I think it’s hard to think about continuing evolution in the present day because we think about big biological changes. In our wrap up video, bigger brain size was touched on, and I still think that that’s what my mind goes to, just because we learn about evolution in a very specific way in school. We don’t necessarily think about it as something that could affect us today.

I thought the idea of gene flow by way of cultural evolution was very interesting. For as long as humans have existed, they’ve been moving around. Some groups eventually grew isolated, but for the most part, especially in the present day, genes have been mixing and we’ve gotten great human diversity, both culturally and genetically. I think of the smaller communities of a certain culture or religion in places that might be surprising. For example, I know that there’s a long history of a Jewish community that lives in Singapore. For most people, I’m not sure we think of Singapore as an obvious place for a Jewish community to thrive. It also raises the question of gene flow versus gene restriction. Because they’re a small (but significant) minority, do they tend to only marry in their group, or is there a larger mixing of communities?

I think it’s particularly interesting to think about cultural evolution as an American, because we’ve always been told that America was this melting pot of culture. I think that that’s truer now that it has been in the past. While there has always been a lot of cultures here, usually these groups have been in one homogenized section of the country. In Grand Rapids, for example, where I’m from, one side of the city is historically Dutch and reformed, and the other side is historically Irish and Polish and Catholic. Now, on the south side, it is largely Hispanic. My dad is the first in his family to marry someone who wasn’t Dutch since my family came here. Out of all of these cultures, something of an American culture has emerged and is evolving now. If we look back even 30 years ago, the American landscape was vastly different. I think it’s really exciting to live in a country that is constantly changing based on who is coming to the country to build lives here.

In the wrap up video, the idea of genetic engineering was also brought up. This can help with human evolution in the way that it can save humans from disease that would otherwise be devastating. While I think it’s good want to use technology and science for good, I confess that it does make me a little bit nervous. Personally, if I had the money and the technology was there, I wouldn’t want to design my baby, or pick its sex. I think cosmetic decisions can seem a little vain. I would also say, however, that it’s ultimately the parents decision and none of my business. It does worry me, that we have the capability of going to far with messing with human evolution.