Quote:
Originally Posted by Pearl Trade
Does anyone think there is a limit to our evolution or change? Is it possible for us to hit a plateau? Maybe our evolution is a massive bell graph; we progress, hit our pinnacle, and fall back down, inevitably to rise again.
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There won't be a peak because evolution has no direction. We're evolved the intelligence and ability to reason that gets us past most hurdles so short of a world-changing catastrophe we're going to keep on going. Even then, we staved off a pandemic this past year because we were able to develop a vaccine and take proper precautions. Our survival now depends on our ability to foresee disaster and be prepared; right now we have to do something about our role in global warming, then keep looking out for the next disaster. We think of simple biological traits like "runs faster than the other guys" as evolutionary traits, but what's going to make or break us is "ability to detect and intercept mile wide asteroids headed for us" and "ability to rapidly respond to a potential pandemic." I guess you could call it a plateau that our intelligence has gotten us to where a lot of things that make the difference for animals and our ancestors, don't.