...Technological Evolution: Our Social World Evolving with Technology As our technology advances, are we are becoming more or less social? To what level does social and psychological factors are inflicted on an individual? Moreover I propose the consideration that technology may drive us, for lack of a better word, stupid. I scrutinize this inquiry to myself every time I see somebody using a social networking website (such as Facebook not to mention Twitter), or when somebody is ceaselessly texting their friends and/or family on their cellular phone. I will not lie, I use these services myself. Adhering to the availability to reach a friend who has moved to the opposite side of the country or talking to old high school friend very helpful. But I still reminisce… the old days when we would talk to our friends over the phone and send a letter via “snail mail.” Or when trying to find the answers to our inquiries by believing on memory, many of us now have the second nature to look up the explanation on Google or Wikipedia for immediate gratification to have that question answered. It is in depth that I ask myself if technology reforming our social interactions and astuteness for the better or worse. Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace: What do they all have in common? According to Danah Boyd and Nicole Ellison, the authors of an article in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication defines social networking websites “allow[s] individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile...
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...Yes, in my opinion us humans are still evolving. We will never stop evolving unless we humans stop mating or if something goes wrong on earth. Falling death rates and a decrease in family size in the western world since the start of the industrial revolution 250 years ago have not prevented Darwinian evolution from exerting its effect on the human gene pool, scientists said. We are still evolving even though modern housing and sanitation, medical science and rich and varied diet appear to have largely insulated much of the population from the life or death struggle of natural study has found. The researchers analyzed church records of births, marriages and deaths for ten thousand inhabitants of seven parishes in Finland since the beginning of the 18th century and concluded...
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...Understanding Evolution How our understanding of evolution has changed over time. Our scientific understanding has changed over time. • Early cultures explained the natural world through myth, ritual, and tradition. • Initial attempts at science included the establishment of a uniform calendar or efforts to curb disease through non-supernatural elements. • Simple observation and mathematical understanding (ie. Pythagoras) created concise reasoning on why things happened it wasn’t just about the whims of a god anymore. Early evolutionary thought… • Aristotle suggests a type of evolution, in that in all things there is a constant desire to move from the lower realms to the • Jean-Baptiste higher, from the ordinary to the divine. Lamarck proposed • Charles Darwin’s grandfather a theory of acquired Erasmus suggests we are all characteristics, that derived from a common would inherently be ancestor. He further suggests provided to the the use or disuse of parts of descendent as a our bodies contribute to their continued effort to selection in our descendants. adapt to the environment. Scientific discoveries helped to define Evolution. • Charles Darwin proposes “natural selection” in his theory of evolution by observation in the Galapagos Islands. • Darwin’s theory is further aided by molecular biology, which states that there are complex processes of change occuring at the cellular level - constantly changing - or evolving - an organism...
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...The scientific community accepts that modern humans were brought about by evolution. The evolution one usually considers when discussing the rise of modern humans is biological, or genetic, evolution. Cultural evolution, however, has been equally as important. The objective of this paper is to look broadly at the biological and cultural evolutionary trends that have led humans to modern times. This essay will show that the manipulation of our environment for our benefit, and usually its detriment, is evolutionary. The human story begins when the common ancestor we share with chimps stood up. While chimps and gorillas may also stand on two feet, they spend most of their time of all four (Diamond 1992). The remains of our ancestor, which...
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...Do we value human life? is the continuation of life important or the establishment of our thoughts on every one more important? This is a question any sane mind is probably asking themselves and are struggling to find solutions to the RELIGION/CULTURE wars that are being fought. Do you think if we can find the problem, the root problem in terms of behavioral patterns and evolution is found, we can some how move on to the next conflict? i think so.......for me human's with their ability to think also have the need to be in control and to be the cause of having more. For eg. lets look at animals... across all species the one most common thing that drives them is the need to create, to be able to pass on their genes and knowledge.............to be immortal and this has not changed except that it is now showing up in different ways like power, control and ego . if at the biological level if we are similar to animals/any living thing then why should this fundamental need be any different. Our culture over the past thousands of years has been evolving at a faster pace than our evolution as a species. As a species we still want to follow our distinct behavioral patterns as against the cultural growth that we have designed and implemented. when there is friction between cultures then the culture which is already at war with the behavioral patterns of the species is weakened further, thus leading to conflict at a level where the loss of life is not considered as a...
