MetaFilter posts tagged with humanevolution

transcendental numbers rumble in the technium

kliuless — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:00:48 -0800

Extropy
How did life arise? What is information? In his recent dispatches from The Technium, Kevin Kelly would say extropy (cf. negentropy & Prigogine). [previously 1|2]

Humans are evolving rapidly

stbalbach — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:53:07 -0800

Humans are evolving more rapidly than in the distant past, according to a new study published in PNAS. "The massive growth of human populations has led to far more genetic mutations, and every mutation that is advantageous to people has a chance of being selected and driven toward fixation. We are more different genetically from people living 5,000 years ago than they were different from Neanderthals", says lead author John Hawks. PNAS has not published the abstract as of today, but it can be read on John Hawks blog under the second link. A more "popular press" story released by the AP is making its way around the wire, here is a copy. It's a little more entertaining:

Science fiction writers have suggested a future Earth populated by a blend of all races into a common human form. In real life, the reverse seems to be happening. People are evolving more rapidly than in the distant past, with residents of various continents becoming increasingly different from one another. "I was raised with the belief that modern humans showed up 40,000 to 50,000 years ago and haven't changed. The opposite seems to be true."

Technological Human Evolution

peacay — Mon, 16 May 2005 07:38:20 -0800

Inward Technology - Directed Evolution of Humans (W.Post - reg.)
"The next frontier..is our own selves"
"We should not just accept but embrace the new technologies"
"But the promise of mastery is flawed. It threatens to banish our appreciation of life as a gift.."
the author, the book via via

srboisvert — Thu, 10 May 2001 19:30:15 -0800

I come from a long line of inbreeders. No more laughing at them there bills from the hills! It seems all us white folk are related to only 50 frisky ancestors!

PaperCut — Tue, 06 Jun 2000 20:36:11 -0800

Human Evolution Will the next significant steps be biological, technical or both?