How does evolution know when to stop?

Question

I would like to have eternal life and not have to die. Seems evolution has stopped short of that. Will scientist eventually advance to their understanding of evolution to scientifically direct evolution or trick it into thinking we need to live forever?

Answer 1

Eevolution is a process, not a living being, therfor evolution doesn't have a brain.

Answer 2

Evidently Evolution will never cease. But this really does get you thinking....great question!!

Answer 3

Evolution would stop if a species was perfectly adapted to its environment. (ADDED: since environments are always changing, at least slightly, evolution is always occurring, albeit very slowly in some cases - like sharks, sea turtles, crocodiles, etc). The driver for evolution is hardship; those changes in the environment that result in mass death cause those few that survive to pass along the traits that allowed them to survive.

In the case of human evolution, the life span has been increased slightly as compared to other primates by the changes that made us human, i.e. a larger brain, erect posture, and a longer childhood to raise children to use their brain in a manner that allows them to survive on their own. This occurred in Africa, when extensive climate change required Man to adapt or die. He adapted by dying out unless he had a larger brain and the extended family child rearing to allow him to survive. Those that did not adapt died.

However, having achieved that longer childhood, modern Man still died out regularly by the age of 40 or so up until the last century. Increases in life span beyond that were not evolutionary in nature, but technological. Improvements in health care, diet, and general social skills (except in places like Afghanistan) have nearly doubled our life expectancy since the Middle Ages.

There is no current survival crisis within our environment that would favor a longer life span. It would not result in significant increases in the number of births, nor in the survival of children that were to be born (ADDED: to an age that would allow for another generation to occur). So evolution does not favor a longer life span. You may want one, but evolution is not driven by individual desires. It is driven by hardship, death, and survival of the fittest.

Answer 4

its adaption. evolution is adaption. say if they planet goes into a ice age. the animals to adapt survive.

and there is no gene for death. the only reason we die is because our cells can't replace themselves as good as they used to. aka getting old. and we die.

this is coming from me. but the bible is a buch of sh*t. ive already read it.

oh and i think the oldest person was like 122 years old if not i know it was above 119

Answer 5

WOW no such thing look into the bible...read it 14 times or 13 what ever number u like better

Answer 6

No, while science may move to greatly increase our live's, I believe that at some point, the Brain will eventually just shut down.

Answer 7

Evolution never stops.  Genetic change occurs to help adapt individual species to their environment.  as the environment changes the species evolve to better adapt.  It is the survival of the fittest to the nth degree.

Answer 8

Why would you want to live forever?  

Answer 9

Evolution will always evolve, all the way around.  As our bodies get stronger, the things that kill us get stronger as well.  Everything dies.

Answer 10

Somebody said once:"When I was young, I had fear to die, now, when I am old, and too tired to change myself anymore, I have fear to leave forever!".... I joke. Bible also say, that we have eternal life in our hard. WE HAVE TO OPEN IT ,to reach eternity.

Answer 11

Evolution doesn't know anything, and it never stops, ever. Humans are already directing our evolution in a haphazard way, by curing diseases that once would have killed us. Eternal physical life will be within our capability sooner than most people think.

Answer 12

Evolution is not just a thing.... its a process.. a process can not stop itself.   Nothing can stop evolution.  its synonymous with change.   The world and its inhabitants will always be changing.  

Answer 13

Evolution doesn't work that way.

Answer 14

what?

this is ridiculous

Answer 15

God will just say, "Cut!"

Answer 16

It doesn't, we're still evolving.  The time scales are too long for someone to notice a significant change within one lifetime though.

For 99% of human history, the average lifespan was less than 30 years old.  Now it's 70 something, and constantly growing.  I personally believe that in the next hundred years we will have virtually eliminated 'dying of old age' so all that's left is disease, fighting, and accidents.

Whether that's a good thing or not can be debated though.  We're already overpopulated...

Answer 17

Evolution is no longer a factor in human destiny; science is.  1000's of scientists around the world are working, and making progress, in understanding physical aging.  Once understood, it will be reversed.  Even that shining achievement will be fleeting as humanity leaves the flesh and merges with ultra advanced computers into a existence no longer based in the "real" world.  By the year 2100 humanity will disappear from the earth and the earth will be given back to the animals.  

Answer 18

Evolution is a continuous process of gradual change in living organism by generations.

An individuals life is not evolution but your genes which determine your body are a product of evolution.

Evolution will never stop unless all forms of life are extinct.

But you can compare evolution to an individual life as

You begin as an embryo to baby to toddler to child to adolescent to adult to elderly. Its continuous and gradual. Can you see yourself growing up?

Same as evolution its non stop, gradual, and you can not see it happening but the difference between an individuals life and evolutuion is that evolution goes through generations and not a humans life in years

Answer 19

If we live forever there will be a new problem.  The problem will be over population of the world and therefore no new births would be allowed.  This would in turn create a childless world.  If a person were to die from a horrific accident - lost head -than they would have to have some way of making them come back or the population again would die off from no new births.  The lack of no children would create a world without elementary, middle or high schools.  College would also be less since less people would be needing it after awhile.  Amusement parks and playgrounds would be lost since the majority of the money is for children.  Arcades would be a thing of the past since these also count on children to survive.  In reality there is no way that mankind can exist without death.  If we overpopulate the earth we will die from starvation.  So in fact death has it's advantages.  God truly did know what he was doing.  If only certain people had the opportunity to live forever they would have to go through life watching their loved ones die and eventually they would feel like outcasts since all their close family would be gone and the only relatives they would have would be distant such as your great great great great grand-daughter that would see you as a stranger.

Answer 20

That would take millions of years of eugenics and changing the environment before we can finally accomplish that. But if you can't wait for that long, you mind as well stick with Genetic Engineering. With this, we can eliminate evolution all together and choose our own path. We can change everything about humanity and even accomplish immortality!

