become smarter at all. We can learn more about a certain thing, but that doesn't make us smarter, just less ignorant.

Anyways, like I say, you shouldn't really call that evolution, since no matter how fast or strong you can train yourself to be, your children won't be born with that change.

Originally posted by Cyd
Thanks Imperial Samura. Your opinions will help me a lot to defent my point of view abot all this.

I can see you have a lot to say about evolution, i would like to read more about genetic because i don´t know enought about that. I have heard that we can control genetic in order to make our unborn kids smarter, to ensure a future genius. Is that true, or only a theory?...

Theoretically you could, but there's really no saying with what degree of accuracy we could alter genetic structure. The genome of any organism, especially an animal, is incredibly, dauntingly complex. It's taken years for scientists to finally figure out what every gene does (in a human). IMO tampering with a human's genetic structure just yet would be a little stupid. We need more experience working on other organisms first...

Indeed

Wow, now that sounds interesting. Finally someone smart has writen.
It is true, we can not call avolution a normal change in the human body, but as a change in order to be better it could be named evolution.

I guess you could call it that, but it's not Darwinian evolution.

That´s true Darth, but i can see you are basing too much your ideas in a classic ¨theory¨ which comes from a time when were some paradigmatic thoughts about everything that comes from science. As a modern and intelligent person you know that things has changed, words and its meanings has changed a lot. So we can not say at all that ¨Evolution¨ still means exactly ¨Darwin´s evolution¨.

I swear i believe in Darwin´s classic theory, but im sure that theory has evolved a lot 😎 , Now, what do you think?...

PD: Im not trying to change your beliefs, i just want to express why i think that we can control evolution.

Originally posted by Cyd
Wow, now that sounds interesting. Finally someone smart has writen.

Thank you.

there is no such thing as evolution for the human species. We are the end.

Evolution is brought about in 2 ways, natural selection and mutation. Natural selection no longer exists in our species. There is no longer any such thing as survival of the fittest. Those who are to diseased or feeble to hunt their food do not die as nature intended, society feeds them. They live on to pass their inferior genes to the next generation.

According to natural law, the kid who eats too many paint chips (lacking in mental capacity) does not grow up to have kids of his own. We humans ignore that. We take him to the hospital, pump his stomach, treat him for the toxins in his body, then send him on his merry way to procreate.

Our species now covers the entire planet. This completely abolishes any idea of mutation. For mutation to work, a select group must be isolated and inter-bred to carry on the mutated trait....to make sure all individuals inherit it.

We are it gang.........as good as it's going to get. Instead of our race letting nature take it's course......making our race genetically stronger....we spend our time in science labs trying to figure out ways to keep people alive who nature has deemed unfit to survive. If a person has cancer......nature has intended for him to die. It is not our place to step in, save his life.........making sure he has children who will also carry the weak gene suseptible to cancer.

Originally posted by Darth Revan
We change, but it's not the same as evolution. For starters, we can't become infinitely smarter. Actually, we can't become smarter at all. We can learn more about a certain thing, but that doesn't make us smarter, just less ignorant.

Anyways, like I say, you shouldn't really call that evolution, since no matter how fast or strong you can train yourself to be, your children won't be born with that change.

Wouldn't you say intelligence is more about the capacity to learn more, rather the acting of learning more? I would say we as a race have evolved more in that we as a whole have gained more intelligence. Thin about it. Children today can not only learn at a faster pace, but be taught more information at one time, when compared with past generations. This is something natural passed on from generation to generation.

^ agreed.

Intelligence is not information. It is the capacity to learn information. Information is merely memorization. You read it in a book and remember it. Intelligence is the ability to discover information.......which can then be taught to others. Basically....problem solving ability.

Originally posted by Evil Dead
^ agreed.

Intelligence is not information. It is the capacity to learn information. Information is merely memorization. You read it in a book and remember it. Intelligence is the ability to discover information.......which can then be taught to others. Basically....problem solving ability.

And this growing capacity seems to be passed on. I'm not sold on evolution just yet, but it's definitely a form of genetic change.

I have read yours, and i have to say that i felt like becoming smarter when i examined your thoughts about evolution.

i really liked Evil Dead´s, because i have never read a logic reason of why we don´t evolve anymore. And i also liked Oswald´s, i agree with you.

But now, tell me guys is there anyway on how can we sent our evolved genes to our kids?... i mean, if i acquire the capacity of learn faster, does that mean that my genes has become better?, if so, why doesn´t my kids born with that... ?

Originally posted by Cyd
I have read yours, and i have to say that i felt like becoming smarter when i examined your thoughts about evolution.

i really liked Evil Dead´s, because i have never read a logic reason of why we don´t evolve anymore. And i also liked Oswald´s, i agree with you.

But now, tell me guys is there anyway on how can we sent our evolved genes to our kids?... i mean, if i acquire the capacity of learn faster, does that mean that my genes has become better?, if so, why doesn´t my kids born with that... ?

I believe it happens over time. It's not necessarily you acquiring an ability and automatically passing it on. Maybe generations later, this ability could be visible in your descendents. That's why the evolution of humans is so hard to track down; it takes a long time.

There are mutations in your children's genes that can block certain abilities, such as two geniuses having a mentally defficient child. Through genetic enigneering, I believe you could pass down your changed genes exactly, but our knowledge of ourselves is not to that point yet.

Controlling human evolution is possible through selective breeding. That is the principle behind eugenics.

