Science Future of the Human Face

[Andy44]

This is kind of creepy and funny. Funny because I don't think anyone's speculation of what humans will look like in the future will turn out to be quite correct.

And creepy, because, well...this:

Egad...

Anyway, here's the link: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-human-face-in-the-future-2013-6

 

[Staiduk]

Er...OK Photoshopping I guess, but what's the point? What evolutionary or anthropological data would suggest the 'future' of the Human race to be two perfectly normal people with enlarged eyes? Is low light levels the only challenge we might face? Are we to become a nocturnally-oriented society?

Sorry Andy - haven't read the article; I rarely do - there is little beyond speculation and sensationalism in them - but the future of Humanity will be far different - and far more complex - than big eyeballs.

Edit: Just read the article and can't see anything resembling science in it. Someone photoshopped two young people; that's all. I honestly doubt we'll be here in a hundred thousand years - even if we as a species survive, what will evolve will be a far different being from what we are today. It's just big eyeballs - that's all the picture is. I fail to see the science in an ocular fetish.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Evolving enhanced features perceived as attractive, rather than evolving to see normal features as attractive? waat?
Haha, I like that citation in there:
"Artist and researcher Nickolay Lamm from U.K. discount site MyVoucherCodes.co.uk..."
How do they allow employees to turn some artist's random image into an article?

This thread needs a [Humor] tag, not [Science]

 

[Andy44]

Sorry Andy - haven't read the article

edit: nevermind

 

[MattBaker]

the head will get bigger to make room for a larger brain

The moments when you wonder if you have been the only one visiting a biology class.
Neanderthals had bigger brains, still they are gone.
Women are statiscally smaller than men and have a smaller brain, still there are even studies saying women are smarter.

So yeah, the head will totally grow...


Although the eye-thingy...manga-like and as far as I know that's a japanese beauty ideal.

 

[Staiduk]

Post deleted. It was just too weird.

 

[Codz]

Women are statiscally smaller than men and have a smaller brain, still there are even studies saying women are smarter.

Care to back up that claim?

 

[statickid]

:rofl:

I think humans will grow longer nostril hairs and have shorter, fatter necks.

 

[MattBaker]

Care to back up that claim?

I hope you agree that women are smaller than men and don't need citations for that.

On the smarts issue:
IQ tests say so
Graduates say so

Although I agree, that's no proof that they're smarter, just that they're better in IQ tests or the educational system. But in the end the educational system decides about your career chances and women are simply better than men in that field.

 

[Codz]

Although I agree, that's no proof that they're smarter, just that they're better in IQ tests or the educational system. But in the end the educational system decides about your career chances and women are simply better than men in that field.

Nevertheless, I'd still hesitate to use such an all-encompassing term as "smarter".

 

[C3PO]

I hope you agree that women are smaller than men and don't need citations for that.

On the smarts issue:
IQ tests say so
Graduates say so

Although I agree, that's no proof that they're smarter, just that they're better in IQ tests or the educational system. But in the end the educational system decides about your career chances and women are simply better than men in that field.

Or maybe it's just that it doesn't hit the news when males do better.

I remember watching some British news channel (I think it was ITV) that broke the news that it was finally proved that women were better drivers. The researchers had timed people parking their cars, and women took more time doing it. Conclusion: Women are more careful drivers = Better drivers! :lol:

 

[Eccentrus]

I still don't get why people prefer larger eyes, I'm quite the fan of the slanting eyes though.

 

[orb]

I still don't get why people prefer larger eyes

They watch too much Tezuka style anime/manga, and want to look the same?

 

[Ghostrider]

Nothing a baseball bat cannot fix.

 

[Quick_Nick]

 

[RisingFury]

It's hard to say what direction the evolution of our species will go. Keep in mind that evolution is governed by natural selection and in case of humans, we've eliminated part of the natural selection and replaced it with artificial selection...

Various social and healthcare systems ensure that individuals don't die from hunger or preventable diseases. Even the rates of fatal diseases is lower than it would be in nature due to preventative care.

We've reached a society were anyone has a decent chance of having children... that said, we don't all have the same number of children.

In the developed world, it's common that the birth rate in a country is below the death rate and the country's population is kept constant because of immigration. I think such social pressures will eventually completely replace natural selection in our species, but it's hard to tell what these pressures will be at this time. Our society hasn't reached and equilibrium where all are equal yet...

 

[C3PO]

It's hard to say what direction the evolution of our species will go. Keep in mind that evolution is governed by natural selection and in case of humans, we've eliminated part of the natural selection and replaced it with artificial selection...

Sexual selection plays a huge part in natural selection. Just because we're talking about the human species doesn't make it more artificial.

 

[TMac3000]

 

[Andy44]

According to the article the big eyes will be chosen on purpose, for the purpose of seeing in the dim sunlight of outer planet colonies, and for aesthetic value.

At least the former is an attempt to find some purpose in it; the latter is a guess as to what people will find attractive over the centuries. Look at what styles we thought were attractive in the 1910s and look now, who'd have guessed?

This sort of thing is fun for speculation and joking, but if the taboo ever gets lifted on eugenics and tampering with genes you can expect to see a lot of freakish things over the next few thousand years.

I'm holding out for the singularity and a nice shiny robot body, personally.

 

[kamaz]

Although I agree, that's no proof that they're smarter, just that they're better in IQ tests or the educational system. But in the end the educational system decides about your career chances and women are simply better than men in that field.

If that were so, then most enterpreneurs, inventors or CEOs should be almost exclusively female? Oh, wait...

From my experience in managing people, when you assign someone work:

- women will do what they are told to do, exactly and dilligently. Result: high quality work.

- men will immediately start thinking how to make the job easier. Result: a mix of decent work, complete mix-ups and breakthrough inventions

So it's completely expected that women score higher in scholarly and IQ tests, because both measure ability to regurgirate acquired information / skills. That, in turn, is directly proportional to the amount of time spent dilligently studying -- something that women excel at, compared to men, which quickly get bored. But once you go outside the school environment, it doesn't really translate to anything.

It all goes back to the hunter-gatherer society where the selection pressure was on hunters (men) to be inventive and gatherers (women) to be patient and dilligent.