Answer 21

I have heard some people talk about genetic engineering like it is the new evolution or something, well the truth is genetic engineering & evolution can happen side by side, there is a bunch of scientists working on a contest called "Methuselah Mouse Prize" and their goal is to enhance the human life span and reduce the effects of the ageing process, now genetics isn't a replacement for evolution those people who have there life spans enhanced through genetics could evolve into a totally different species as we are.

Answer 22

Evolution does not have consciousness. Its just something that happens. Now and then a creature has a random genetic mutation resulting in a change. This change could be growing more hair or fur. The genetic mutation might end up helping the creature to survive. Perhaps the extra hair, or fur, does better to protect against the suns cancer causing rays. So, if more creatures who have a mutation are able to survive, and create off sping, than than this new mutation (more hair) can become a regular feature in the species. That's evoluation. Its not purposeful, its just happens over periods of hundreds of years, not thirty years. Scientists are not in the business of trying to direct evoluation.

Scientist may find cures for some degenerative diseases such as Parkinsons and Alheimers, in your lifetime. Stem cell research will see to this. I think the best you can hope for, as far as living forever, is to have yourself frozen at death in hopes that science can help you many years in the future.

  

Answer 23

i believe I might have your answer..

Evolution is a process that has been happening for billions and millions of years. It will never cease.. and is infinite. Evolution is not a "thing" that would know when to stop.

As for eternal life, scientists are currently and always trying and experimenting to find it... however science seems to prove it wrong. Eternal life has to do with the telomeres in our cells... apparently they "run" out as we age. By the time we are elderly, there will be very few telomeres in our cells and this is one of many reasons why we die. There is no way to "trick" evolution to letting us have eternal life... it simply CANNOT happen and will not happen. Even if evolution HAS taken the path for immortal existance, it still could not possibly happen because no one in the world has the adaptation for eternal life.  

Answer 24

Evolution is the selection of genes by killing off sections of a population. The weak, or tired, or old, or stupid, or curious, or whatever die, and the gene pool has thus changed for future generations. Genetic variation happens in every human generation.

You might not want to die now, but if you COULDN'T die, then eventually you would go insane.

It would be nicer to live longer, perhaps, if you were also living healthier. And perhaps if you live a healthier lifestyle you will live longer than the average human. And maybe not.

There are things that science could conceivably do to extend the human lifespan. If you were traveling to another star, for example, it might be useful to live for longer. You'd be more likely to see your destination.

Take care of yourself, eat properly, avoid as many chemical products as possible, and get enough sleep.

The Bible also states that Adam and Noah and so on and so forth lived for HUNDREDS of years. So why should we settle for anything less?

Answer 25

Should we not first learn how to stop killing & hating each other for our inherited differences, then our preferences and get over our issues of race, age, size, gender, non-gender, sexual preferences and killing each other because we love a god who we claim instructs us to kill and judge . . . even if we manage to evolve to eternal life biologically we still would destroy each other right?  And don't get me started on the environment ... geesh somebody stop me ......

Answer 26

Evolution does not stop.  There is no "ultimately evolved" anything.  Everything evolving life form has always undergone change, and always will.  Every life form is evolutionarily adapted to survive in the current world.  

As far as eternal life goes, I'm not sure this is possible, seeing how one of the definitions of life is "it has to die."

One could also argue that life already has evolved to the point where it will last forever, (or until "unlivable" conditions arise, anyway) due to the nature of DNA's incessant will to duplicate.  For all live forms to create another generation.  Perhaps that's why so many animals have such a high s*x drive, having offspring is the closest thing you can have to immortality.  Well, I suppose natural selection would have eliminated the "zero s*x drive" species (or members of a species) within one simple generation...

Answer 27

Evolution does not stop and it cannot be tricked as it is a natural process, no different from salt dissolving in water.  You cannot trick that.  Most large mammals live at least a couple of decades.  Very small mammals only live one to a few years and produce dozens of offspring, larger mammals have fewer offspring in general but put more effort into raising them.  Both of these are valid solutions to the question of reproduction.

  

Answer 28

honestly evolution is an accidental process which you would have a h**l of a time controlling. you would have to control who breeds with who for multiple generations. don't know about you but does not sound too fun for me. the likely hood of you ever living forever is low. though you may bet another 20 good years, amazing eyesight and a tail out of it, so not all bad.

by the way why is this in astronomy & space? isn't this a Bio question?

Answer 29

If we tricked evolution to allow us to live forever that would stop human evolution all together. The reason evolution works is because the best and most likly to flurish in a single generation has the best chance of passing on its geens. Over many generations nature de sides what works and what doesn't so it would be a shame to stop our evolution now! But cool to think about!

Answer 30

The movie "Death becomes her" comes to mind. Two women get immortality but discover it's not all it's cracked up to be. Then they can't ever escape.

In theory science and medicine will be able to prolong someone's life for a long time. Say it's millions of years. However there's a saying about "Those that wish for eternal life, get bored and don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon."

Evolution won't stop. Were someone to have eternal life, and avoid accidents, disease and terminal boredom, then they might well end up the ultimate outsider. A new species of human would evolve and the person would reviewed as we now see the Neanderthal. Hairy, brutish, and not someone nice to be around.

Answer 31

I think you misunderstand the process. To evolve isn't simply to become better, by your or any other arbitrary definition. Creatures evolve to better survive in their current environment. Reproduction is a key component of the evolutionary process; it could be argued that it is THE key. Since evolution by its very nature selects for healthy, reproductively sound offspring (because no passing down of genetic material would occur otherwise) an infinite lifespan is not a trait that provides any advantage.

So it will never happen, at least not through natural selection.