Our Future Evolution
Ever since Charles Darwin published his book theorising “evolution through natural selection”, people have been wondering about what we were like in the past, and how we have become what we are. However, some want to know what we will be like in future, both mentally and physically.
Believe it or not, our everyday habits are contributing to our evolutionary patterns. How we eat, how we recycle and maintain the planet, and how we live all lead to evolutionary results.
An example of this is the use of cutlery. In prehistoric times, our ancestors used their wisdom teeth to chew and help digest tough meat and plants. However, now we have cutlery and other man-made tools that we can use to make mouthfuls easier to digest. The use of cutlery is already taking effect, as 70% of people born in this decade will have no wisdom teeth at all. This will contribute to small jaws in future if our current habits continue.
Another evolutionary step that we may take is the loss of our fifth toe. During the time of prehistoric man, we used our fifth toe to help us climb trees and collect fruit and nuts. However, now we have shoes and comfortable footwear, coupled with the fact that we don’t climb many trees in this day and age, we will most likely lose our fifth toe in the future.
Another possible step for humans is the exploration of other planets, particularly Mars. As the Sun becomes larger and hotter the Earth will begin to become an inhospitable area, and if humans are still in existence in 800 million years time, we will have to leave Earth in search of a new home. One of the closest places that we could survive is Mars. If we began to settle on Mars, over the next hundreds and thousands of years our eyes would slowly become larger to let in more sunlight, (as the parent star will be further away).
In the scenario that another Ice Age would occur, humans would become bulkier and taller and the amount of body hair would increase for the average person. If humans could one day move to a water world our hands and feet would become webbed but our height would stay the same as it is on land. An average person’s ribcage would shrink in size and we would develop an extra eyelid. Some scientists are suggesting that as our technology advances, we could implant chips into the brain that can make people immortal or robotic.
As we discover more about the past, we begin to wonder about what the future has in store for us. There are many different possible paths that us as a species could go down, but no matter what we do, homo sapiens will always be evolving and changing.