The next genetic mutation in human evolution?

I was pondering this for reasons unknown lastnight, and it hit me.

EARLIDS.

with such a loud society developed by humans, it seems only natural that we grew earlids to shut out loud noise such as our eyelids shut out bright light and walking in on your parents.

what do you think the next genetic mutation in our evolution could be? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

i'm sure there's a reason god didn't give us earlids /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Yea, its God's sick joke.
No earlids.... but we get a Roth. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

WHY? WHY Lord!!??


Eh, the next mutation will probably be our eyes adapting to looking at computer screens 15 hours a day.

[ QUOTE ]
Rothrandir said:
i'm sure there's a reason god didn't give us earlids /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Probally because we don't listen very well.

*lol*

With all the lights we have now, who needs sleep anymore? I vote that we breed out the need for sleep.

Would you tolerate it if your car or computer refused to operate for 8 hours a day?

Why would we need a hardware change like earlids when we have a perfectly valid software solution already built in to our brains /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif I have yet to meet a person who couldn't tune me right out given enough time and no matter how loudly I speak...

Though my wife claims I do the same to her, I've never actually heard her talking when she says she was, so I think that she's exaggerating...

Raggie,

You forgot this one: http://yupki.mine.nu:8081/i/x85yupke.php

[ QUOTE ]
StevieRay said:
Raggie,

You forgot this one: http://yupki.mine.nu:8081/i/x85yupke.php

[/ QUOTE ]lol

Back on track: who needs toenails?

i don't know.. maybe they came about from dropping things on them? *lol*

also: *lol*@raggie


edit: and noselids. noselids would eliminate the need for harmful aerosol sprays when you're on the can

fingernails (dunno about toenails...) are very important.

without the fingernail your tips of your fingers are wobbly flesh. it sucks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

apparently our feet used to be hands (like on other primates) to facilitate swinging from trees, and are gradually fusing together. since they've evolved into feet, we don't actually need individual digits on them anymore. another vestigal part of our bodies that is slowly disappearing is our tailbone, which used to extend into our now-gone tails.

i hope our next evolutionary mutation would be the disapperance of pubic hair. i'm fine with body hair so long as it isn't too dense, but pubic hair just gets in the way, pokes my stuff, and gets caught in all the wrong places /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

zzzzip.

i think some biological flashlight should be a part of us.. located right in the middle of our 4head. naturally with controllable output.. *lol*

Funny thread! Two ways that this question could go. Either a current trait will be 'selected against' due to a change in the environment, or a new trait will appear that will be 'selected for' that helps survival in the current or changed environment (that's how it works, you know - Natural Selection.)

If something causes no harm and at the same time gives no advantage (like tailbones, or pubic hair), natural selection doesn't work 'for' or 'against' it. Hence why we still have an appendix and whales and snakes still have hips - doesn't help or hinder.

I'm betting the next "natural selection" event will have to do with our immune system. Something nasty will appear that will do a job on our overpopulated planet, and some folks will have a genetic trait in their immune system that will help them survive. As a result, there will be more survivors with that trait than survivors without that trait. The survivor's genes will be 'selected for'. This means they will produce more offspring in the aftermath (since they outnumber the non-genetic trait population) and most humans will eventually have this genetic trait in their genetic profile.

In a way, HIV is trying to do just that. Some of the survivors of the Bubonic Plague in Europe had a genetic trait in their immune system (Delta 32 mutation of the CCR5 gene) that helped them survive the disease. That trait was passed on to their offspring because those people survived to have children (it was 'selected for'). That trait, as it turns out, has been found by modern scientists (Dr. Stephen O'Brien of the National Institutes of Health in Washington D.C.) to now allow the descendents of those people to survive HIV. Tests have shown that the virus cannot enter their white blood cells at all. Natural selection in action.

*takes picture of Quickbeam's post to put in the dictionary next to the word "post"*

then i propose a worldwide campaign for people to intentionally set their pubic hair on fire. that way, those who don't have enough pubic hair to cause infertility as a result of the fire would go on to create offspring with less pubic hair. repeat that over enough generations and voila! one day humans will all be devoid of pubic hair! sometimes evolution needs a helping hand too /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

i'm fine with pubic hair, it helps keep me warm.
but buttcrack hair is the worst! who's idea was that? the only thing it does is trap stuff as it comes out, making the whole process much more difficult.

I think we're evolving as we speak. Lifespan and height have increased dramatically since the eighteenth century. Obviously the most probable environmental stimuli are a cultural promotion of healthier lifestyle and advances in medicine letting us reach closer to our physical potential, thereby increasing the physical potential of our offspring.

In the very short term, Quickbeams hypothesis can already be seen in action in Egypt where something like 75-90% of the population is immune to the West Nile Virus.