The Chicken or the Egg?

[Ralath]

I think it's interesting with humans because with humans, natural selection isn't so natural anymore. Natural selection means to weed out the people who can't adapt to the environment as well as others but in modern society, we have the technology to keep alive many people who would previously have died (which, don't get me wrong or misinterpret me, is not a bad thing). For instance, people with weaker immune systems might have contracted a disease that might have killed them in their childhood and so they would never have been able to pass their weaker immune systems genes on. Instead, doctors now have the drugs and knowledge to know how to deal with such problems.

Also, I think another thing to note is that humans are the dominant species right now on Earth. Nothing can really threaten us so we aren't... "punished" for being unfit for our environment.

I think if you look at things that do change their genes a little more quickly, you can see evolution in action. Case in point, the influenza virus "evolves" a little each year which is why you have to get the flu shot every year. The virus changes enough so that the previous year's vaccine is no longer effective.

Or another example would be bacteria. Since bacteria are one-celled organisms, it is relatively easily for them to change characteristics. Doctors have been talking about this but over time, antibiotics become less and less effective against bacteria. I wish I had the picture in my bio book to show how a bacteria culture moved closer and closer to penicillin over time. I will post it later if I find it.

[Manzcar]

Okay something I never understood is why humans are the only species that evolved to thinking.

Why are there not other thinking creatures on earth?

as far as chicken or egg I pick chicken, cause I like fried chicken more than scrambled eggs.

[lamchopz]

That is a misconception. The other species do think and their intellect has long been underestimated. Animal studies are getting interesting because we discovered so many things which no one would believe or want to believe.

In the Zoology department of my uni, for example, they actually have the footage of an octopus that each night pushed open the lid of the tank in which it lived, crawled to the tank nearby and ate the crabs there, and then moved back into its tank and promptly put the lid back into position. For a while, no one knew why the crabs kept disappearing. When they checked the surveillance camera footage, bingo!

Dolphins, also, have been known to have remarkable intelligence. Well, they're really smarter than you think they're capable of.

I wholeheartedly agree with lrva and Ralath. Evolution has never ceased. Modern evolutionists now speculate that evolution might not have always been a gradual process. If you examine the fossil records, you will sometimes see an abrupt change. Also, please keep in mind that while evolution has been so successful, it is not complete and has failed to explain a lot of things, as well. But I guess that's what makes it still a theory, an awfully successful one, though.

[Hraesvelg]

I think a line needs to be drawn between intelligence and sapience/metacognition. With apologies to Descartes, I know I think, therefore I am. That is the line that currently seperates humans from other animals. Also, because of this distinction, we have developed empathy for our fellow humans and have used these wonderful brains we have to develop ways to take many of the pressues of natural selection away. But if you still doubt that some selection is at play, check out average height through the centuries.

[lamchopz]

lol yea

The fact that we're now discussing a topic using logical reasoning already distinguishes us, humans, from the other animals, which, as far as I know, have never sat down and had a fruitful chat. Perhaps what makes us human is just that: we think in a complex manner.