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Re: Are We Still Evolving?
Nathan Keir Edel (nate@croydon.dartmouth.edu)
6 Nov 1995 20:11:38 GMT
: Adapting yes; evolving no. The earliest known fossil remains of
: Homo Sapiens are essentially the same bones we have today, and the
: earliest known records indicate equal intellectual capacity. It is
<...>
: reasoning. In my opinion, the last human being will be very similar to
: the first; and any new species will have to come from a different, less
: complex, and less specialized source.
That makes two assumptions: one, that cultural evolution and "accumulated
knowledge" is not itself a valid, _non-biological_ form of evolution, and
two, that existing microevolution could not, at least in theory, lead to
macro-organismal evolution. Both of these should be considered; second, it
is conceivable, though as yet, futuristic, that cultural evolution itself
may lead to biological evolution via artificial mechanism...
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