How come humans have not evolved into a higher species?

[The Barbarian]

Should evolution not predict the fur stop growing ?

If they were released there, it's very likely that it would. Rhinos were hairy back in the ice ages. As it warmed up, their fur stopped growing.

 

[The Barbarian]

No, you are of the opinion that people are smarter now. We do not know.

Actually, we do. IQ tests are very much the same, but it takes a much higher raw score on the same test to get an IQ of 100 now. The scores are curved, with the mean raw score set to 100.

Some of us do not agree that people are smarter now. Some people even believe that intelligence cannot be tested objectively.

Whatever part of intelligence IQ tests determine, has been increasing over the last 100 years. That's just what the data is.

 

[The Barbarian]

Much of what passes for evolution is merely adaptation or incentivized improvement by means of lifestyle change.

We merely know that people are smarter now then they were generations ago. So the idea that we are degenerating is obviously false.

So the human population genome as changed in a few decades to make us all more intelligent ?

All we know is that the human population genome has not produced lower intelligence. Human intelligence has risen markedly over the past 100 years. So no "devolution."

 

[Lost4words]

How come humans have not evolved into a higher species?



Thanks,

Daniel

Because Corgi's rule, ok!

 

[Daniel Marsh]

Since the fall humans have been de-evolving.

We all of the same human species.

 

[Daniel Marsh]

After the creation of Adam and Eve......then the fall...human DNA has been bombarded with mutations that over time have reeked havic on our DNA.

Still Human

 

[Daniel Marsh]

I could use an extra pair of hands.

 

[Daniel Marsh]

Actually, humans are continuing to evolve. Tibetans, for example, have a gene that allows them to live at very high altitudes. They acquired this gene in just a few thousand years. And then, there's this:


The results show that divers and non-divers from the Bajau community have similar sized spleens. This helped to show that the enlargement wasn't simply a consequence of regular diving.

But when the researchers compared the Bajau to a neighbouring group called the Saluan, who traditionally lead a farming lifestyle, they found the Bajau had spleens that were 50% larger on average.

The team was also able to find an apparent genetic basis for the size difference. They compared the genomes (the total complement of DNA in the nuclei of human cells) of the Bajau, the Saluan and Han Chinese for areas that had been under natural selection.

"We could ask the question: are there any genetic variants - are there any mutations - that are at a much higher frequency, that have changed their frequency specifically in the Bajau compared to other populations," said co-author Prof Rasmus Nielsen, from the University of California, Berkeley.

The results of this "selection scan" turned up 25 sites in the genome that differed significantly in the Bajau compared to the other groups. Of these, one site on a gene known as PDE10A was found to correlate with the Bajau's larger spleen size, even after accounting for confounding factors like age, sex, and height.

Each of these populations have evolved to become more fit in their respective environments.

And, yet they are still humans, not a different species.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

What about "as higher in specie to humans, as humans are said to be to apes"?

That would be about 1 percent higher.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Genesis is no "recent study" Genesis 6:3 So the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years." - "My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years." Genesis 6:3

This is generally believed to be the probation period before the flood would wipe them out. The most realistic prophetic life span is "70 years or 80 by strength" (Psalm 90:10). We are in that range now. But in the last two years life span has decreased slightly in the U.S.

 

[mama2one]

follow

 

[LoG]

We merely know that people are smarter now then they were generations ago. So the idea that we are degenerating is obviously false.

An interesting article of why that may appear so but isn't in reality.

Are You Smarter Than Your Grandfather? Probably Not.
Senility isn’t the answer; IQ scores are increasing with each generation.
In a new book, political scientist James Flynn explains why.

In the mid-1980s, James Flynn made a groundbreaking discovery in human intelligence.
The political scientist at the University of Otago in New Zealand found that over the last century,
in every nation in the developing world where intelligence-test results are on record,
IQ test scores had significantly risen from one generation to the next.

