humans are still evolving...

[Photonic]

I think we are on the same page then here.:bow:
The bod has shrunk too, I think this is a clear proof of natural selection, because bigger humans were stronger, however as humans have evolved socially they have been able to protect their weak, so smaller people have been able to pass their genes on without being wiped out.

Actually, it's technology more than anything that will affect our evolution going forwards.

 

[cablescavenger]

Actually, it's technology more than anything that will affect our evolution going forwards.

I am with you on that too.
:cigar:

 

[painted wolf]

Actually, it's technology more than anything that will affect our evolution going forwards.

Disease actually IMHO.

It's a far more immediate concern, especially considering the rate at which bacteria like MSR's are becoming more common.

HIV/AIDS has already had a significant effect on genetics in many parts of the world... far more than the use of a car or computer has. Technology is changing to fast for our bodies to keep up with, but disease is with us always.

wa:do

 

[Photonic]

Disease actually IMHO.

It's a far more immediate concern, especially considering the rate at which bacteria like MSR's are becoming more common.

HIV/AIDS has already had a significant effect on genetics in many parts of the world... far more than the use of a car or computer has. Technology is changing to fast for our bodies to keep up with, but disease is with us always.

wa:do

But the truth of the matter is is that technology and modern medicine will cure disease faster than human biology ever will.

 

[painted wolf]

We have only cured one... Small Pox... several new ones have stepped into their place, like HIV/AIDS, Autism, Diabetes, Cancer, Heart Disease and so on.

Add to that several more are that evolving faster than we can keep up with and will soon be totally immune to our medicines like the MSR's crawling all over our hospitals that kill about a hundred thousand people (in the USA alone) every year already. One hundred thousands people who contracted those bacteria from the hospitals while there being treated for totally different diseases.
Antibiotic resistance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Drug resistance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some of those bacteria are now turning up in "the wild" in our meat production like the airborne strain found in a pig farm... airborne and deadly.
Environmental Health Perspectives: Airborne Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Isolated from a Concentrated Swine Feeding Operation

Evolution means that we will never win... we can at best keep nearly up. The Red Queen will never be satisfied and it's only a matter of time before the runners change position again.

wa:do

 

[The_Evelyonian]

We have only cured one... Small Pox... several new ones have stepped into their place, like HIV/AIDS, Autism, Diabetes, Cancer, Heart Disease and so on.

Add to that several more are that evolving faster than we can keep up with and will soon be totally immune to our medicines like the MSR's crawling all over our hospitals that kill about a hundred thousand people (in the USA alone) every year already. One hundred thousands people who contracted those bacteria from the hospitals while there being treated for totally different diseases.
Antibiotic resistance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Drug resistance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some of those bacteria are now turning up in "the wild" in our meat production like the airborne strain found in a pig farm... airborne and deadly.
Environmental Health Perspectives: Airborne Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Isolated from a Concentrated Swine Feeding Operation

Evolution means that we will never win... we can at best keep nearly up. The Red Queen will never be satisfied and it's only a matter of time before the runners change position again.

wa:do

That's okay, I didn't feel like sleeping tonight anyway.

 

[Photonic]

We have only cured one... Small Pox... several new ones have stepped into their place, like HIV/AIDS, Autism, Diabetes, Cancer, Heart Disease and so on.

Add to that several more are that evolving faster than we can keep up with and will soon be totally immune to our medicines like the MSR's crawling all over our hospitals that kill about a hundred thousand people (in the USA alone) every year already. One hundred thousands people who contracted those bacteria from the hospitals while there being treated for totally different diseases.
Antibiotic resistance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Drug resistance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some of those bacteria are now turning up in "the wild" in our meat production like the airborne strain found in a pig farm... airborne and deadly.
Environmental Health Perspectives: Airborne Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Isolated from a Concentrated Swine Feeding Operation

Evolution means that we will never win... we can at best keep nearly up. The Red Queen will never be satisfied and it's only a matter of time before the runners change position again.

wa:do

Good thing technology will outpace it.

 

[painted wolf]

That's okay, I didn't feel like sleeping tonight anyway.

Biologists have been concerned about misuse of antibiotics almost since they were discovered.
Lab strains of E.coli were found to be immune to penicillin not long after it started being widely studied in the early 1900's.
Doctors started finding the first resistant wild strains of other bacteria like Staph in the 1940's (Antibiotics only become widely available in the 1930's)

Unfortunately, antibiotic use has only grown exponentially since then, with people treating them as a magical technological talisman against all ills.
The most modern antibiotics are so powerful that doctors are reluctant to use them... not only so they still have something that will work when needed, but because they are so toxic that they even harm the patient.

Technology is wonderful, but it isn't a magic bullet. No one should be using antibiotic products and never throw out antibiotic medications.

wa:do

 

[painted wolf]

Good thing technology will outpace it.

How? How do you outpace something that evolves, literally, by the minute?

Technology isn't magical.

wa:do

 

[The_Evelyonian]

Biologists have been concerned about misuse of antibiotics almost since they were discovered.
Lab strains of E.coli were found to be immune to penicillin not long after it started being widely studied in the early 1900's.
Doctors started finding the first resistant wild strains of other bacteria like Staph in the 1940's (Antibiotics only become widely available in the 1930's)

Unfortunately, antibiotic use has only grown exponentially since then, with people treating them as a magical technological talisman against all ills.
The most modern antibiotics are so powerful that doctors are reluctant to use them... not only so they still have something that will work when needed, but because they are so toxic that they even harm the patient.