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...Biology Essays 1. The human population reached a new milestone on Oct 31, 2011. How does this impact evolution? Include climate change as one aspect of your response. (Think about Darwin's observations which led him to Natural Selection.) -The first sentence of this question refers to our human population reaching to about 7 billion people. To my knowledge the earth can hold that many people, but on the other hand, if our human population keeps growing, I think that then nature will select (according to Darwin’s observations) due to over-reproduction and our resources being limited. When natural selection comes along there will be a lot of competition, suffering and death so that there can be room for our upcoming population. Climate change can impact the evolution in many ways because of weather intensity such as; droughts, flooding, harsh snow, heat waves and emerging disease that can occur throughout the change which can decrease our human population (death). 3. Explain which parts of evolution are random and which are not random. -According to my notes, evolution is a process, but not a random process. It’s certain things that makes it random. Natural selection is one of those things to make parts of it random. Evolution is determined by ancestors, traits inherited and also what genes are passed. 4. Explain why pseudo genes accumulate mutations more regularly than functional genes. (Include natural selection in your response.) -Pseudogenes accumulating mutations is basically...
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...Today, the number of healthcare seeking, food, proper shelter, hygiene and the number of hazards that we experience daily have dramatically changed for better. Scientifically, these hazards were meant to put us through pressure. This pressure helps us to adapt in order to survive the environment we are in our daily lives and reproduce offspring. This is called natural selection, which is now considered as the main process that brings about evolution. Now, the real question is, are the natural selection process still existing today and are we still evolving into another species? First of all, humans did not evolve from monkeys. Humans share a common ancestor with modern African apes (similar gorillas and chimpanzees). Scientists believe that this human related ancestor existed 5 to 8 million years ago. There after, these ancestor species were separated into two separate ancestries. One of these ancestries evolved into gorillas and chimpanzees and the other evolved into early human ancestors called Hominids. In other words, these common ancestors that separated over time, formed a number of distinctive species of hominid. Only one of the hominid species survived to become modern humans that we are today. Natural selection led the surviving species (hominids) into evolutionary change. The surviving species had certain characteristics to have greater survival than other species in a population and pass these transferrable genetic characteristic to their off spring. The rest of...
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...Phyletic gradualism and punctuated equilibria are really two different modes where evolution can take place. Punctuated equilibria, many different kinds of species can differentiate very quickly resulting evolving to a new environment. Once species are established they vary very little over time. An older theory is phyletic gradualism; this has been actually discarded in biology. This is a steady and slow rate of change in population over time. The differences between the two are the rate of evolution. Phyletic gradualism is very slaw and is constant for species. In punctuated equilibrium the rate is very fast and is related to geologically side of things. In my opinion, the differences lay in the definitions of the species and of course the theories behind punctuated equilibrium and phyletic gradualism. Many expert and researchers have annotated that punctuated equilibrium implies a prediction about patterns of genetic differences among many species. It predicts that many evolutionary changes takes place in a short span of time and is tied to speciation events.” Punctuated equilibrium predicts that the fossil record at any one site is unlikely to record the process of speciation. If a site records that the ancestral species lived there, the new species would probably be evolving somewhere else. The small size of the isolated population which is evolving into a new species reduces the odds that any of its members will be fossilized. The new species will only leave...
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...Creationism vs. Evolution It is an interesting phenomenon to me when I think of how public schools are mandated to teach evolution in their classrooms and not creationism. It not only seems discriminatory to one view of thinking but when compared scientifically, the theory of creation seems to offer far more logic than its counterpart. Here are some of the basic views for each category: Evolution • Life forms came about from a big bang • Creatures are ever evolving beings • Man evolved from an ape Creationism • A higher being, (God) created all life forms • Mankind was made in the image of God • God sustains all life forms. From the time I was in kindergarten I have always heard compelling arguments about the pros and cons of each belief but it was not until I took a class in Human Anatomy and Physiology, (A&P) that I was truly able to confirm that we are complex creatures made and sustained by a higher being. When one considers how organs work in perfect harmony with each other, maintaining a state of equilibrium, it is mind boggling. I will attempt to portray why I believe the theory of Creationism makes more sense than the theory of Evolution. One of the many studies I embraced in my A&P class was the contraction of a muscle. Sounds like a simple, non-complex activity right? That is until you find out what actions have to take place in order for a contraction to take place. The first activity that has to take place in order for a muscle to contract...
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...Name: Hithesh Kunnel Shaji Student number: 15317833 __________________________________________________________________________________ Plant-animal co-evolution What is coevolution? Coevolution can be defined as evolution in two or more evolutionary entities brought about by mutual selective effect between the entities. This means the trait in specie one can affect the evolutionary pathway of specie two which in turn affect the evolutionary pathway of specie one. Coevolution interaction can be positive, neutral or negative. There are various examples that support coevolution. Examples: Plant pollinators, Batesian mimicry and predation. Positive interaction is when both parties benefit from coevolution. One interesting example of positive...
