Future Evolution

[ahi]

Are there any eBooks that focus on hypothetical future evolution?

I know of two such paper books:

http://www.amazon.com/Future-Evoluti...ref=pd_sim_b_5

http://www.amazon.com/Future-Wild-Do...ref=pd_sim_b_2

But I am yet to find anything similar from an eBook store.

- Ahi

[rlparker]

Is your question limited to human evolution? If so, I think we have largely circumvented the mechanisms of evolution in our species (at least temporarily).

Based on the Amazon blurb for Peter Ward's book, maybe he is making a similar argument?

[ahi]

Originally Posted by rlparker

Is your question limited to human evolution? If so, I think we have largely circumvented the mechanisms of evolution in our species (at least temporarily).

Based on the Amazon blurb for Peter Ward's book, maybe he is making a similar argument?

No. From the brief look I've had at both books, they seem to primarily (if not exclusively) focus on animal evolution.

Doubtless for the reason you point out.

And though I broadly agree with what you say, I do not find the idea of the human race a million years from now (assuming it survives that long) looking (even mostly) indistinguishable from present-day humans too plausible either.

- Ahi

[rlparker]

Originally Posted by ahi

No. From the brief look I've had at both books, they seem to primarily (if not exclusively) focus on animal evolution.

Doubtless for the reason you point out.

And though I broadly agree with what you say, I do not find the idea of the human race a million years from now (assuming it survives that long) looking (even mostly) indistinguishable from present-day humans too plausible either.

- Ahi

Call me a pessimist, but I can't imagine the human species surviving another thousand years, much less a million! And honestly, the world will be a better place when we're gone.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by rlparker

Call me a pessimist, but I can't imagine the human species surviving another thousand years, much less a million! And honestly, the world will be a better place when we're gone.

I think your view is a common one these days.

- Ahi

[Idoine]

How about the Pegasus series by Anne McCaffrey ? Too Sci-Fi, maybe ?

[Trono]

Maybe Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow would be of interest? I've just finished it, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It doesn't actually deal with human evolution, but rather the co-development of technology and the human society. Theme closer to SciFi then biology or evolutionary science, but it makes your mind wander in much the same direction..

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
Jules is a young man barely a century old. He’s lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies...and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World. Disney World! The greatest artistic achievement of the long-ago twentieth century. Now in the care of a network of volunteer “ad-hocs” who keep the classic attractions running as they always have, enhanced with only the smallest high-tech touches. Now, though, it seems the “ad-hocs” are under attack. A new group has taken over the Hall of the Presidents and is replacing its venerable audioanimatronics with new, immersive direct-to-brain interfaces that give guests the illusion of being Washington, Lincoln, and all the others. For Jules, this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself. Worse: it appears this new group has had Jules killed. This upsets him. (It’s only his fourth death and revival, after all.) Now it’s war: war for the soul of the Magic Kingdom, a war of ever-shifting reputations, technical wizardry, and entirely unpredictable outcomes.

[Lemurion]

Try Dougal Dixon's works like After Man and Man After Man - he's written a lot about post-human evolution.

[Andybaby]

possibly the Uplift books by david brin might be to your liking

it deals with human evolution (as well as dolphins and chimps being brought to sentience) evolution of species through out the galaxy and lots of other cool things.

http://www.librarything.com/series/Uplift%20Saga

[emellaich]

There is a collection of short stories by Baen called Transhuman:
http://www.webscription.net/p-703-transhuman.aspx

The introduction:
Technological change is all around us, and it's only happening faster and faster. Computers, communications, biology—these and other sciences are evolving so rapidly that keeping up with even the highlights can be dizzying.

If you believe Ray Kurzweil and many other futurists, all of this change will lead to in a moment, which Kurzweil and others refer to as the Singularity, that will represent a fundamental shift, even a rupture in the course of human history. The results will include machines (or at least non-biological intelligences) that are smarter than people, biological and computer-based intelligences merging to create new kinds of life, bioengineering beyond our current imagining, and much, much more. Just as a black hole is a singularity, a point at which matter and energy behave as nowhere else, this technological singularity will result in a complete rewriting of the rules about what it means to be human.

Or not.

Maybe despite all the changes, people will continue to behave as they always have, humankind will remain distinct and distinctly different from its computers and other machine aids, and we will simply gain better, more efficient tools that will change the way we live but not who we fundamentally are.

Whichever destination awaits us, the path from now to then is certain to be a fascinating and challenging one. In the eleven stories in this book, writers of all sorts—one British, one Irish, one South African, one Canadian, and seven American; three women and eight men; authors commonly associated with hard science fiction, with humor, and with fantasy—ponder the types of changes that await us. The works they've produced for this collection range wildly in setting, from a global outbreak of a very unusual sort to a prison meeting with a most unlikely candidate for transcendence, and from a deep-space adventure to a high-school reunion, but all share two traits: they are entertaining stories, something we of course required of all submissions, and they are fundamentally optimistic, something we did not demand but were quite pleased to discover. Many of the stories consequently also feel to us—in good ways!—like products of earlier decades, and it's in that spirit that we provide short introductions reminiscent of the story intros in the SF magazines of those times.

Let's create a future that proves this optimism justified.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by emellaich

There is a collection of short stories by Baen called Transhuman:
http://www.webscription.net/p-703-transhuman.aspx

The introduction:
Technological change is all around us, and it's only happening faster and faster. Computers, communications, biology—these and other sciences are evolving so rapidly that keeping up with even the highlights can be dizzying.

....

Thanks for the suggestion
I've found transhumanism interesting after attending a lecture by Anders Sandberg a few years ago.

[jament]

Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio is a great (fiction) book about evolutionary theory and future evolution possibilities.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by rlparker

Is your question limited to human evolution? If so, I think we have largely circumvented the mechanisms of evolution in our species (at least temporarily).

Based on the Amazon blurb for Peter Ward's book, maybe he is making a similar argument?

I think the death of human evolution has been greatly overstated. While we have reduced to some extent, the natural selection aspect of human evolution, we have have actually allowed variation to increase by helping people with mutations that might be a disadvantage in the current environment to survive with the possibility that a future environment might be more advantagous. In addition, sexual selection is as strong as ever.

--
Bill

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

... have actually allowed variation to increase by helping people with mutations that might be a disadvantage in the current environment to survive with the possibility that a future environment might be more advantagous. In addition, sexual selection is as strong as ever.
...l

Yep, Earth will belong to dim-witted, since their reproduction rates are high, and the survival of an ever larger portion of their offspring, is continually ensured by the brighter minority.

On the other hand, if the brighter ones manage to hang on long enough, they may be able to eventually engineer brighter offsprings for the dimmer ones.

Either way, the continuing population explosion is at the root of pretty much all environmental trouble. Effective family planning is the only realistic way to preserve the world we know.

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

Very long term, Arthur C. Clark's "beams of light" at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, may actually make technological sense, and may solve the over-population problem....

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Effective family planning is the only realistic way to preserve the world we know.

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.

Don't you think?

- Ahi