Well my first real post but I couldn’t resist it.
A boy has been born in the US with 24 digits on his hands and feet. Six on each hand and foot. Read the full story here.
Now is this a move towards the next stage in our evolution? More fingers would be handy whilst typing and allow a better grip on tools. Not sure about the toes though.
So it has been suggest elsewhere that with our ability to remove these abnormalities, and they are to us, by surgery and, in the future, by gene therapy that scientists are actually going to take that step. In reality it’s standing in the way of evolution and saying that we know what is best. The arrogance we humans have.
If it is evolution giving six fingers a go then modifying genes to ensure we don’t pass this trait on means we are making a conscious decision that evolution stops, at least for us and our descendants, at the current shape of our bodies. Meanwhile there are faulty genes where we spend significant sums to keep alive whilst in nature they would not survive. We then allow those genes to procreate while we do not fix the abnormality and thus we are diluting our gene pool. Sounds a bit of a contradiction there.
Stopping any natural evolution of our bodies doesn’t mean we won’t evolve mentally but who knows. The next mental stage may require the mental thought processes put in place by using six fingers on each hand. Thus we could be slowing down our evolution rather than aiding it.
Personally I think that it will make little difference even if it takes a few hundred years more for us to evolve I actually see us accelerating this process by identifying genes that give us mental powers and giving us all the necessary therapy. Personally, I can’t wait but I won’t be at the front of the queue.
Still evolving
Well my first real post but I couldn’t resist it.
A boy has been born in the US with 24 digits on his hands and feet. Six on each hand and foot. Read the full story here.
Now is this a move towards the next stage in our evolution? More fingers would be handy whilst typing and allow a better grip on tools. Not sure about the toes though.
So it has been suggest elsewhere that with our ability to remove these abnormalities, and they are to us, by surgery and, in the future, by gene therapy that scientists are actually going to take that step. In reality it’s standing in the way of evolution and saying that we know what is best. The arrogance we humans have.
If it is evolution giving six fingers a go then modifying genes to ensure we don’t pass this trait on means we are making a conscious decision that evolution stops, at least for us and our descendants, at the current shape of our bodies. Meanwhile there are faulty genes where we spend significant sums to keep alive whilst in nature they would not survive. We then allow those genes to procreate while we do not fix the abnormality and thus we are diluting our gene pool. Sounds a bit of a contradiction there.
Stopping any natural evolution of our bodies doesn’t mean we won’t evolve mentally but who knows. The next mental stage may require the mental thought processes put in place by using six fingers on each hand. Thus we could be slowing down our evolution rather than aiding it.
Personally I think that it will make little difference even if it takes a few hundred years more for us to evolve I actually see us accelerating this process by identifying genes that give us mental powers and giving us all the necessary therapy. Personally, I can’t wait but I won’t be at the front of the queue.