Humans are evolving into... Grey!

[Turanil]

Due to my new job which consists in watching TV programs at night ( ), I saw a documentary about Homo Sapiens evolution last night. It explained the homo-sapiens' skull's evolution over the 3 last millions years. What attracted my attention is that they discovered that the human race, worldwide, began another evolution of the human skull into a new form 400 years ago, and is currently going on. Nowadays, the majority of children in Europe, USA, and Asia are being born with signs that the skull is evolving into a new form. Of course, this will probably take 10.000 years before the new form completely arises. Nonetheless, paleontologist artists had been asked to do a drawing of the next human. Man!, this really looks we are turning into Grey individuals. I foresee that in 100.000 or 1 million years, humans will be indistinguishable from the Grey. In fact, I suspect that these so-called Grey are but paleontologists from a far future coming to us in time machines only for study purposes...

 

[ForceUser]

What's a Grey?

 

[LogicsFate]

Perhaps his avatar hold a clue, I term refering to that brand of alien(possibly)

 

[Umbran]

Turanil's avatar is a reasonable depiction of an "alien Grey".

What attracted my attention is that they discovered that the human race, worldwide, began another evolution of the human skull into a new form 400 years ago, and is currently going on. Nowadays, the majority of children in Europe, USA, and Asia are being born with signs that the skull is evolving into a new form.

Problem - that's not how evolution works. Evolution has no plan. The final form is not predetermined - you can show a difference between the past and present, sometimes, but you cannot predict the future.

One can attempt to say, "If the trend continues, this is a possible result". But you've no real indication that the trend will continue, or that other things won't impinge upon the trend to yield a different result, or that the trend doesn't mean what you think it means.

Also, there's the matter of "confounding bias" - the development of the human form is not wholly determined by genes. Environment during development also has a lot to say in what happens to a person. Case in point - the human race has growntaller over the past 400 years, but the genes that control our height haven't changed. The difference is in diet. Similar effects may be responsible for the pattern shown in the show.

I think some form of confounding bias is a much more likley description - because the human race, to this day, doesn't do much genetic mixing. People tend to stay within their racial and geographical areas to find mates - and without a worldwide mixing of genes, you don''t see a worldwide evolution to a new form.

The best genetic models suggest just the opposite - that new forms normally arise ins small, isolated populations. If the alien grey is the next big thing in humanity, you're more likely to see it develop in one local population first, and then spread out into the global population.

 

[Aeson]

UG! You smart Umbran. That made my bulbous head hurt. Should I start to worry my eyes are all black and almost as big as my fist? I'm kidding around. Please no one take offense.

Actually. I'm curious about the evolution of man. Umbran you seem to knowledgable about such things. I often argue the use of helmets and knee pads while on bikes and skateboards, along with the Antibacterial soaps could hurt the evolution of humans by making us more weaker. Am I wrong?

 

[Torm]

I often argue the use of helmets and knee pads while on bikes and skateboards, along with the Antibacterial soaps could hurt the evolution of humans by making us more weaker. Am I wrong?

I am uncertain, but right or wrong, this was hilarious. Or struck me as so in my befuddled Sunday morning state.

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

One of the competing theories in UFOlogy is that the greys are time travellers from our future. Our own species, harvesting the genes of the past to prevent human genetic exhaustion. Thus, the abductions, sexual procedures, and alien hybrid children often shown to multi-decade abductees.

 

[Aeson]

I am uncertain, but right or wrong, this was hilarious. Or struck me as so in my befuddled Sunday morning state.

I hope I shouldn't be offended.

I thought my threory was somewhat based on other evolutionary information. Animals and plants build defenses and natural weapons to protect themselves. My theory is humans could do the same thing if given the chance. We build objects to do the work for us. I think through natural selection and conditioning humans could start to develop cat's grace and bull's strength.

I'm not an expert. I haven't even gone to college or studied evolution for that matter.

 

[Umbran]

I often argue the use of helmets and knee pads while on bikes and skateboards, along with the Antibacterial soaps could hurt the evolution of humans by making us more weaker. Am I wrong?

Knee pads? No. The injuries they prefent are annoying and painful, but they won't prevent you from breeding. Heck, walking with a cane can look dramatic and spiffy and get you more chicks!

Helmets - I doubt enough folks are wearing them to make a difference. But, what's a weaker gene pool - one with people with marginally thicker skulls, or one in which the people are smart enough to avoid injury in the first place? "Strength" and "weakness" are not clearly defined.

Antibacterial soap is not going to make us weaker. Current studies seem to show that folks who use "antibacterial" soap actually get fractionally more infections than those who use normal soap.

 

[ForceUser]

Turanil's avatar is a reasonable depiction of an "alien Grey".

Ah.

Problem - that's not how evolution works. Evolution has no plan. The final form is not predetermined - you can show a difference between the past and present, sometimes, but you cannot predict the future.

Right. It should be noted, though, that no living species has a "final evolutionary form"--species either adapt to changing environments, or fail to adapt and go extinct.