Here’s an article from the BBC, talking about how the human species may split in two in several hundred thousand years:
Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years’ time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.
Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.
The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said – before a decline due to dependence on technology.
People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.
The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the “underclass” humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.
What do you think?
I think they’re full of it.
I understand the ’smart upperclass’ versus ’stupid lowerclass’ idea, and that part makes sense. What doesn’t make sense, though, is that the smarties would be physically attractive, whilst the stupids would be ugly. In my experience, it works the other way. ;p
Seriously though, the BBC proposes they would look like this:
I think it’d be more like the tall, beautiful people are the ones too busy looking after their physical bodies to look after and nurture their minds and smarts. It makes sense that the little fat goblin-people are the smart ones, because they’re too busy nurturing their minds to go out and get the exercise required to maintain their physical appearances.
It makes sense that goblin-people breed with goblin-people, and beautiful people breed with other beautiful people, but I don’t see that it needs to be taken for granted that the beautiful people will also be smart.
Then again, this is all conjecture, so it really doesn’t matter in the end. :p
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It’s all very Time Machine.
Your statement about ugly/smart v beautiful/dumb is a bit wobbly, though. Mind, so is the entire argument, as you point out. If the human race is to divide, I would suspect it’ll do so on class lines. Still, I doubt there would be so clear cut a case as rich/beautiful v poor/ugly, as those who are rich and beautiful have often paid for the privilege – I don’t think plastic surgery carries through to the gene pool!
Comment by notwelshman October 23, 2006 @ 2:56 pmWell, to be honest, I agree. It is wobbly. But I still think it’s more likely than the smart/beautiful, stupid/ugly idea that they’re suggesting.
I don’t think plastic surgery carries through to the gene pool!
I bet someone will invent a way for it to do just that.. and then patent it. ;) Heh.
Comment by julenka October 23, 2006 @ 6:27 pmGet with the future, julenka! The singularity is coming:
http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html
If the singularity ends up being some sort of human/machine hybrid, then I think you’ll see a split in humanity along the lines of those who can afford these artificial enhancements, and those who can’t (and you know a major feature of this stuff is going to be the ability to keep your body fit and good looking with minimal maintenance). If there’s a singularity, that is (I’m not sure there will be, but Vinge & co. make a pretty good argument, even if I think their timeline is a little off):P
Comment by Mark October 23, 2006 @ 11:28 pmI don’t think we have to wait until the year 3000. If you look around you will see that it’s already happening.
Comment by Carson Sasser October 24, 2006 @ 2:02 amPhysical unattractiveness is not accepted in our society so I think in the future, those who can afford it will try to eliminate the ‘fat genes’ or any other genes that might make a person unattractive. I’m also worried about all the ‘ethnic cleansing’ out there. There seems to be more of it than ever. The people who rise to the top of society will probably be like those who are at the top today. Physically ‘attractive’ but at the core; very, very ugly people with no intuitive intelligence, no creativity, and a great amount of superficiality (kind of like the Sex Pistols’ song – “We’re so pretty, oh so pretty… we’re VACANT!”).
Woody Allen’s early gem “Sleeper” had a hilarious depiction of these ‘beautiful’ people who were so lazy, they needed machines to help them have sex and they honored such ‘great’ poets as Rod McKuen! But there was an underground of geeks who kept literacy, creativity, love and joy alive. They were hardly goblin-like though. In fact, they were quite diverse. The idea that intelligent people are ‘beautiful’ and stupid people’ are goblin-like is obviously in the eye of the beholder. Diversity is a sign of a healthy society. People trying to make themselves uniform by conforming to a particular physical standard will make the human race very bland indeed.
Comment by imablank October 24, 2006 @ 4:03 amMark: The BBC article [which I forgot to link to in my post. Heh.] notes that this guy’s report says that we’d peak at about 3000 years from now, then ‘decline due to our dependance on technology’. I wonder, then, how this ‘decline’ would work with people who can afford to update their bodies frequently. Strange, strange.
Carson: True, except that for now, we’re still not separate ’species’, and can still breed and intermingle. ;)
imablank: ‘Ethnic cleansing’ in what sense? If you meant the dilution of all the races due to inter-breeding, well, I’m all for it. :) In the long, long run, the BBC article will probably be right:
But in the short run, interracial ‘breeding’ is a nice way of providing yet more diversity. :)
Comment by julenka October 24, 2006 @ 11:00 amWho says the world as we know it will even be here in a thousand years? So many things can happen by that time. Just look at the last thousand years: the advancements, catastrophies, wars, and other things that have befallen the world.
Hell. At the current rate of pollution and fossil fuel burning, will there even be a world left?
I reckon space aliens will come and enslave us all! No need for a split in the race then! We’ll all be a lower caste then! :)
Comment by LuckyLuckless October 24, 2006 @ 11:27 amThat’s true. It’s pretty arrogant of us to presume we know how long we’ll be here for.
Still, it’s fun to think of what could be. ;)
Comment by julenka October 24, 2006 @ 11:45 amHmmm. I think I will be king of the world. Of course, I’ll still be alive through the use of some magical fountain of youth that I will luckily find at the bottom of my garden.
I’ll also be rich because I’ll sell bottles of water from it at £1 billion a pop, and each bottle can only sustain the human body for another twenty years.
It’ll be like a tier system in one thousand years.
Me
*
Elite immortals / Rulers of whatever countries are still around
*
Rich people
*
Middle Classes
*
Not so Middle Class
*
Lower Class
*
Below Lower Class
*
Animals
*
Poorest Society
*
Scientologists.
(oops, did I put them last? I blame the news article I just read about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes… pff!)
Comment by LuckyLuckless October 25, 2006 @ 9:37 amI can’t help but hope that Family First voters will make up the squat, dirty underclass.
Comment by The Editor October 25, 2006 @ 10:00 am… ‘Ethnic cleansing’ in what sense? If you meant the dilution of all the races due to inter-breeding, well, I’m all for it. :)
Ethnic cleansing is what is happening in Sudan, and what has happened in such places as Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Armenia, East Timor, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, the USA (Native Americans), and of course the 6 million Jews in Europe. The ‘cleansing’ of certain tribes, races, religions, indigenous peoples, from a nation (or in the Nazi’s case if they had their way – the entire world) is simply elimination – genocide.
I’m all for interbreeding but I don’t want to see whole races and cultures disappear. We’re all the same species – you’d think that would be reason enough for most people to get along but nooooo!
Comment by imablank October 26, 2006 @ 7:44 pm“I’m all for interbreeding but I don’t want to see whole races and cultures disappear.”
That’s a wonderful sentiment – and I heartily support it – but I doubt we’ve got much of a say in the matter. I reckon it’s a case of we either die out or we all end up the same shade of grey. Natural selection in action.
Of course, I’ve been predicting the end of the world ten years running, so there’s a slim possibility I may be wrong!
Comment by notwelshman October 31, 2006 @ 10:29 amI doubt we’ve got much of a say in the matter.
It’s true. People will be people and choose their own damn partners! :)
I guess the point is that we, as a society, shouldn’t regress to the place where we were banning interracial marriages. I’m with you – let people choose their own paths, and ‘natural selection’ will take it’s course.
Comment by julenka October 31, 2006 @ 10:33 amlook around you folks..most people are over weight and “odd” looking. at this point i dont think the tall dark and intelligent have a chance. heres my theory… one class of self centered beautiful people and another of overweight, short highly intelligent uglier folk.
Comment by randy September 9, 2008 @ 6:50 am