Technology is wonderful, but it isn't a magic bullet. No one should be using antibiotic products and never throw out antibiotic medications.

wa:do

I thought such might be the case. Antibiotics can only move forward so far before they'll kill the patient right along with the disease. Evolution, on the other hand, is burdened by no such limit.

How? How do you outpace something that evolves, literally, by the minute?

You don't.

 

[Photonic]

Biologists have been concerned about misuse of antibiotics almost since they were discovered.
Lab strains of E.coli were found to be immune to penicillin not long after it started being widely studied in the early 1900's.
Doctors started finding the first resistant wild strains of other bacteria like Staph in the 1940's (Antibiotics only become widely available in the 1930's)

Unfortunately, antibiotic use has only grown exponentially since then, with people treating them as a magical technological talisman against all ills.
The most modern antibiotics are so powerful that doctors are reluctant to use them... not only so they still have something that will work when needed, but because they are so toxic that they even harm the patient.

Technology is wonderful, but it isn't a magic bullet. No one should be using antibiotic products and never throw out antibiotic medications.

wa:do

Of course it's a magic bullet.

You see, unlike evolution, which works with natural process, it concerns itself only with the immediate. You should know this quite well.

Technology is the humans way of coping with the future instead of the present. Evolution has no notion of past and future, only present. What makes things easier in the here and now is natural selection allows for.

 

[painted wolf]

Of course it's a magic bullet.

Your faith is cute.

You see, unlike evolution, which works with natural process, it concerns itself only with the immediate. You should know this quite well.

Technology is the humans way of coping with the future instead of the present. Evolution has no notion of past and future, only present. What makes things easier in the here and now is natural selection allows for.

Yes, but technology requires years of research, then years of testing and then maybe application.
Bacteria then render all those many years of work obsolete in a few generations.

E.coli can double in population every ten minutes... one resistant cell can become billions and spread widely outside it's host before we realize it's a danger. We can only react to them, we can't preempt them.

Seriously, have you looked into the problem at all?

Let me give you an example... MRSA was well known as a problem and they started developing drugs to fight it in the 1980's... guess how long it took to actually get the drugs into hospitals. Not until 2000, and there are MRSA strains already resistant to the new drugs.

We will always be playing the Red Queens game. That is reality.

The other problem is antibiotics just don't make money.
Study finds few new antibiotics are in the pipeline

As if that wasn't fun enough... the test we have to find gram-negative bacteria like MRSA and E.coli is going extinct. Only the blood of Limulus polyphemous can detect gram-negative bacteria quickly and effectively and their populations are quickly shrinking... there is no technological substitute.

wa:do

 

[Photonic]

Your faith is cute.

Yes, but technology requires years of research, then years of testing and then maybe application.
Bacteria then render all those many years of work obsolete in a few generations.

E.coli can double in population every ten minutes... one resistant cell can become billions and spread widely outside it's host before we realize it's a danger. We can only react to them, we can't preempt them.

Seriously, have you looked into the problem at all?

Let me give you an example... MRSA was well known as a problem and they started developing drugs to fight it in the 1980's... guess how long it took to actually get the drugs into hospitals. Not until 2000, and there are MRSA strains already resistant to the new drugs.

We will always be playing the Red Queens game. That is reality.

The other problem is antibiotics just don't make money.
Study finds few new antibiotics are in the pipeline

As if that wasn't fun enough... the test we have to find gram-negative bacteria like MRSA and E.coli is going extinct. Only the blood of Limulus polyphemous can detect gram-negative bacteria quickly and effectively and their populations are quickly shrinking... there is no technological substitute.

wa:do

Nanobots.

We must become...Cybermen.

 

[fantome profane]

How? How do you outpace something that evolves, literally, by the minute?

Well we are not going to overpower them, and we are not going to out-evolve them. So we need to be clever. I say we negotiate with them, try to get them on our side.

 

[painted wolf]

Nanobots.

We must become...Cybermen.

Wow... you really do have faith. Just hope you don't blue screen. :sarcastic

Just remember, the cybermen always loose because of ironic design flaws.

wa:do

 

[Photonic]

Wow... you really do have faith. Just hope you don't blue screen. :sarcastic

Just remember, the cybermen always loose because of ironic design flaws.

wa:do

I'm just playing around, of course. But I do believe that if science is not capable (which it already has proven to some extent) of stopping such things, then humans are quite doomed.

 

[McBell]

I'm just playing around, of course. But I do believe that if science is not capable (which it already has proven to some extent) of stopping such things, then humans are quite doomed.

Except that humans have not only survived, but also flourished...

 

[Photonic]

Except that humans have not only survived, but also flourished...

Pray tell, when did they start to flourish the most?

 

[PolyHedral]

Bacteria then render all those many years of work obsolete in a few generations.

Then swap paradigms. Smart immune system, anyone?

 

[Photonic]

Then swap paradigms. Smart immune system, anyone?

Nanotechnology will virtually render immune systems useless if they are sufficiently advanced.