[Borodog]

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So, is evolution over? It seems to me that intelligence has taken over where natural selection left off.

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This is an interesting topic. Evolution is not over currently, as the vast majority of the human population is still subject to the whims of nature.

But I personally believe we're not far off from a time when all diseases, and probably death itself, will be cured (for lack of a better word), except possibly in the case of extremely violent, uh, disassembly shall we say (and possibly even then).

One of the prerequisites for speciation is geographical separation, which allows formerly interbreeding populations to experience different genetic drift and selection, without cross transport of genetic information to the now separate groups. As the world becomes more and more interconnected, this geographical separation will cease to exist on the Earth itself. But it will probably reappear as the species moves off-planet and begins colonizing the solar system.

Evolution is not driven just by who dies. It is driven by differential reproductive success. Just because everyone will eventually survive to breeding age does not guarantee that everyone will breed, or how many offspring they will contribute to the gene pool. Also, if death is "cured" as I predict it will be, and population growth is eventually drastically curtailed (which will happen regardless of whether death is cured), the gene pool will stop changing (or at least start changing much more slowly).

Finally, just because the gene pool stops changing very much from differential reproductive success and the end of natural selection, does not preclude unnatural selection. I believe that the human genome may well be manipulated much like we manipulate hair styles today. Think of the body modifications that exist today, from tattoos to scarification to branding to piercings to horns to fangs. Do you think that people will have any qualms about manipulating their DNA?