Future Evolution

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by ahi

Or, rather, effective family planning is the only realistic way to preserve the world we know, primarily for the descendants of those who do no family planning....

True statement, indeed.

Although, despite my appearance, I used "we" to denote humans during the Holocene (before Earth is completely paved over.)

[jgray]

Not evolution, but genetic manipulation and cloning -- Old Man's War. A very good read.

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by Sonist

But, politics and religion get in the way of sensible family planning, other than in the few places, where it's least needed.

I'm not sure what politics and religion you are referring to? Over the next 40 years the population of Germany, Italy, Japan et. al. are forecasted to drop by up to 30%, depending on the country.
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/ranks.php

The population of China is forecasted to rise by 7% total (not 7% per year). I count this as virtually zero growth.

In the U.S. the population of non-Hispanic whites is forecasted to grow 5% total -- again virtually zero.

http://www.census.gov/population/www...projtab01a.pdf

High growth areas include: India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil, and Bangladesh among others. And the minorities in the United States led by the Asians (+130%), Hispanics (+100%), and Blacks (+50%).

So I'm not sure what politics are represented in these growth numbers, but from a religious perspective they seem like they represent about every possible choice.

[Xiaopanda]

I think we are actually forgetting that we (humans) are still a part of nature, even though we do not act like any other species we know of.
"Another Heaven Another Earth" is a book I read about human evolution of Pioneers to another planet and serves to illistrate just how well adapted to our planet we actually are....... We are bound by our planet and can only go so far in eneineering our biology...as yet, anyway. Beside, even Yeast clones itself.....or most things with an asexual reproduction.....

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by emellaich

I'm not sure what politics and religion you are referring to? Over the next 40 years the population of Germany, Italy, Japan et. al. are forecasted to drop by up to 30%,...

So I'm not sure what politics are represented in these growth numbers, but from a religious perspective they seem like they represent about every possible choice.

Hm, I'd suggest you re-read the quote you included in your post.

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Hm, I'd suggest you re-read the quote you included in your post.

Thanks for pointing this out to me -- in re-reading my post, I realize it could have sounded inflamatory. However, I generally don't flame, and I actually meant this as a question not a challenge to the OP.

I'm someone who isn't afraid to admit my ignorance. I had these facts handy because I've been looking at the changing population patterns and trying to puzzle out societal trends and their implications. For example, I suspect that Germany will need to make major adjustments if population drops 30%. Probably increased automation and self-service at retail and a large influx of 'guest workers' to handle many low level jobs.

So I am interested in hearing what others have to say on this. My purpose in giving the specific facts was to steer the information that I might see back from others. I really wasn't trying to bash the OP .

Specifically, I don't necessarily see a specific political or religious pattern to where the growth is occurring. There do appear to be socio-economic forces at work with richer, more educated people having fewer kids. However, I'm not up on the various religions active in different countries nor on their stance towards family planning.

Let's take India. I think Hindu is one of their major religions? But are they primarily a Hindu nation or is there a large component of non-religious folks? What are the Hindu religious pressures towards family size? Political pressures in India?

Similarly, I believe many of the countries are Muslim-orientated. What is the Muslim attitude? What religion/politics predominate in Ethiopia, which is expected to be one of the fastest growing countries?

Actually, the only bloc that I have a handle on is the U.S. Hispanic population where I believe that Catholicism is a significant force and I am aware of the beliefs of Catholicism with regard to family planning.

[Penforhire]

I think some form of The Singularity is outpacing any natural human evolution. I fear for our meat-bodies if we get to the point of synthetic intelligence. Maybe I'm a Luddite but I'm sort of hoping for a wrench in the works, where we cannot upload ourselves completely. Maybe we'll just be more augmented, such as the universe of Singularity Sky. What I fear is more like Accelerando.

[geneven]

I think I read some scientist saying that actual evolution in the human species has NOT been suspended, but is proceeding at a normal pace. It seems to have stopped, because it is quite slow.

Unfortunately, I don't remember my source.

Not an e-book, the provocative psychology/mysticism book The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution, by P.D. Ouspensky, has a completely different take on the whole issue. Take a look, if you can find it.

[Daithi]

For entertaining/enlightening non-fiction about humans taking over their own evolution --
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil
Radical Evolution: by Joel Garreau

For fiction along the same lines
Vernor Vinge, Nancy Kress, Charles Stross, Greg Bear