Today's Evolution

This post was inspired by Sinan’s series Eugenic & Evolution

Before I dive into this post, I would first like to give some background. Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution a few hundred years ago. The theory caused, and still causes controversy especially in the religious community. The theory is quite simple and states:
All living organisms are undergoing a constant refinement process which weeds out the weak and keeps the strong, called natural selection. This process, over long periods of time, improves certain features of an organism. Such gifts can relate to a species’ senses, running ability, or even brain capacity.

Some believe that humans are not undergoing evolution today. Humans have the ability to cure diseases, live in a safe habitat, have easy access to food etc. We now have control over many factors which normally play a part of natural selection. Or so we think…

When examined on a deeper level, evolution shows no sign of stopping, even for a civilization like ours. Ironically enough, our civilization plays a huge role in our evolution today. There are many examples, here are a few

Driving: Some of us have better motor skills, leading to a smaller chance for fatal accidents to happen; similarly people with poor vision could also be affected while driving.

Social Status: With our society come many different social classes. Generally speaking, those with a lower social status have more dangerous, body consuming jobs, leading to a higher death rate.

Drugs and Smoking: Many teens suffer from drug addictions, leading to over dosage and possibly death. Similarly smoking affects all generations killing thousands yearly.

Pollution: Asthma cases have increased astronomically since the popularization of the automobile, which caused an increase in pollution. Those with weaker, more sensitive lungs suffer much more than others with healthy lungs.

I hope it's clear that evolution is an ongoing process, even with our high tech civilization. Whether this “modernized evolution” acts quicker or slower than classical evolution is up for debate.

As an aside, the novel “The Time Machine” is a very interesting depiction of what has been discussed in this post. I recommend that you give it a read, it’s very short and worthwhile.

Technorati Tags: evolution, natural selection