“Psychologists faced a paradox: either the people of today were far brighter than their parents or,
at least in some circumstances, IQ tests were not good measures of intelligence,” writes Flynn.

Now, in a new book, Are We Getting Smarter? Rising IQ in the Twenty-First Century,
Flynn unpacks his original finding, explaining the causes for this widespread increase in IQ scores,
and reveals some new ones, regarding teenagers’ vocabularies and the mental decline of the
extremely bright in old age. Ultimately, Flynn concludes that human beings are
not smarter—just more modern.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/are-you-smarter-than-your-grandfather-probably-not-150402883/

 

[MrsFoundit]

We merely know that people are smarter now then they were generations ago.

We have learned about splitting atoms, but not how to avoid pointing hydrogen bombs at each other.

We have created plastic footwear, but we are feeding it to turtles.

We have designed convenient horseless carriages and flying machines, and become so dependent on them that we are probably destroying our own capacity to survive.

We are not smarter, your perception is skewed by an unreliable definition of "smarter".

 

[The Barbarian]

We are not smarter,

Measurably so. So the notion that we're degenerating is obviously wrong. BTW, being intelligent is no guarantee of salvation. The Flynn effect merely demonstrates that humans have been getting more intelligent over the last 100 years.

We're just evolving to fit the environments in which we live. Like those Tibetans, who have evolved to survive at very high altitudes, and those Pacific Islanders, who evolved to be able to dive longer and deeper. If the environment should change, the direction of evolution would change.

mental decline of the
extremely bright in old age.

Hmm...
Cerebrum. 2015 Nov-Dec; 2015: cer-14-15
Cognitive Skills and the Aging Brain: What to Expect
Diane B. Howieson, Ph.D

"For most people cognitive or social decline with aging is minor and influenced by multiple factors. One factor is called “cognitive reserve.”6 People who are more intelligent at a young age or have better cognitive maintenance through education, occupation, or stimulating activities retain cognitive skills with aging better than those who are less accomplished in these respects. A recent study involving a large number of people in Scotland who had intelligence tests at age 11 and again 50 years later found that the biggest predictor of cognitive ability at the older age was cognitive ability at age 11.7 It is possible that being blessed with the right genes accounted for much of this benefit, although little is known about what genes might be involved."

Doesn't seem to be an issue. My mother was a remarkably brilliant woman, whose marketable skill was the ability to grasp and use tax laws to minimize a company's taxes. If you've done your own taxes as a business owner, you'll know what an accomplishment that is. She died in her 80s, and was working almost to the day she died. From the research I've found, it appears that she was not the exception.

 

[The Barbarian]

May I just say, your signature is very amusing, in a good way.

I stole it from a lawyer I know. He's a very humorous guy, who uses humor to illuminate logic. I wish I was as good at it as he is.

 

[The Barbarian]

We have learned about splitting atoms, but not how to avoid pointing hydrogen bombs at each other.

We have created plastic footwear, but we are feeding it to turtles.

You're confusing intelligence with wisdom. Or possibly with ethics.

 

[MrsFoundit]

Measurably so.

Impossible, no objective measure of "smarter" exists.

 

[MrsFoundit]

You're confusing intelligence with wisdom. Or possibly with ethics.

No, I am defining intelligence in a manner that includes wisdom and ethics. I am not confused, it is my choice to regard the inclusion as vital.

 

[The Barbarian]

And, yet they are still humans, not a different species.

Most of us carry genes from Denisovans or Neandertals. So we represent the last survivor of many species of humans. We don't know if we area different species from Cro-Magnons, or not. The fact that anatomically modern humans move around a lot, means that we are constantly swapping gene with other populations. And than means that the usual mechanism of speciation, isolation and divergence, won't happen to us. Orthogenesis, the evolution of an entire species into a new species, is possible for us, but we wouldn't notice it happening unless someone was keeping gene data.

We're just pointing out that human populations continue to evolve.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

If we are smarter why are we struggling with the same problems that past generations faced?