Human race will 'split into two different species'

[William Haskins]

The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist.

100,000 years into the future, sexual selection could mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed.

The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=489653&in_page_id=1965

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/10_04/evolutionPA_800x326.jpg

[veinglory]

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/10/utter_nonsense.php
http://www.badscience.net/?p=316

[Azraelsbane]

Ha. I think it'll be more of an Idiocracy style society. ;)

[William Haskins]

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/10/utter_nonsense.php
http://www.badscience.net/?p=316

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Downer

[Rolling Thunder]

I was going to vote -I'm already a goblin- but I feel that would make me a conformist. Which is really another name for a goblin, isn't it?

[Dawno]

Not to be a wet rag, but we had this discussion back almost exactly a year ago - http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=869021&postcount=1 I wonder why the article cited is bringing this up as if it's current news?

[TurkeyLurkey]

D) The ugly goblin-like ruling elite.

[William Haskins]

Not to be a wet rag, but we had this discussion back in almost exactly a year ago - http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=869021&postcount=1 I wonder why the article cited is bringing this up as if it's current news?

obviously because the split is already occurring.

[veinglory]

Oddly I would rather be a downer than delusional, but that's just me. The BBC prefers to re-run *year old* pseudoscience so those with short memories can get excited about the prospect of evolving big penises, all over again. At least serve up some fresh quackery.

[Dawno]

well, it wasn't the Beeb, it was the Daily Mail...and based on the way it illustrated the article and some of the other articles in the sidebar, it looks a lot like a Brit version of Weekly World News :)

[William Haskins]

Oddly I would rather be a downer than delusional, but that's just me. The BBC prefers to re-run *year old* pseudoscience so those with short memories can get excited about the prospect of evolving big penises, all over again. At least serve up some fresh quackery.

yeah, i wasn't really posting it as hard news. sort of a friday night steam release...

but i appreciate your concern and i promise to quickly shed my obvious delusion regarding this matter.

while you're here, though, can you set me straight about bigfoot?

[Dawno]

ah, Bigfoot - she's a hooker in DC. (http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/11-2-2005-80435.asp)

[JoNightshade]

You mean Eloi and Morlocks? Mm hm. I think Mr. Evolutionary Theorist may have confused the nonfiction and fiction sections at his local library.

[brokenfingers]

Does H.G. Wells know about this?

ETA: Hahahaha! Jo and I both posted at the same time! :D

[Voyager]

10,000 years from now, Earth will be run by a horde of strangely alluring cockroaches.

[InfinityGoddess]

10,000 years from now, Earth will be run by a horde of strangely alluring cockroaches.

Ah, those ever-enduring cockroaches...been here longer than man and the dinosaurs combined and still going strong...

[William Haskins]

Oddly I would rather be a downer than delusional, but that's just me. The BBC prefers to re-run *year old* pseudoscience so those with short memories can get excited about the prospect of evolving big penises, all over again. At least serve up some fresh quackery.

you know, now i'm glad i posted it. i was wrong to post the debbie downer link, though. i thought you were merely showing off the debunking. but it whiffs of agenda to you, and that pleases me.

i find it amusing that it's not the sheer quackery of it that most bothers you; indeed it's not even that it suggests a world ripe for cultural, political and social exploitation of people of both sexes.

what amuses me is that it's the penis thing.

as though it would set back women's rights by centuries and set the stage for generations of men incrementally oppressing women for the ultimate golden age, when their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandsons can slide the ladies their monstrous penises at will...

and not only does that prospect (however remote or delusional) centuries from now horrify you, the very perception in the here and now by men might be stupid enough to embrace it and believe that it is their destiny, in and of itself, is a clear and present danger in your eyes.

that's funny stuff.

[badducky]

I always thought we'd split into two races:

1) People who understand technology and wield its might powers like gods!

2) Buffoons who do not understand technology that merge into the master race: MANAGEMENT!

(Hm... no luck finding the Dilbert link, but it is what I think will happen, and thanks to Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert for this unholy truth.)

[robeiae]

What amuses me is the apparent ease my descendents will have with assuming total control over the trogs. Good times...

[badducky]

you know, now i'm glad i posted it. i was wrong to post the debbie downer link, though. i thought you were merely showing off the debunking. but it whiffs of agenda to you, and that pleases me.

i find it amusing that it's not the sheer quackery of it that most bothers you; indeed it's not even that it suggests a world ripe for cultural, political and social exploitation of people of both sexes.

what amuses me is that it's the penis thing.

as though it would set back women's rights by centuries and set the stage for generations of men incrementally oppressing women for the ultimate golden age, when their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandsons can slide the ladies their monstrous penises at will...

and not only does that prospect (however remote or delusional) centuries from now horrify you, the very perception in the here and now by men might be stupid enough to embrace it and believe that it is their destiny, in and of itself, is a clear and present danger in your eyes.

that's funny stuff.

Haskins, I think you seriously underrate the number of people who might come into this thread - not naming names at all - and take that article seriously. Thus, Veinglory was merely assisting them that would otherwise take this WAY too seriously.

[William Haskins]

there's text and there's subtext, my man.

