Do you feel that our minds and ourselves are devolving?

Question

Do you feel that our minds and ourselves are devolving?

Answer 1

I don't know about that, because science and mathematics are still expanding.

But I don't doubt that society is devolving.  The family is falling apart and there is a huge decline in traditional 'family' values.  

I'm afraid that America's time as a world power may be drawing to a close, just like what's happened in Europe.

Answer 2

I know mine is...but I'm fighting it. Why do you think I'm on here so much?? I think that with all the kids who can do so much on the computer and with technology that they are progressing..or evolving ...from what kids used to be like. I taught school and I don't remember having many students who could do what even primary students can do these days. I taught mostly 5th grade. I'm amazed at how much they know. I guess the ones my age are being "erased".

Edit..I'm not really sure that the technology thing is a good thing.

Answer 3

I don't think our minds our, but perhaps our consciousness' and our compassions are.

Answer 4

Yes and no. With tv shows like dancing with the stars and american idol I wonder what direction our species is taking. But humanity as a whole is evolving to evolve even faster. With new sciences on the horizon in the not so distant future things like gene therapy and genetic tailoring could significantly alter humanity. Possibly even create the next split in our evolutionairy gene pool where you have at least to new human sub-divisions - "uber menche" or homo superior and the remnants of the old world who choose to live their simple lives in tribal settings or otherwise not evolve with everybody else.

In the short term I do think that, at least in America, we are devolving morally (our youth that is). I don't think any one set of morals is perfect and it is a slippery slope as far as the law is concerned, but no morals at all is never a good thing. Our country is getting more selfish, egocentric, demanding from the world things we have not earned. We're becomming spoiled essentially. And if we look to history for any sort of aid we can see with the Greeks and Romans that moral decay contributed to the decline of their civilizations.

Even if the US, for whatever reason falls as the worlds last super power I don't think that will necessarily affect the whole species on an evolutionairy level. New technologies will continue to advance. People will have more and more access to information. People themselves will become not only genetically superior, but perhaps artificially as well. The future of mankind may be that of cyborgs or even digital entities with no corporeal form.

But the whole of the race is still evolving. Maybe its not a matter of evolving or devolving, but rather the direction in which we evolve - for better or worse.

Answer 5

I believe in microdevolution but not macrodevolution.

Just kidding.  When there are as many people as there are dying not from starvation, but from ailments brought on by overeating, it's clear we aren't struggling for survival as much as we were when we evolved.

Answer 6

No, I think our minds are being stimulated more than ever to grow. But I do have to wonder what the benefits of modern society are having on the gene pool in other ways. For example, nearsightedness is virtually absent in hunter-gatherer societies, where good vision is a necessity there for survival, thriving, attracting a mate with similar healthy qualities, etc.  But here in the modern world, you live in a grocery-store society and you get glasses or contacts or lasik surgery, and so bad vision is not weeded out of the gene pool. It becomes commonplace. I wonder what other negative aspects of human health are thriving because environmental pressures on them have been eliminated.

Answer 7

Probably not. As a species, humans are very efficient at adapting to environmental conditions, including the social environment. So if the environment shapes us into fat, stupid people, which seems to be the case, then that's our best adaptation to existing conditions. The likelihood that friendly aliens or benevolent deities are coming to save us from ourselves is exceedingly small, so I see no reason why we couldn't make ourselves extinct by adapting to increasingly inhospitable conditions.  

That's not a very optimistic position, but from a larger perspective, another species on Earth is very likely to become dominant given enough time, and life will go on. Just not with us at the top of the food chain.

Answer 8

Yes.  It's just a wretched feeling that I have.  Entropy in my soul.

Answer 9

There is no such thing as devolving.  Evolution does not have a goal. All change is evolution.

Answer 10

Lovely, lovely science fiction story - I had it for years, before my magazine collection was destroyed.  Maybe in FSF, maybe Analog, or ?  Some guy was revived a century or 2 or 20 down the road and average IQ was 80...  No, that's not the one.  This one was Analog, I think - a researcher from India was called in to consult on a worldwide epidemic of birth defects - too many people, babies were being born without souls, not enough to go around...

Are we devolving?  Umm.  If we keep up our wicked, wicked ways, nothing will be living around here for very long...  Other life on the planet might have a better chance to survive without us... Those Mad Max movies look too real...

Answer 11

De-evolving would be the result of de-adaptation of the species.  Evolving involves the whole, whereas adaptation is of the part.  We are in the process of de-adaptation, for instance, the southeasten practice of gall-bladder removal, or the process of removing one kidney, etc.  Soon, that will add up to people being born without the mentioned organ or a whole new organ where there was none.