How The Human Face Will Look In The Future

Jim_1831252

@ Taozen: maybe there is something in this "subconscious" stuff, well undoubtedly there is, but to what extent is not clear. I very much doubt the human mind is a cure-all for human suffering and disease. The idea that we can control all our bodily processes on the molecular level is doubtful. All the stuff you keep linking to is all anecdotal. I think you'll find that most people who experience the placebo effect will only think they have improved, and will either recover naturally (in cases such as cold/flu), or will continue to deteriorate such as with cancer trials.

There is no doubt that a positive attitude will have some effect on health, but to attribute miraculous cures to meditation... Well as far as I'm concerned you end up with coincidence that looks like reward for faith.

As to GMO. There is no reason that genetically modified food should be any worse for us than "natural" foods. Undoubtedly many people have already pointed out that humans have been genetically modifying foods since the birth of agriculture. Can you actually tell me the part of GM food that is bad for us? If you can then you should share your discovery with the scientific community so they can make better food. That's not being fractious, that's being sincere.

Given that the world is about to face unprecedented food shortages I think we can use all the help GM can give us. Meditation is no substitute for a full belly. I also think the potential for GM technologies to improve the human condition in medical terms is enormous and should not be glossed over because it is uncomfortable.

Jim_1831252

Norse Graphics said:

jimzombie, not at all. Book-knowledge doesn't make anyone smart. It only gives people more experience storing information in their mind. Applying this information, however, is the starting-point of intelligent thought.

Well whatever the cause and effect of shrinking brain size is it is unlikely to be a simple matter. It isn't clear if it is an ongoing process. But like I pointed out brain size is not necessarily linked to intelligence. Take those Neanderthals for example, if they had such big brains, and presumably so intelligent, then why are they extinct? If women have smaller brains than men then surely, if we take size to equate to intelligence, they must be less intelligent. See, I doubt it is so black and white.

Norse Graphics

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Jim_1831252

If you're looking for a quick exit that's fine, but did you read the criticism? Anyway this whole conversation is absurd and makes too many assumptions. You could have easily pulled me up and said superior intellect does not ensure survival. Maybe our superior relatives were simply over powered by the rabbit-like breeding of a nimbler more aggressive race.

Norse Graphics

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Jaderail

This is becoming a personal argument based on opinions and as such not allowed. If the issue at hand can not be discussed in a friendly manner from this point forward action by the moderation team will be needed.

Norse Graphics

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Jim_1831252

I'm not sure who if anyone is feeling personally attacked, but I don't think that was ever anyone's intention. This just reads like lively discussion to me.

"All I know is that any male won’t refuse to get laid, and I assume that goes for Neanderthals as well."

First thing is that you assume humans and neanderthals were capable of interbreeding, which might not be the case. I certainly wouldn't want to be a homosapian woman giving birth to a neanderthal baby. There is also some suggestion that the traces of neanderthal DNA present in Europeans might actually be linked to a common ancestor in Africa, not as a result of actual interbreeding.

"The ancient Greeks had this theory about a ‘golden age’, and looking around me, I’m beginning to suspect they were right, especially in regards to intellect."

Evolutionary selection might be a lot weaker, or different than during times of high mortality, but those traits developed during that time are still going to be desirable today, and so will still get passed along. I think a dumber general population does not necessarily mean that human intelligence has peeked. If it has, well that's where those GM technologies and augmentations will have good practical benefit.

Ademnus

Norse Graphics said:

All I know is that any male won't refuse to get laid, and I assume that goes for Neanderthals as well.

The ancient Greeks had this theory about a 'golden age', and looking around me, I'm beginning to suspect they were right, especially in regards to intellect.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/nov/12/pampered-humanity-less-intelligent

Ive read several articles lately that suggest humans are no longer selecting for intelligence thus we are inadvertently breeding it out of us -albeit all of those articles pointed out a minor drop over a long span of time. No one is expecting gibbering morons in a generation.

Jaderail

It seems that we (the Mods) might have misinterpreted some of the last posts made. As long as this thread stays a discussion we will watch it only and hope it stays in the direction it now appears to be in.

Herald of Fire

jimzombie said:

You assume humans and neanderthals were capable of interbreeding, which might not be the case. I certainly wouldn't want to be a homosapian woman giving birth to a neanderthal baby. There is also some suggestion that the traces of neanderthal DNA present in Europeans might actually be linked to a common ancestor in Africa, not as a result of actual interbreeding.
It's fairly widely shown that there was certainly interbreeding amongst different evolutionary stages in human evolution. Not merely anecdotal evidence either, but fossil records which show that they lived together and had relationships with one another. Children born with the traits of both parents were clearly our ancestors, though it's not known what happened to some of the evolutionary off-shoots which probably arose as a result of this interbreeding.

One thing to note is that our ancestors weren't separated by quite as big an evolutionary gap as we are to gorillas, for example, so there would have been a lot more compatibility between their species'. Neanderthals, being very close to us on the evolutionary scale, would have very likely been capable of producing offpsiring with other humans. There is a theory that modern day homo-sapiens are the result of interbreeding between different species, though this does counter another theory that early humans originated in Africa.
While modern humans share some nuclear DNA with the extinct Neanderthals, the two species do not share any mitochondrial DNA, which in primates is always maternally transmitted. This observation has prompted the hypothesis that whereas female humans interbreeding with male Neanderthals were able to generate fertile offspring, the progeny of female Neanderthals who mated with male humans were either rare, absent or sterile. However, some researchers have argued that there is evidence of possible interbreeding between female Neanderthals and male modern humans

Still, unless anyone has a time machine, I doubt we'll ever know for sure what our true origins are.

Jim_1831252

Ok fine maybe more than maybe :D http://news.nationalgeographic.com.au/news/2010/05/100506-science-neanderthals-humans-mated-interbred-dna-gene/

Ryuu@AMcCF

Richard Haseltine said:

RawArt said:

sgreco1970 said:

tsarist said:

I'm still waiting on my Jetpack.
Wasn't i supposed to have that by the year 2000?

according to old school tv, we should also be well into wearing nothing but silver lamé

You don't?

*closes closet door quickly*

I want to know why we still have a moon - its eject-by date was fourteen years ago.*snort*

The thing they forgot was that the Moon would've needed a big honking warp drive or everybody should be dead of old age before the Moon got past Jupiter's orbit--didn't StarTrekTOS just get through teaching to everyone old enough to know better that sublight speeds are just toooo.....uh...."DAZ Soon™"?