How Humans Are Shaping Our Own Evolution

by Guest Wed Apr 26, 2017 7:43 am

Like other species, we are the products of millions of years of adaptation. Now we're taking matters into our own hands.

When I met the cyborg Neil Harbisson, in Barcelona, he looked like any local hipster, except for the black antenna arching impressively from the back of his skull over his mop of blond hair. It was December, and Harbisson, 34, was wearing a zippered gray shirt under a black peacoat, with narrow gray pants. Born in Belfast and raised in Spain, he has a rare condition called achromatopsia; he cannot perceive color. His antenna, which ends in a fiber-optic sensor that hovers right above his eyes, has changed that. Harbisson never felt that living in a black-and-white world was a disability. “I see longer distances. Also I memorize shapes more easily because color doesn’t distract me,” he told me, in his careful, neutral English.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/04/evolution-genetics-medicine-brain-technology-cyborg/

by Original Quill Wed Apr 26, 2017 5:18 pm

Evolution is just interaction between the organism and the environment, governed only by chance and necessity. No rule says humans cannot be a part of the environment, too.

In fact, it's arguable that mere migration is a form of mutation-causing environment. The decision to leave Africa led to changes in skin color, as the human being needed to absorb more light in northern climes. The decision to train beasts of burden to do our work, probably changed our capacity for stamina and sustained effort.

And, as the article points out, technology is just a matter of other decisions, more indirectly causing evolutionary changes.

How Humans Are Shaping Our Own Evolution

How Humans Are Shaping Our Own Evolution

Like other species, we are the products of millions of years of adaptation. Now we're taking matters into our own hands.

Re: How Humans Are Shaping Our Own Evolution