[Zeiros]

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I assume most folk here (especially most atheist) believe in evolution. I think (from the little I know about it) the theory is a good one (and not incompatible with Christianity, btw).

My questions have nothing to do with religion (indirectly I guess they do, but not my main reason for asking).


1) Why have we evolved into our present state - I.e. self-awareness, state of our intellect, emotional beings - as opposed to for example, strictly intellectual beings with no emotion?


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2) Are we evolving on the right path? Or somewhere along the line did we take a wrong turn and now, because we are capable of surviving for who knows how long, we can’t get on the path that might have been a better one?


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There is no such thing as the 'right' path with evolution. It is nothing more than natural selection.

As a very artificial example imagine a cave full off two species. Owls and mice. The owls eat the mice to live, the mice try to hide from the owls to survive. Over many years, the mice that blend most closely to the colour of the floor will be most likely to survive and reproduce and so most mice will gradually change to become the same colour as the cave. If, one day, the cave were to spontaneously change colour then over the next few million years the mice would begin to change colour again to match the new cave.

A contrived example I know, but it serves to illustrate a point. Natural selection is a blind force that acts in the direction of what is beneficial at the current time. Of course, if evolution were guided or premeditated then we would probably work in a much more efficient way than we do now. We would be sleek, streamlined and efficient. As it happens animals are pretty unwieldy creatures. Just look at the appendix in humans, hip bones in whales, wings on the ostrich, the lists of useless bits in animals go on and on.

Evolution is a messy process, it often leaves marks of adaptations and failures, but it always produces animals that can survive as best as possible in the prevailing conditions.

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3) If we took a wrong path, can we find evidence of one that could have been better for us?


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See answer to number two.

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4) If we took the wrong path and can’t get back on one that would have been better - would it be better for humans to become extinct, so that a more correct evolutionary path get going?


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See answer to number three.


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5) If evolution is a river that we cannot divert, why is that? I am thinking more in terms of intellectually diverting evolution rather than through genetics, but not excluding genetics.


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We can divert evolution rather easily. Selective breeding.

Let me illustrate with another artificial example. I have a field full of cows. I want to sell the cows to be slaughtered for food. For this reason I make a point of picking the biggest bull every year and breeding him with all of the females. If I repeat this process over many years, never mixing in any other cattle, my cows will get bigger and bigger. If we repeat this for a few thousand years I'll end up with super-massive cows that look so different from every other cow on the planet that they will be classed as their own species.

Anything that acts to change which members of a species reproduce influences evolution.

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6) If we can direct our own evolution, how can we?


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See answer to number five. Google the word eugenics to find people who have thought of the human species in this way.

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7) What are some ideas of what we are evolving into?


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Looking at the world today, I really don't know. Natural selection drives animals that survive most efficiently to reproduce more.

A human society faces selection effects that are vastly different to those ever seen before in the history of the Earth.

You no longer need to be strong and able to fend for yourself in the wilderness to survive. You no longer need to have four fully working limbs to reproduce and survive. You no longer need to even be mentally competitive to reproduce.

Civilization has changed evolutionary pressures greatly, and I'd like to know what is coming next!