This class has shown me how complicated the evolution of humanity really is. Our human, along with non human, ancestors paved the way for us to flourish the way we have. Although our evolutionary changes these days are obvious, the changes are still occurring all around us. Technology is a huge part of our evolution, we can do our job from home, control garage doors away from home, we’ve also discovered the ability to use technology to alter genes, either deleting sections of the DNA or altering existing sections. There is a tool called the CRISPR-Cas9, it gives us the ability to “swap out sections of the genome with less money and time than ever before”. There is little regulation as to what scientists can do with DNA when altering it, which can be a bit of a problem considering that could potentially affect us as a population. China has begun using the CRISPR-Cas9 to modify the human genome in human embryos. Looking at this from an evolutionary perspective, this could be considered a good and bad thing for the human species. This would give us the ability to take out the sections of DNA that codes for diseases like alzheimers, which is a positive outlook, but this CRISPR-Cas9 could also be used for maybe not so great things. This is where our evolution is different than it has been in the past, we are somewhat consciously affecting our evolution whereas in the past it was more caused by our environment.
Us humans have spread across almost all corners of the earth and we’ve been able to adapt to all types of environments so really we’re the ones affecting our evolution. Culturally we’ve separated from each other. We have different traditions in regards to a lot of aspects of our lives, we eat different foods, treat the elderly different, have different government set ups, and many different religions. All of these affect how we are raised, how we behave as adults, and our all around personalities and outlooks on life. Some people praise their elderly, taking care of them until death, whereas some countries have retirement homes. Religion is a huge part of identifying with your culture. The United States are somewhat of a melting pot, but other countries and regions are pretty linear with their religion. They can be very specific about how the family functions, who raises the kids, who makes the money, and who everyone is allowed to marry. This affects the lineage as everyone is to marry and have kids with someone also like their family, not bringing any new real genes or characteristics in the mixture. This can also affect how big the family can be, either increasing or decreasing the human population.
There are many more things that have affected and will affect the fate of our species, A question that has been stuck in my mind since we started this class is that if the earth is forever changing, and new species come about while other species go extinct, are we the end all be all? Or in thousands of years, will they be looking back at our existence?
I loved the part of your blog where you talk about us have separate, unique cultures across the world. I think we the increasing globalization, with the access to information from almost anywhere, and with the ability to travel farther and easier than ever, it’s easy to think about cultures disappearing or blending into each other, but we still do have many customs that are special only to the people of certain areas. With the ability to connect to others online, too, comes the creation of many different types of subcultures. This could be anything from intense fandoms to groups of peoples with dedicated hobbies. These subcultures are so interesting, they even have their own slang and such sometimes, even if they are a part of the bigger culture.