Are Humans still undergoing the process of Evolution?

Question

I know this may sound like a stupid question, but are Humans still going through the process of Evolution? For example, let's say that Man A and Man B live somewhere in upper Sweden. Man A has a body better adapted to the cold and is reasonably fast at catching prey. Man B however has a bad body type adapted to the cold and is bad at catching the prey himself. To compensate for that, he makes his own clothing and uses technology to help him catch the arduous prey. Does this therefore eradicate the rule of 'Survival of the Fittest'?

Answer 1

For entire segments of the population that have been exposed to malaria, survivors have a higher immunity to the disease than segments of the population that have never been exposed.  In a real way that is evolution.  Certain skin types are adapted to limited or generous exposure to sunlight (which affects production of vitamin D and bone development).  Over a very great period of time some have suggested that humans will evolve to creatures with very large heads for brains and one very large finger (to push buttons).  Of course it could go the other way if humans depend upon computer exclusively to do everything.  Man could well become enslaved to service computers, wherever they have an itch!  

Answer 2

yes we are still evolving not physically but mentally we are getting smarter and wiser.......

Answer 3

Evolution only occurs to populations (not individuals), and even then it takes many generations to produce a significant change.

Lets say that in Sweden that you have two villages.  Like the people in your example, village A has many people who are adapted to the cold, while village B has more people with a stronger tool-making ability.

In village A, they rely more on natural ability, so there is a selective pressure for fitness.  In other words, the stronger individuals will have a better chance of survival and would be more desirable.  As a result, the stronger people would have a higher chance of survival and a higher chance of reproducing.  This would lead to an increase in strength (fitness, speed, etc) throughout the whole population after several generations.

The situation in village B would be similar, but selecting for tool-making abilities rather than physical fitness.  As a result, the descendants of population B (many-times-great grandchildren) would have even better tool-making skills.

In this case, there is not only one type of fitness.  The people in the two villages have different methods of survival that work equally well.  If they never mixed or inter-bred, then the difference between the two would become more pronounced with each generation (possibly leading them to become two different species after a few hundred thousand years).

It's only in modern society that we've lost most of nature's selective pressures.  Technology is simple enough that anyone can use it, and survival doesn't depend nearly as much on individual fitness.  In other words, if I were physically weak and unintelligent, I'd still be able to find a job somewhere, and barring that, the government would take care of me (to a very limited extent, but just enough to survive).  If I became sick, modern medical technology would greatly boost my chances of survival.  

There are very few forces in the modern world that remove traits from the gene pool.  As a result, there's no natural 'error checking' force acting on humanity, which will lead to an eventual decline in humanity's physical fitness (many generations down the line).  It's an absence of natural selection, but certainly an example of evolution.  We'll evolve in the sense that we will lose traits that are not essential to our survival.

Our current position outside of natural selection is provided by our society, though.  If civilization collapsed (nuclear war, plague, collapse of the ecosystem), we would likely depend on traits such as fitness and cleverness to survive.  

Answer 4

What you are describing is acclimatisation and adaption. As Man A and Man B are only adapting to their environment but not changing their physiology. In order for humans to really evolve, their dna would have to change through mutation. And then those traits would then be passed on to future generations. I think Evolution never stops in any species. But for humans to evolve with any noticeable diffrences, it would take thousands if not millions of years!

Answer 5

of course evolution as a whole is and always will be in a constant state of flux. the fact that humans have evolved differently adapting to their diverse environments is only confirmation of this and when (not if) those environments change so humans will adapt accordingly, if of course they don't move with the environment

Answer 6

if you mean adaptation to the environment. humans could only evolve if they really need to living with it. we should change our  DNA to change our self physiologically. altering our dna by improving it will be called evolution but it will take many years who knows we could be extinct before we evolve.