We will have people with super human strength, people with minds that are organized like computers and can hand third and even fourth order of magnitude projections, we will have people with telekinetic powers, others with the ability to fold space with their minds and travel great distances in the blink of an eye, we will have people who can create something out of the molecules in the air and also make the molecular bonds of something dissipate and blow away like dust in the wind or be reabsorbed into the space around them. All this and more will be the future of humanity, for we are god awakening its consciousness through 7 billion individual points of view and realizing that the only things standing in its way are the self imposed limitations.

I say let us speed up the process of evolution through technology. Nanotechnology has some pretty scary implecations when reading the military's agenda. As for use in the medical industry and commercial industry I am all for it. But what happens if the nano machines break down after a period of time while doing internal and celluar surgery? I am sure they could be replaced very rapidily but what if it is a microsecond that depends on a life or death situation? Let us gaze into the future in order to solve possible delemas. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

better to be top of the monkeys than bottom of the gods

Evolution starts with our DNA.

imagine the 2 strands spliting into 3... 4... and so on...

"Because the fact is, what blinds us to the presence of alien intelligence is linguistic and cultural bias operating on ourselves.

The world which we perceive is a tiny fraction of the world which we can perceive, which is a tiny fraction of the perceivable world, you see. We operate on a very narrow slice based on cultural conventions. So the important thing, if synergizing progress is the notion to be maximized (and I think it's the notion to be maximized), is to try and locate the blind spot in the culture -- the place where the culture isn't looking, because it dare not -- because if it were to look there, its previous values would dissolve, you see.

For Western Civilization that place is the psychedelic experience as it emerges out of nature."

~~Terence Mckenna~~

Will it be socially acceptable for a threesome of parents all to raise a child together?

This would alter the basic family unit, which is the building block of society, and the foundation of the U.S. economy.

For conservative religious minds, the institution of marriage would be "under attack" yet again.

Personally, I love the idea of promoting healthier babies and reducing genetically inherited diseases through this method.

I believe that at the rate we're going, we're evolving right into the toilet.

We are headed towards Idiocracy the most on the dot future predicting movie of all time.

maybe just maybe all this weight everyone is gaining is evolution
sooner or later we will all be heavy or maybe when the sun erupts fat people will live longer or joining the wwf
could be in my future.

We're not evolving, at least, not in the sense that science currently understands it.

We have no environment to adapt to, how can we evolve?

I guess you could count adapting to human environments, cities, fatty foods, etc. But with modern medical science and human compassion, we attempt to save everyone, including the weak members of our species, and typically succeed.

Although, I did hear an interesting theory about how because of our selective breeding, or the tendency for attractive people to only breed with other attractive people and vice versa, that humans will split into two groups after a couple million years.

One group will be tall, fair and more intelligent and the other short, crude and not as intelligent. Sort of like what Jules Verne predicted in the Time Machine.

It seems we may have hit the apex of our evolution. Mankind has made this planet AND ourselves as un-natural as possible. There is no 'Natural Selection' anymore. Most of what happens to us, animals, plants, Earth - humans create/accelerate. We are haulting all evolution,... with our so-called tools, medicine, technology, habits, et cetera.
Maybe the saddest part, is that evolution WILL find a way,... and that might mean the demise of humans. We had a good run,... well,... not really.

Do The Evolution.

if this were really nature though, simpson, hilton, and such would be dead, because out there in the wild, well they wouldnt have the sense to not get killed. thats the survival of the fittest, unfortunately, these guys still survive.

I have a dark theory about the presence of man on the planet.

Every so often, a meteor, asteroid or other cataclysm will strike the planet and wipe out a huge percentage of species. This makes room for other other species to evolve and for the developement of new life forms that will be beneficial for the planet.

If this "natural" event doesn't occur with enough frequency, nature takes matters into her own hands and allows a species to evolve whose fundamental task is to do what the asteroid failed to do, reduce the number of species to make room for new forms of life. Enter mankind.

Lets face it, our growth has been explosive, like a virus, we've penetrated into every "cell" on the planet, we are driving thousands of species into extinction, we've ravaged the skin of the planet and are now in the process of changing the atmosphere to the point to where other forms of live might take predominance. Other than the amount of time required, how is this different than other "natural" castastophes?

However, nature, the every watchful mother, has built a fail-safe mechanism into us i.e. the ability for us to destroy ourselves if things begin to spin too far out of control. For example, If the population growth continues, we compete for fewer and fewer resources which cause wars, famine and disease. If we counter with technology to reduce disease and famine and increase our number even still more then the chance for war become very high. The question becomes, when will mother nature decide that our job is done and release such a virulent disease that it wipes out most human life on the planet which would be the equivalent of a virus (us) mutating to a less virulent strain.

Not a pretty scenario I admit, but from an objective point of view, it makes sense. However, unlike a virus, we have intelligence and can make rationale choices that allow us to become less virulent thereby preventing nature from doing something nasty to limit our impact.

Having closely observed humanity for several decades, and especially the last eight years, I have the impression that humanity is evolving into two different and distinct species.

I learned in school that it was the development of tools and language by our predecessors that allowed our brains to become more complex and better suited for that type of abstract activity. Following this model, it seems clear that interaction with our current tools and language will yield proportional changes in our biology. As the internet matures, the human capability to share and interpret information increases. Will our brains advance as rapidly?

Verrrrrry interesting.
Makes me think of the film Gattaca.
I do think that our minds are changing with the help of technological advances, but let's remember the computer is probably smarter than us.

uohhhhh (tun tun tun)

no, i dont think we have turned back into apes... they are too organized

Lets keep in mind that there was a time when dinosaurs reigned supreme over this planet and now they are extinct. Nature has a funny way of ruining plans. However, our "evolution", if you wish to call it that (I always considered evolution to be natural), will more than likely come in the form of technology being integrated into our own bodies creating the transhumanist race.

That movie was funny, but it was almost scary at the same time...

Kurt Vonnegut once wrote a story where humans had evolved into stupider beings in order to survive.

Must see comedy movie about the future of mankind:

Idiocracy

Evolution in a nut-shell. Not for kids but hilarious.

Nice way to make a cheap shot at Paris Hilton...

I've recently developed an interest for nanotechnology (or rather nanobots). I'm not sure if it is a long shot, but I think it would be awesome to live forever. If nanotech can do that, then I'm there, but I guess even an extension of my lifespan would be nice too. I'm not too sure about cognitive enhancements. I'd rather do that on my own, that is, I would rather achieve intellectual improvement on my own, but if masses of people flock to cognitive enhancements via nanotech, then I would, in essence become the black sheep of the human race. Those are my thoughts. I hope they perfect nanobots as much as possible before releasing it to the public. I don't want a computer, electronic, or mechanical virus messing with my innards. Sigh, there are so many issues that have to be discussed regarding nanobots (and nanotech, but I'm more interested with nanobots than tech). Hopefully, someone with the time will step or has already stepped up to discuss them. Anyway, go nanobots/tech!