Next Evolution

[jmh530]

@purealpha

Discussed on the other thread. This cheesy article has “increased brain size” in the graphic, yet doesn’t back that up. In reality brain size has decreased 10% in the last 10K years. That and other points of data, and lines or reasoning, point to humans getting stupider since the Neolithic. Plenty of people who study this stuff agree it is probably happening, it’s not some crazy theory.

Our brains may be getting smaller, but I don’t think scientists yet agree that means we (aggregately) are getting dumber.

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/sep/25-modern-humans-smart-why-brain-shrinking

[Prophecy]

I thnk the article actually proves that humans are getting dumber. This is analogous to economic development. People hate change. So we have policy makers coming in to direct the change. Since humans can not evolve on their own, you have these ‘engineers’ helping us evolve. Pathetic.

[Robotech]

@mk17

@JBrowntown

I’m going to evolve X-Men style.

Growing a second vagina?

My boobs will emit concussive blasts unless I wear a crimson bra.

[ohai]

What? Which X-Men’s power is having two vaginas? I think I missed this from the comics.

[igor555]

there goes that

https://www.facebook.com/topic/Homo-Sapiens/106613869378873?source=whfrt&position=3&trqid=6205973121113578539

[bchad]

I guess they went where the food was good.

[Analti_Calte_Equity]

@brain\_wash\_your\_face

Sooo, maybe homo sapiens are not getting dumber. Maybe we are engineering ourselves into entirely different species?

http://discovermagazine.com/2013/march/13-evolution-full-tilt

Evolution is like a search engine, though not a very good one. We’re not talking Google. We might be talking Google drunk, blindfolded, on crutches, and with a frontal lobotomy.

This is why the Nobel laureate François Jacob described evolution as a tinkerer, not an engineer. Engineers know where they’re going—they have an aim, a plan. Tinkerers are just fastening parts together, sticking this bit onto that in an ongoing exploration of functional possibilities, with no goal in mind.

This case will be invalid this century. Our tech isn’t increasing at a linear rate. Its exponential. Singularity will happen in the next couple of decades. The extent that our bodies are affected or abilities gained have yet to be determined. We are not Tinkering anymore.

Kurzweil predicts singularity to occur around 2045^, Vinge predicts before 203​0.

[system]

@Analti\_Calte\_Equity

Kurzweil predicts singularity to occur around 2045^, Vinge predicts before 203​0.

More magical thinking, there will be no “singularity”, ever.

Back in reality, iPhone can’t even do basic speech recognition…

[Analti_Calte_Equity]

@purealpha

@Analti\_Calte\_Equity

Kurzweil predicts singularity to occur around 2045^, Vinge predicts before 203​0.

More magical thinking, there will be no “singularity”, ever.

You could be right. They cant even get robots to walk properly yet.