Are we defeating evolution?

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Lilly

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Not too long ago my biology class had a good discussion on whether Americans were ruining evolution. Here's what we came up with: We wear lots of clothes, so our body hair is thinning out. We provide an extreme excess of food, so people aren't really starving. We have medicine and vaccinations for almost everything, preventing the diseased from dying (I know it sounds cruel that way, but think in scientific terms). There is an ecological carrying capacity that can only support so many humans. In the past, when the carrying capacity is crossed over, a disease hits and kills off millions of people (something like the Plague). Now, however, when a disease hits, we fight it, create a vaccination for it, and educate ourselves on how not to get it if there's no vaccine (like with AIDS). When the carrying capacity is passed too far there is much suffering all around and it's a violent time to be alive. If we let people die from these diseases, only the "fit" (fit coming from Darwin's definition of fitness, being that the more fit you are the more you can reproduce) would survive and create more fit people and we will emerge a stronger species. But if we did this, most of us would die before our 14th birthday. Which goes back to lots of suffering again. Then, there's stem cell research which is promising to save more lives, but should we save those lives (again, think in science terms, not personal terms)? What is to come of our future generations if we are fixing all of our short comings?

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*Proud owner, maker, and baker of THE U2 cookies*
 
Originally posted by Lilly:
Not too long ago my biology class had a good discussion on whether Americans were ruining evolution.


That's a good point, there was an article just recently released on this topic, however I wouldn't just say 'American's are ruining evolution, You've got to include every country that has in it some sort of medicine/welfare/aid program as inclusionary to this 'ruining' of evolution..

But I'm not so sure that evolution has stopped as it has been reported.. surely it has slowed, and perhaps is occurring in various methods that I haven't got the time to go into, but most definitely we're affecting evolution/normal spreadsheets for fitness, due to the overpopulation problems that we are encountering, and will be encountering.. However, I'd also say that evolution cannot be escaped completely, cuz somewheres down the line, when there's 14 billion people on this planet, there will be a 'more fit' group of people that will survive/eat/flourish when the majority of people are struggling to find some sort of disease free alley or uninhabited spotch of farmable or food producing land.

L.Unplugged
 
Lilly I just have to say that for the few months I've been reading your posts in FYM you have come across as very articulate and intelligent.

I wish I had been thinking on the level you seem to be while in high school.

Very impressive.
 
she makes U2 cookies too.
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Sure, in a scientific way, you're right. But it are not only the americans who do this, other countries invent vaccinations too!!!!
The alternative however is a bit nazistic. Let only the srong '?bermensch' survive and the 'untermensch'. Also isn't it a part of evolution that those who adept best to threats, will survive.....In that way it is totally in line with evolution, though this time it's not solely a biological and chemical process but a scientifical/cultural also. But then again, evolution gave us those brains that make science and culture possible.
On the other hand, I do think some kind of plague will strike humanity (don't have any good argument for this, jutst feel that way) and will cause megadeath amongst us, though many also will survive.
My final statement: No, science/culture isn't defeating evolution, it's just a logical next step, since evolution is all about survival

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Vorsprung durch Technik
 
I know that other countries invent vaccinations. I apoligize for not clarifying that we only spoke about America, thus I don't feel apt to speaking on behalf of other countries with whom I am not familiar.

Sula: Ohhh yea we are. I'm trying to think of a way to do it. I might have to clean my house or something! (Imagine that!) But it will happen nonetheless. (Which reminds me, way to watch POPMart AFTER I went home from the Grammy party! Blargh!)

kobayashi: No, I didn't make a Paul one. Yea, I'm trying to think of something witty what would explain why not, but I'm dry...maybe later.
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*Proud owner, maker, and baker of THE U2 cookies*
 
I hate to be cruel, but yes. The people who had physical and mental diseases, who went bals, who couldn't find food, there was always something wrong with their genes. And now, because they're so well taken care of, their genes are passed on onto the next generation. While this doesn't always mean their children will have the disease too, they might. So, the human race is weakening genetically, and if you really look at history, people aren't getting smarter, just fatter.
 
No, I do not think that we are effectively 'killing' evolution, for we are not the ones in charge, we are not God, though we currently pretend to be.

It may appear that our scientific advancements and innovations in medicine are stunting and preventing evolution from proceeding with its process, but I guarantee you that 'life will find a way'. Evolution is a process that is beyond our control, and it will happen, no matter how much we try to manipulate it.

No matter how powerful the human race might think itself to be, Nature always has the upper hand.

Ant.
 
Yeah, well, hell, who knows - millions of years from now we may just higly advanced brains with useless bodies at the rate we're going. We need to keep the old gene pool clean with the net of variation.
 
I think we worry too much. Whomever thought we'd languish advancements in health care?

Melon

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"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time
 
Originally posted by kobayashi:
Lilly I just have to say that for the few months I've been reading your posts in FYM you have come across as very articulate and intelligent.

I wish I had been thinking on the level you seem to be while in high school.

Very impressive.


Awwww....thanks! That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!
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*Proud owner, maker, and baker of THE U2 cookies*
 
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