Has humanity reached a point where natural selection fails to serve as an effective evolutionary mechanism?
Natural selection is generally known as "survival of the fittest". Only the strongest and smartest are supposed to survive and produce offspring. I realize that's not a complete description, but it's close enough for the purposes of this question.
Have we as a society reduced "natural selection" by saving and helping those who need it the most? Think about welfare, medicine, and other services available to those in our society who are NOT among the strongest and smartest, and which did not exist for the vast majority of human history.
We have procedures to correct birth defects in children who would not have survived infancy hundreds of years ago. We have programs to support children of impoverished parents who also would not have survived infancy hundreds of years ago.
I am in no way speaking ill of such services and advancements. But I wonder if, by helping those who desperately need it, are we artificially undoing the natural forces which drive human evolution?
Yes, natural selection still exists in humans but people on this page are forgetting a lot about Nature and its selection processes.
First, natural selection is just that, created by the influences of Nature. You forget that humans are a part (but only a part) of nature so social selection is a valid influence on our population that is occurring now—people with "attractive" bodies, money or status (only one has very much to do with genes) attract more mates. However, it would be stupid to think that we have eliminated all the other influences of Nature or that we know what Nature wants in our species (Our bodies are owned by Nature not the other way around).
The second thing you need to consider is that selection is not always a constant pressure it also manifests as long periods of little pressure interrupted by huge pressure regimes over a short period of time. This means that although we have relatively little pressure now if something changes in our environment we could be facing fierce pressure creating a rapid change in the human gene pool (or extinction) in a very short period of time.
A third part is that "fitness" does not directly equate to smartest or strongest it means those that are best suited for an available niche in a given environment which Nature—not just humans—chooses. Large brains and bodies require more nutrition. If our population continues to rise it is likely that the resulting famine would create niches were only smaller bodies, and perhaps smaller brains, that require less nourishment would be able to survive. This small stature happens to people and animals that live on islands with limited resources. It is also the reason we suspect flies with larger brains do not fare as well their peers that have normal sized fly brains.
So in conclusion, Yes, natural selection is still working on us and it is arrogant to think that we have stopped it and just as arrogant to think that we as humans know what we SHOULD be like as a species—as if we had the mind of the collective known as Nature.
PS. To the homophobes answering this question: If homosexuality was a result of genetics don't you figure they would already be gone. Dang, I guess it's something else and they are always going to be around. Grow up and Get over it.
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