I still waste an hour or so a day reading the slashdot headlines. If nothing else it lets me have sort of a vague feel for what kinds of things are afoot in the world of science and technology. At some point this weekend they linked to an article about a biologist arguing that humans have reached the end of their evolutionary cycle. Interesting...

Predictably, I have a few thoughts on the matter...

The argument centers around the idea that because basically all human babies will live to procreate there are no longer any evolutionary pressures. Not only will the fittest survive but so will everyone else. This seems like a reasonable point of view. I have a few things to add for your consideration, though.

Wouldn't, at some point, the crowdedness of the world become an evolutionary pressure (if it doesn't cause some kind of violent breakdown first)? I don't think the human psyche is geared for living in the kind of environment we will have in the next hundred years. It seems like the people that are most able to cope with massive overcrowding will be more likely to succeed.. hence reproduce.

There is also the theory of meme/gene co-evolution which says memetic evolution is presenting genetic evolutionary pressures and vice versa. This is all predicated on you buying the whole meme concept, of course. Modern society is very very meme-rich. I suppose there could be some evidence to suggest that we are slowly evolving to be better consumers or something similar. Maybe a rosier view of this would be to say that we are evolving to be more intellectual and inward focusing. *shrug*

One of the main things that always strikes me any time I think about this sort of thing is that evolution never sleeps. Even if I can't pinpoint the ways in which we are evolving at the moment I firmly believe that we are. I suspect that were I to be around for another five hundred years the ways in which we have evolved would be a great suprise to me. I love that about evolution... and in the end that's what makes the whole thing work.

An amusing side note to the whole business is that from an evolutionary standpoint our current position in the order of things is probably ephemeral. Perhaps, in the greater scale neurotic primates aren't the be-all end-all. I would be surprised if they were. Of course, how can you rank these things when the goals and pressures are constantly changing?

I think it's all really neat to think about. Now I suppose I should scamper off and find that link.

...

Speaking of evolution, the evolution of the headspace has pretty much ground to a halt lately. I'm slowly regaining my interest in it, however. We shall see.

I'm just emerging from one of my obsessive phases. Unfortunately, EQ was my last obsession so, unlike most of them, I have very little to show for it. Ah well. It's good to be back, though. :)