Is evolution still working on Earth? I do not see why not but it is important to remember that the process of evolution through natural selection is very slow and it takes thousands of years for the results to be clearly visible and on a large scale.
It is a fact that the natural evolution of human beings is affected by our interference through the technology we develop and the way we affect the environment. In an ancient society, those with genetic problems were mostly rejected and they would not be able to reproduce and have their genetic material survive. According to Plutarch, Spartans in ancient Greece inspected newborn children and discarded those who were deemed weak, or identified as having a disability (although no archaeological proof has been found to support this). But today our world is much different and people with genetic defects are not rejected but they manage to live longer and have children because of medical advances and a change of people’s views on the subject. Together with the extension of life by medicine and the treatment of previously lethal diseases, the rule of “survival of the fittest”, which is the basis of natural selection, no longer applies to the same extend as in the past. However, in cases such as the recent COVID-19 epidemic and the refusal of some people to get vaccinated due to their belief in conspiracy or religious theories may actually serve the process of nature’s survival of the fittest by killing off the idiots.
But nature may have other ways of evolving lifeforms and in directions we are not currently aware of.
Can we see the effect of the evolutionary process on the human brain? Some scientists claim that we do observe this and an example could be people with autism. There is indeed a large variety of people with autism and they exhibit a wide range of behavioural patterns. It is simply impossible to refer to autism as a specific genetic problem and we can only describe it as a wiring of parts of the human brain in a manner that is different to what we define as normal. Different wiring can result in all kinds of behaviour which is why there is such a large variety among people diagnosed with autism. It seems to me that this could be Nature’s attempt to try out alternative brain configurations. In the future, it is possible, that one of these mutations will result in a brain with some remarkable abilities that constitute an important and significant move towards a different species or an upgrade of the human species. This should not be considered as surprising because it is exactly what has happened in the past and this process led to our human species as the most intelligent animal on the planet. It is therefore quite logical to assume that evolution continues its hard work of improving biology and it is moving towards the development of a new and more capable species, at least in terms of intelligence.
We can imagine that a different wiring of the human brain will bring about the ability of human beings to communicate with each other by telepathy, i.e. the exchange of electromagnetic waves carrying information in a manner similar to mobile phones, as an alternative to the exchange of sound waves which we currently utilise. Human beings are the only species capable of talking to each other using a high level and abstract language and therefore we can assume that telepathy could be the next evolutionary step because it will be able to utilise a wider spectrum and carry richer content such as images and emotions in higher fidelity than speech. We can imagine brains with the ability to perform complex mathematical computations with little effort and in fact there are currently people with such abilities. Savant syndrome is a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills that savants excel at are generally related to memory, rapid calculation, artistic ability, map making, or musical ability but usually, only one exceptional skill is present. About half of these cases are associated with autism, and these individuals may be known as “autistic savants”. Could it be that these are Nature’s experiments for the further evolution of the human brain?
These thoughts remind me of the classic book Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, one of my favourite books from a true Science Fiction master, visionary, author and scientist.
The book describes a sudden transition of the human race to something entirely different, extremely complicated and powerful. It starts with a new generation of children with unique abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis and the ability to travel in the vastness of space using their minds (also known as astral projection). The book starts with the arrival of a fleet of extraterrestrial vehicles inhabited by a species, the people call the Overlords, who hold the Earth under control, give an end to wars and in a way they guide humanity towards a new era, a better civilisation with a higher quality of life for everyone, a Utopia. However, they force an end to space travel and exploration and they provide little or no information about their own species and the reasons behind their actions. Some people welcome them as humanity’s saviours and others fight against them because they see them as dictators operating in secrecy and without revealing their true purpose. At some point the two stories merge and the reader learns that the true reason the Overlords came to Earth was to prepare Humanity for its next big evolutionary step, a step which very few races in the Universe are capable of achieving. The Overlords themselves are unable to cross this evolutionary boundary so they can only visit those solar systems were intelligent life has flourished and it is about to transition in order to help prepare for the event. And as the previous humanoid species did not survive the emergence of homo sapiens, Earth’s people cannot survive the new race of children being unable to procreate and give birth to human children any more.
It is an amazing and deeply philosophical book which may prove to be prophetic. It is quite possible that one day our species will have to share the planet with another younger and more capable species, the result of the evolutionary process. What is going to happen then? Are we all going to live together in peace? Are we going to live in separate and fight wars for world domination? Are they going to leave the planet like the children in Childhood’s End? Whatever the case happens to be, we have to realise the fact that one day in the future our species will eventually die and disappear, like some many other in the past, giving its place to a new one.
Parents die and the children live on. This is the way Nature works.
Prometheus Unbound 