Human Species May Split in Two

[Ben]

Hmmmmm.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6057734.stm

 Human species 'may split in two'
Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.

Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.

The human race would peak in the year 3, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.

People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.

The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.

Race 'ironed out'

But in the nearer future, humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall, he predicts, while life-spans will have extended to 120 years, Dr Curry claims.

Physical appearance, driven by indicators of health, youth and fertility, will improve, he says, while men will exhibit symmetrical facial features, look athletic, and have squarer jaws, deeper voices and bigger penises.

Women, on the other hand, will develop lighter, smooth, hairless skin, large clear eyes, pert breasts, glossy hair, and even features, he adds. Racial differences will be ironed out by interbreeding, producing a uniform race of coffee-coloured people.

However, Dr Curry warns, in 10,000 years time humans may have paid a genetic price for relying on technology.

Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, they could come to resemble domesticated animals.

Receding chins

Social skills, such as communicating and interacting with others, could be lost, along with emotions such as love, sympathy, trust and respect. People would become less able to care for others, or perform in teams.

Physically, they would start to appear more juvenile. Chins would recede, as a result of having to chew less on processed food.

There could also be health problems caused by reliance on medicine, resulting in weak immune systems. Preventing deaths would also help to preserve the genetic defects that cause cancer.

Further into the future, sexual selection - being choosy about one's partner - was likely to create more and more genetic inequality, said Dr Curry.

The logical outcome would be two sub-species, "gracile" and "robust" humans similar to the Eloi and Morlocks foretold by HG Wells in his 1895 novel The Time Machine.

"While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is a possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other, said Dr Curry.

He carried out the report for men's satellite TV channel Bravo.

[Jamisjockey]

It's an interesting theory, and I can see merit to it.  Visit the local trailer park, and you can see the developing separation of geneitic classes already.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Sad but true.  There is a distinct difference between blue collar types and white collar types.  The two do not intermingle much anymore, and when they form families their families are uniformly of the same type.  The offspring of the family will invariably be a member of the same type.

I suspect it's due more to conditioning than genetics.  Blue collar children are taught to behave as blue callar types, and white collar children are taught to behave as white collar types.  Behavior and attitude determine one's lifestyle and standard of living.  These teachings are self-perpetuating and self-fulfilling.

Even more disturbing is the fact that poor inner city black children are taught to behave like poor inner city blacks, thus ruining any chance their youngsters have becoming something more.  (Call me a racist if you want...)

[Mannlicher]

balderdash  

[El Tejon]

Absolutely right!  I'm an observer of the evolution in progress!

Friday morning in misdemeanor court I see it unfold.

[onions!]

Poke it with a stick!

[Tallpine]

"There is a distinct difference between blue collar types and white collar types.  The two do not intermingle much anymore..."

How do you explain ME then, since I am equally at home writing computer code, and cutting trees or building fence or plowing a field with a tractor?  

[Matthew Carberry]

"There is a distinct difference between blue collar types and white collar types.  The two do not intermingle much anymore..."

How do you explain ME then, since I am equally at home writing computer code, and cutting trees or building fence or plowing a field with a tractor?  

The exception that proves the rule.  The forerunner of a third distinct species currently found primarily on internet gun boards - Homo Heinleinus.

[brimic]

I might be the missing link that future paleontologists will look for:
Very tall
Muscular
Hairy
Goblin-faced
Scientist

[Guest]

Ah yes, bizare unfounded predictions of the distant future, the favorite hobby of bored scientists in irrelevant disciplines. I guess they have to do something to keep the grant checks coming in.

[lee n. field]

People would become choosier about their sexual partners,.

The whole thing falls apart right there.

[Sindawe]

Racial differences will be ironed out by interbreeding, producing a uniform race of coffee-coloured people.

What a damn shame that would be.  Gone would be the racial differences that make us such an interesting species.  No more almond eye'd Asians, deep black Africans or pale skined Gingers.

Though I doubt that the weak, domesticated animal form is in our future.  More likely in my opinion is something like this:

[Standing Wolf]

Yeah, and if you chop the tails off enough generations of rats, they'll start getting born without tails, too. Heck, everybody knows that.

[CAnnoneer]

Human society has never been so stable as to allow such differentiation over thousands of years. Methinks idle minds extrapolate too much...

[AJ Dual]

Human society has never been so stable as to allow such differentiation over thousands of years. Methinks idle minds extrapolate too much...

You are absolutely right.

Assuming that there's not some huge artificial divide like space colonization, or  some sort of draconian government that enforces breeding selection even more stringently than the Nazis could ever have dreamed of, there is almost absolute proof that there will be too much cross breeding to ever truly separate humans into "Eloi" and "Moorlocks".

Look at Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley. I can't think of a more "Eloi" couple. And look how Hugh got busted "lookin' for some strange" with that hooker& LOL-able, but it proves the point.