Controlling human evolution is possible through selective breeding. That is the principle behind eugenics.

possible........but is not happening now nor will ever happen. Evolution it a change to the ENTIRE race or a large enough part of it to create a new race.........not a small population.

The problem is this:

Nature has already provided the perfect platform for evolution. The strong survive to pass on their strong genes to their children. Over time, all the weaker specimens of the species die off leaving only the strong and their strong genes. Those who develop cancer die....so do their inferior genes that are predisposed to cancer. Over thousands of years.....the number of specimens with the weak cancer gene die off until finally, our race no longer has to worry about cancer. We have evolved past it.........our genes are strong and cancer proposes no risk.

Our civilized world does not believe in nature. For some reason, people have chosen to put faith in many different gods........instead of putting that same energy into something that is not faith, nature. Nature is a fact. It created the earth......the trees.......the oceans...the continents...the mountains...............and have sustained them over millions upon millions of years. For nature to exist that long, the system must be working. Humans however are egotistical. The human race believes that it can come up with a better system. Let the weak survive....let the diseased survive. This has brought about several negative affects.

we have undermined the genetic structure of our own race. We let human emotion dictate that everyone should live to pass their genes along, no matter how unfit. Whereas nature's system is in place to provide a perfect balance that will keep everything going endlessly........humans have upset the balance to ensure that humans will remain endlessly, no matter how muddy the genetic pool gets. I guess nobody ever stopped to think that when nature's structure becomes too unbalanced it will become unstable..........and our existence depends soly on nature's stability to sustain us.

Here's just a quick example of how the human race could fix problems logically......but refuse to do so out of emotion.

AIDS is an epidemic that wreaks havoc on those afflicted with it. Want to do away with it for good? Instead of spending billions of dollars on research to find drugs to help treat it's symptoms.........just get rid of it by getting rid of it's carriers. AIDS is caused by the HIV virus, the virus is a parasite. No more host = no more parasite. Take the money you are going to spend on research and spend it on manditory aids tests for every person. Every person inflicted with the disease should be quarantined together in a large area (pick any state, province, region). Let these people live their lives and die a natural death.......but quarantine them from spreading the disease to others. Low and behold.......35 years from now there is no such thing as aids.

Not often in the philosophy section but this looked interesting so...

In terms of the thread starter's initial thoughts, there is really no such thing as personal evolution, what is being described bears a slight resemblance to an old theory called Lamarckism. Evolution is generally a term applied to entire species rather at the level of individual organisms. Classic Darwinian evolution is still widely accepted and no better all-encompassing theory has supplanted it to my knowledge.

A person has a certain genetic potential and they cannot evolve to exceed that. How much of that potential a person reaches, usually depends on that person's environment.

Someone who is very intelligent, (which rather than defined as purely capacity to store information is probably better defined as a combination of the abilities to remember, comprehend and store information, and the speed at which these processes occur,) has always had the genetic potential for such a level of intelligence. Someone who has trained themselves to be run very fast has always had it within their genetic potential to run very fast, and cannot exceed the limits of their potential (without the use of performance enhancing drugs.)

In reading this no one can becoming more intelligent, however they may become more informed.

Human beings are relatively unique in that although we are still to an extent "slaves to the environment", we have the ability to alter the environment to suit us. We also now have the ability to alter the basic building blocks of life, giving us direct access to controlling our evolution. Whether or not we should be taking advantage of this ability is a whole 'nother question altogether.

From a purely biological standpoint the practice of medicine has been controlling human evolution potentially to the detriment of the human species as a whole, in the manner stated in the post above mine. Of course it shouldn't be ignored that the base cause of this fundamental altruistic part of human nature is also attributed to evolutionary processes.

Irregardless of human interference, left to nature some disease would not necessarily be eradicated. Genetic disease often has more complex interactions, for example Sickle Cell Anaemia requires two copies of a certain gene, but a carrier of a single copy of the mutant gene that causes this disease has a certain immunity to Malaria. The gene is maintained in the population due such beneficial effects.

First of all, intellegence has a different definition depending of the point of view of every human. I don´t think intelligence is just a capacity to learn fast and a lot.

Intelligence is the capacity to use (in the best way) all that information you have learned and still learning everyday. An intelligent person can take fast decisions and choose the smarters choices using the logic and his/her experience.

Remember, never say that an intelligent person is that one who learn fast. Just think about that nerds lern fast, but no all of them are intelligent. (The world is full of stupid people who can learn fast, but their stupidity tell us that they´re not smart).

Back to the evolution: I know it is a kind of impossible to evolve ourself that easy, and i´ll never forget that nature/universe has the control over everythig that it has created. And of course, without forgetting that Darwins´ theory still at the top. But i still believe that there might be a way to evolve oneself.........Why i persist in this?...

Stop and think about human body, it could be change if we want. It could be stronger (biger muscles) and more. That means nature give us a body that could become better.

I think human body is an special tool with several secrets to reveal. We just need to find the secret way to use all that hidden potential. I really believe our body is fill of switches that are waiting to be turned on. And when we turn on one of them, something in our body evolve at least a little bit. ( We can turn any switch by doing something specified, something we don´t know yet)...

Example: imgine yourself forcing a lot your mind with something very difficult. imagine what could happen if you keep doing that during a long time. You surely get a new nerve cell connection. Or perhaps a bit of Psychic ability.