TheBig3

Mine does. I was using this cream and it was gone for awhile. Other day my evolution started acting up and my foot went polydactyl.

__________________
I've moved to a new address

Freebase Dali

Sljslj

But isn't it possible that if a species reaches some sort of harmony with their environment and the environment itself doesn't undergo any major changes, that mutations aren't necessary, nor beneficial? That seems to be where we're at right now. Also, for the first time, a species is able to create things to meet our needs rather than having to physically adapt to them. For example, instead of fur to keep us warm, we make clothes. Instead of having to actually physically catch our food, we can grow our food or use weapons to kill other animals. Am I making any sense or am I just making an ass of myself?

Burning Down

That could be, but not for humans. Our environment is changing - global warming. We need to become climatized to changing temperatures and weather patterns in order to survive. That in itself is a form of evolution. Therefore, the evolution process is still underway.

Sljslj

Touché. I guess I rest my case for now.
Though if anyone has anything to add, feel free to do so.

Guybrush

Some will always do "better" than others, even if it's purely by chance (genetic drift). Such harmony is not really attainable, but it is perhaps approachable to some degree. The Hardy-Weinberg principle says that there's an equilibrium (or harmony if you will) where allele frequencies remain constant (you could interpret this as evolution does not take place) in a population that satisfy some criterias :

"Random" mating - which means mates are chosen at random. You don't choose a mate based on favourable characteristics that make them attractive (assortative mating) and you don't do inbreeding.
Infinite population size (no genetic drift) - Basically, it has to be infinitely huge because then stochastic effects like rock slides killing off some germans here f.ex won't have much impact on the common human genome.
No natural selection - Nothing in the social, biotic, abiotic, whatever environment that makes one trait more favourable than another.
No gene flow - No input of alleles from different populations that may disturb the equilibrium.
No mutations - Mutations will create new alleles and if these increase in the population, that violates the HW equilibrium criteria.

In a population that satisfy all these criteria, the new generation should have the same genes (alleles) in the same proportions as their parent generation. This means that although the population may create different individuals, the genome as a whole doesn't change much - it contains the same varieties of genes at the same frequencies. As I wrote, this is not attainable. For example mutations do happen whether we like it or not and we do have sexual preferences. There are also a range of selection pressures, but they vary very much with where you are. Some places in the world, malaria can f.ex be a real selection pressure which favours some mutations. Where I am, it is not.

Whether or not there is gene flow is a question of definition because you then have to define the human population or populations that gene flow can occur between, so that's relative. Also, depending on how you see it, you could argue that the human population size is huge

So sometimes, large populations of organisms may "approach" what looks like a HW equilibrium. Depending on how you define a human population - f.ex if you only look at Norway or some other western country, you could probably find that we do as well. However, it's never quite attainable and at any rate, it's only temporary. Some stronger selection pressures are bound to come along soon enough.

edit :

Remember that in my example, a mutation which caused irritable bowels suddenly helped people survive cholera. I mentioned malaria and the exact same thing goes for the mutation which causes sickle cell disease. It protects against malaria so while this mutation causes a disease which is not beneficial to us, it can be if you're someplace with malaria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle-cell_disease

In other words, which mutations are beneficial or not may simply depend on the environment you're in and environments change over time.

__________________
Something Completely Different

duga

One thing I find very interesting is that our self awareness evolved from a time when we did strike a harmonious balance with the environment. Food was plentiful and there were no major environmental stresses. This gave us the opportunity to relax in a way and "ponder existence". This lead to self awareness as we know it.

This sort of thing couldn't be expanded on today because of the intense amount of stress that is placed on all of us with jobs, money, and personal issues. However, if we were to find that harmony again, imagine what we could do with our minds at that point.

__________________
Confusion will be my epitaph...

CAPTAIN CAVEMAN

were you completely ripped when you posted this?

noise

no, i think it's your understanding of evolution that is completely off

don't expect dramatic change so fast. 40K years is nothing at all on an evolutionary timescale.

but also remember that we humans have a tendency to resist change by adapting our environment to suit us, rather than vice versa. individuals born with sub-optimal traits are nursed and cared for rather than being left to die. disease rarely takes its toll on the week. etc etc. we've kind of put a wrench in the gears of the system.

but no matter, wait till a global disaster comes around and then see who's strong enough to survive in the post-apocalyptic world. it will take a lot more than ruthless inefficiency and a fat wallet

__________________
my flac collection

Guybrush

^That (duga's post) is indeed a statement and I think you should always be a bit careful when making statements. At least ask yourself "how do I know this is true?"!

__________________
Something Completely Different