There's a million or more other "exceptions" to the rule of selection. The ugly guy who's rich/charismatic and has a beautiful trophy wife. The fat ugly woman who gets plastic surgery, works out like crazy, and gets liposuction, then attracts a husband. Perhaps one of the "beautiful people" gets addicted to drugs, and winds up in the gutter, and they spread their genes there, instead of the Hamptoms or Beverly Hills...

The example of "look what crawls out of the local trailer park" isn't exactly valid either. If you look at the population there, you have to be very careful to separate out the effects of hard living (Smoking, drugs, bad diet, sun), neglect, or poor health-care, from "inferior genetics". Then there's the out-breeding of that population. Who's leaving for better things? Who's arriving there from a previously better life?

Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in the power of genetics, I've got in-laws that are adopted, a brother and sister from two different birth families, raised in a very good, almost stereotypical "Ozzie and Harriet" home. One is a special-ed school teacher and high-school sports coach. She found her birth mother, and she's a special-ed teaching assistant and high-school sports coach. The other is constantly in and out of jail for drugs, probation violations, and petty crime. His birth parents were located, both are in prison&

Although it's a striking example that's close to me, it ignores the impact of recessives. The odds are lower, most simplistically 1-in-4 on the Punnet Square, vs. 1-in-2 for dominant alleles, but the woman with the "good" parents could still have wound up the criminal, and the one with the criminal parents still could have wound up the teacher...

The variables of chance, human behavior, social pressure, technology, and free will are so great that it becomes very difficult to glean any meaningful trends in "where humanity is going", from just genetics alone. And a theory that tries to be inclusive and consider genetics, behavior, chance, social pressures and technology as a whole is so broad, any conclusions are just meaningless.

Theories like this scientist's get a lot of traction in people's minds because they identify with their own perceived selectiveness in their own minds, so it rings true. However, they fail to take into account all the "exceptions to the rule", for themselves, or their intended mate that may have got them there.

[Jamisjockey]

I argue that, given time, and society's current trend, there will be a visible split in genetic classes.  Actually, I'd even argue there already is.  Will there be exceptions to the rule?  Absolutely.  However, we've already got a division between the working class...robust and generally less intelligent, and the upper class elite....not as robust, and more intelligent.  However, there are a large number of people that fill the gap between the classes so that it's less obvious.  I actually think global Socialisim will contribute to a further  division of the classes.

[Tallpine]

"Homo Heinleinus"    Good one, carebear!


I just don't think people should be judged soley by their occupations.  There are good honest people who build houses or fix cars, and there are selfish crooks who steal millions with paper and a computer.  

Oh yeah, and then there are jeans and ball cap wearing men(and some women) who work and manage millions of dollars worth of land and equipment, but they are just a "farmer"

[griz]

Ignoring the mistake of trying to extrapolate evolution from only one lifetimes observations, what he is describing is not evolution.  It is socialazation.  The two groups (not species) he refers to are still members of the same race, they are just seperated by their position in society.

[Jamisjockey]

Ignoring the mistake of trying to extrapolate evolution from only one lifetimes observations, what he is describing is not evolution.  It is socialazation.  The two groups (not species) he refers to are still members of the same race, they are just seperated by their position in society.

But I think that at some point the possibility (And that to an extent its already happening) of primary classes of socialized persons interbreeding into two subspecies of the race.  Currently its only social status that separates the classes, really, although some traits are more common in one vs. the other.

I'm not judging people based on status position, job, or intelligence level (although the trailer park shot was low ), I just see the possibility that certain subspecies of people, who are already banding together socially, will emerge.  As white collar and blue collar occupations become even more specialized (Thanks to this fad we call the internet), these people may become more specialized to suit thier tasks.  People who stay together often begin breeding together, thus ensuring passing along those genes.  

I think that global socilaisim will further the separation.  If you're ensured that shoveling coal at the plant will be secure, vacation, you'll have health care, and etc etc, why would one bother to change thier social class and interbreed?  

As I said, I think its a valid theory, and I see its merits, but without very widespread genetic testing it can't be proven....and by the time that its proven/disproven, we'll all be long gone dead.

[griz]

why would one bother to change thier social class and interbreed?

People have been trying to "move up" for a long time, I don't see an entire class of people becoming so satisfied that they will be happy about being resigned to manual labor.  (Admitidly I might be making the same one lifetime mistake I already complained about :/ )
As for interbreeding, people have been doing that even longer.  You could make a living betting on the instinct to....well...pass along genes.

Overall I think the two class therory would require physical separation of the classes, or nature will defeat the idea.

[Ben]

Ignoring the mistake of trying to extrapolate evolution from only one lifetimes observations, what he is describing is not evolution.  It is socialazation.

Yeah, I would look at it more like the "Metropolis" model than Morlock/Eloie model.

[Guest]

I argue that, given time, and society's current trend, there will be a visible split in genetic classes.

Please, most of the human race existed *completely* out of contact with other gene pools, and still there was no split into different races. Even cultures licing on islands in isolated gene pools for thousands of years havent managed to split into different species. With the kind of international travel and interracial marriage we have today, the very idea that the human race would split into two distinct species is laughable.