[rugcat]

I remember an old sf story by someone, Robert Sheckley perhaps, with a neat twist on the technogeek/consumer idiot split.

The general populace has devolved into literal morons, but technology has evolved to the point where even a moron can operate the tools necessary to be a doctor, for example. The hidden, vastly outnumbered and overworked technocrats spend their lives scrambling to keep technology and society running while posing as hospital orderlies and the like.

[Provrb1810meggy]

No more shaving for women of the future. Hooray!

[maestrowork]

dont hate me 'cuz I'm beutifull. -- Paris Hilton

[Higgins]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Downer

For any traits that can be measured, our species seems to be at Classic Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium...ie no discernable selective direction is happening...plus we are a big "cosmopolitan" generalist species. Even if there is a huge extinction event...there will just be more of us at the expense of other species...well maybe that is what is happening now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardy-Weinberg_principle

[Higgins]

You mean Eloi and Morlocks? Mm hm. I think Mr. Evolutionary Theorist may have confused the nonfiction and fiction sections at his local library.

Actually, any real Evolutionary Theorist knows we as a species are in a culturally inexplicable, but statistically unavoidable, state of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

[Tiger]

That's not new... Can you say Eloi and Morlock? Except that the Morlocks were in control. Oh well: the eye of the beholder and all that.

[Higgins]

That's not new... Can you say Eloi and Morlock? Except that the Morlocks were in control. Oh well: the eye of the beholder and all that.

Well...its not new, but maybe this game version of the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium is:

http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1995/hardyweinberg.html

[Kentuk]

By the year 3K man will no longer exculsively live on Earth and will be subject to new evolutionary pressures and divergence. So instead of everyone being coffee colored (presumably he uses cream) you'll have people so pale they can't stand direct exposure to the sun and people who are so black they look blue. There will be small people raised on vegetarian longevity diets and people selected for size and strength. The prospect of genetic engineering will cause even more diversity and probably a lack of interbreeding. Some women already refuse to breed with men who eat genetically engineered foods, so imagine. The author of the article assumes the evolutionary situation won't change but I think it will.

[Voyager]

That's not new... Can you say Eloi and Morlock? Except that the Morlocks were in control. Oh well: the eye of the beholder and all that.
Maybe, but the Eloi had way cooler hair.

[badducky]

How does the Weinberg Equilabrium thingy calibrate for Bigfoot Hookers?

[Tiger]

Maybe, but the Eloi had way cooler hair.

Now, that's pretty strong stuff. Can you back it up with scientific data?

[Azraelsbane]

Now, that's pretty strong stuff. Can you back it up with scientific data?

I'll field this one. Because I said so. :Soapbox:

[joyce]

10,000 years from now, Earth will be run by a horde of strangely alluring cockroaches.

Someone just kill me now. Knowing my luck and my absolute fear of the nasty creatures, I'd be the only one left with the flesh eating things. It's what I picture my hell to be......me in a room filled with roaches and I can never get out.

[maestrowork]

Someone just kill me now. Knowing my luck and my absolute fear of the nasty creatures, I'd be the only one left with the flesh eating things. It's what I picture my hell to be......me in a room filled with roaches and I can never get out.

There'll be no "room" where you are going. Just a dark, damp hole in the ground. But full of nasty creatures, yes.

[Tiger]

Someone just kill me now. Knowing my luck and my absolute fear of the nasty creatures, I'd be the only one left with the flesh eating things. It's what I picture my hell to be......me in a room filled with roaches and I can never get out.

Roaches are red...

[Darguza]

There are two kinds of people in the world...those that divide it in two and those that don't.

[billythrilly7th]

intelligent ruling elite

http://i7.tinypic.com/24d39ly.gif

and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures,

http://www.ramdac.org/images/oompa.jpg

[Magdalen]

Photo #2 has a lot of miles on it. Amazing how applicable to so many situations it is.

[billythrilly7th]

Photo #2 has a lot of miles on it. Amazing how applicable to so many situations it is.

Whoever took it should have won the pulitzer. One of the great photos of all time. Thank you, Francois de la Briosche for inventing the camera.

[TheGaffer]

We hates the ruling class. We knew they was tricksy.

[MattW]

We already are subjects of the hypno-toad...

[William Haskins]

at least now i understand why all these companies that keep emailing me are are so desperate to unload the various patches, pills and devices to make my penis huge.

[whistlelock]

the pretty elite will rule only because the ugly goblins say they do.

[larocca]

Goblins rule. We've got more votes than you elite mo-fos. Goblins.

[GeorgeK]

I always thought we'd split into two races:

1) People who understand technology and wield its might powers like gods!

2) Buffoons who do not understand technology that merge into the master race: MANAGEMENT!

(Hm... no luck finding the Dilbert link, but it is what I think will happen, and thanks to Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert for this unholy truth.)


so in which group are the telephone sanitizers?

[donroc]

Early in life I concluded there always has been two species -- assholes and non-assholes.

Because so few are non-assholes, I never discriminate against my fellow non-assholes because of race, creed, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, or lack thereof.

www.donaldmichaelplatt.com

[C.bronco]

I feel limited by the polling options; there are no places to vote for lolcats or super-evolved monkeys.