One way that humans continue to evolve is through the concept of gene flow. Previously, gene flow has occurred throughout evolution and in a variety of ways, including through colonialism, trade, and war. Gene flow can also be restricted. One way this can happen is through religion or other ideologies, since you are less likely to mate with someone with different views than you. As gene flow occurs, humans will continue to look slightly different as time goes on. As things like climate change occur and people have to go from areas that are becoming inhabitable to more suitable and lasting environments, gene flow may continue to occur. I am curious to see how the future affects us in that way.
A second way is through natural selection. Natural selection occurs in different ways now than it used to, since natural selection occurred much more rapidly with our ancestors since they had less resources and no technology. Now, natural selection is much more tricky, and is showing in ways like antibiotic resistance and with diseases like Ebola or Zika. I personally wasn’t educated about antibiotic resistance until a few years ago when a doctor refused to give me antibiotics for the first time. Now, that situation terrifies me, wondering if it will get to a point where new diseases form that we cannot treat anymore.
A third way is through genetic mutation, which is a fascinating subject to me. Human genes have mutated through time, leading to us having new genes and missing genes that our ancestors had. These genes, for the most part, have mutated in our favor and allowed us to progress and survive changes. However, mutations can also cause things like birth defects and disabilities. Humans will continue to mutate, although often taking generations to show up. If humans continue to survive for thousands of years, it is interesting t think about how different future humans will be and what genes they will have, or lack.
Mutation can also take place through genetic engineering, which is purposely applying genetic mutation. Recently, it has been discovered that some doctors have been practicing this, with or without oversight and regulations. People can now, for a lot of money, choose the sex of their embryos, and they are trying to weed out genes that can cause certain disease/disabilities, or are carriers for them. If genetic engineering continues and improves, it will have serious effects on future generations, for good or for bad. It is a risky topic, one that needs to be confronted before it goes too far.
Humans will never stop evolving, and it makes me wonder how humans will look, act, and be made of in the future. While we can predict things like war and climate change will affect this, there may be other factors that we haven’t considered or have faced yet. And who knows, eventually humans might evolve so much that we can create another species! I have enjoyed learning about evolution throughout this class.
Hi, Jackie. It is great that you have introduced the concept of gene flow. I think it has reflected the mobility of modern people in these days. People might migrate to various places in the world, and with the developments and interactions of different cultures, we might also get married with people from other races or ethnic groups. In this way, I think the genes are constantly going through the process of exchanging and flowing. For the natural selection part, I think it is related with our relationships with the environments. I think the factors like the climate change, and the revolution in the fields of technology, and our changing environments all have influences in the process of natural selection. At last, I think you could provide some concrete examples about how human beings are making evolutions. Maybe it is hard for an individual to observe, but the statistics in the long run could provide some evidences.
Hi Jackie! I like how you introduce the topic of gene flow to explain how humans evolved in our current society. Gene flow is an important factor that shows the changes in the movement of people through whether they were in a war or maybe through religion. I enjoyed how you used Natural selection to support how back then it occurred more frequently than it does now, but we only use it to protect ourselves. However, I agree when you said that migration occurs a lot and it affects who are as individuals. I too thought about how humans will never stop evolving and that it’s very difficult to predict the future of climate or wars we may have. But I think that humans have evolved so much that they might not have any similarities at all millions of years from now.
Joshua K. Belcher
Hi Jackie,
You mentioned gene flow, natural selection, and mutations in your blog post just as I did. I think these processes are very important factors that allow evolution to take place naturally. I like how you mentioned climate as something that will change the way humans look over time. As you mentioned, our ancestors evolved much more rapidly because they did not have technology to help them with natural selection as we do now. One example of this is the new gene editing technology that has everyone questioning each other’s ethics. This also involves genetic mutations as you mentioned. Usually, they take place over time as does natural selection but this new gene editing technology allows it to be a much faster process than ever before. All we can do is where technology takes us.