• Question: how will man kind evolve considering technology and climate changes

    Asked by beth5000 to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      Well, evolution normally happens much more slowly than the change in technology. But it’s possible that we’ll modify ourselves, somehow – even wearing glasses could be seen as being a cyborg, I suppose.

      Climate change could gradually change people – for example, increased sunlight could make people’s skin darker. That said, people are pretty adaptable, and cope with change quickly. The biggest problem with climate change will be flooding and drought, which will force people to move to new places in huge numbers, which causes conflict as people who used to live in the new place feel the pressure of extra numbers using the same space, and communities are torn apart by moving. Hopefully we can minimise this happening, but we won’t stop it entirely.

    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      Yeah… as Sam says, (natural) evolution takes a long time, for random genetic mutations that give an advantage to be propagated down the generations. It’s possible though that with advances in our technology we can “force” these mutations to take place – there is lots of research into how we age, for example, or into genetic markers that make us susceptible to disease.

    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      Some might say we have actually stopped evolving – because there is so little environmental pressure put on us to have physically “negative” traits selected against. What I’m trying to to say is that some humans now can live full lives and have children thanks to modern medicine. In the past these people would have unfortunately died, and their genes would not be passed on, which is how evolution works. Also some people can only have children by using technology like IVF (google it). These people wouldn’t pass on their genetic material if it wasn’t for our current technology. What we are doing is becoming more and more genetically varied as a species. Perhaps in the future there will be more pressure on us due to climate change, but I think the technology will develop fast enough to keep us all more or less safe.

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