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...Evolution and Australian Species Evolution can be described as process of organisms developing from there earlier forms of life of life. Evolution firstly became an idea from a group of ancient Greek thinkers. But when trying to introduce these ideas to the residents of Europe, they believed this must be false, as they already believed in the interpretation of the bible. This idea of evolution only began to rise again when Jean-Baptiste Lamarck the French naturalist came up with a theory how organisms evolved, he believed that they evolved through their efforts to the response of the demand of their environment “Australia is home to many interesting phenomena, amongst them its weird and wonderful wildlife. 86% of plants, 84% of mammals and...
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...Logan Evans Theory of Evolution Throughout the years many scientists have contributed to the theory of evolution. Scientists like Linnaeus, Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck have all put their research together to each form their version of evolution. Not all of the scientists were considered to be correct, but all of their ideas led to the theory of evolution, which we still follow today. In the mid 18th century a biologist named Carolus Linnaeus formed his theory about evolution. Linnaeus wrote about 180 books about nature, the books were considered accurate and very descriptive. At first, Linnaeus thought that he was just “revealing the unchanging order of life created by god”. Later on he became troubled by the fact that hybrid plants could cross-pollinate, because of...
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...Introduction This chapter describes our work in evolution of buildable designs using miniature plastic bricks as modular components. Lego 1 bricks are well known for their flexibility when it comes to creating low cost, handy designs of vehicles and structures. Their simple modular concept make toy bricks a good ground for doing evolution of computer simulated structures which can be built and deployed. Instead of incorporating an expert system of engineering knowledge into the program, which would result in more familiar structures, we combined an evolutionary algorithm with a model of the physical reality and a purely utilitarian fitness function, providing measures of feasibility and functionality. Our algorithms integrate a model of the physical properties of Lego structures with an evolutionary process that freely combines bricks of different shape and size into structures that are evaluated by how well they perform a desired function. The evolutionary process runs in an environment that has not been unnecessarily constrained by our own preconceptions on how to solve the problem. The results are encouraging. The evolved structures have a surprisingly alien look: they are not based in common knowledge on how to build with brick toys; instead, the computer found ways of its own through the evolutionary search process. We were able to assemble the final designs manually and confirm that they accomplish the objectives introduced with our fitness functions. This chapter...
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...Evolution Big Idea Project Chris Berg There are many people that are not fully informed about the concept of evolution. Because of this, they are unable to make scientific and logical connections between us humans and how we evolved from the world around us. There are a broad number of misconceptions that people have, but I decided to focus on 3 major ones: 1. Evolution is goal oriented. Many non-evolutionists say that if evolution existed, there would be some endpoint or “goal” that is reached. In other words, species are trying to become perfect. However, that is not the case. Every species is only adapting and evolving to fit their current needs and to thrive. They change because of environment, available nutrients, to stay better protected, and many other factors. Evolution works by the process of natural selection. Individuals with an advantage compared with others will survive better and leave more offspring. Only features which help current survival will be favored by natural selection. It cannot select features which might be useful in the future but are not useful now. The only competition between species is whether or not they reproduce; it has nothing to do with reaching any endpoint or goal. If evolution was truly goal oriented, everything would start evolving to look like each other because they are trying to become that one perfect species. Judging by the enormous diversity of life on earth, I think it’s safe to say that there is no change in that direction...
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...As Bernard Rosenberg once said, “Man is a biodegradable but nonrecyclable animal blessed with opposable thumbs capable of grasping at straws.” (Bernard Rosenberg. p. 96) Human Nature consists of an evolving body and an immaterial mind that has an essence which is the result of a highly complex brain; Both the body and mind die, however, while living, they make their own choices and create their own outcomes because of their immaterial mind; The memory and body are what makes a person who they are and without either of them, the same person does not exist; We make our own choices but without others, we would be unable to define ourselves. The Dualist view of human nature is similar to these ideas. Dualism is the “view that human beings are immaterial minds within material bodies.” (Velasquez. p. 105) The man that ran this show was René Descartes (1596-1650). He claimed that if we can conceive of one thing without the other, than they are not the same thing. He used this notion to state that the self and the body are different. From this, it can be reasoned that there is a soul, which endures. Human nature accepts the idea of an immaterial mind and a material body because of the fact that they can be viewed as separate things. In the words of Descartes, body is: …all that which can be defined by a specific shape: something which can be confined in a certain place, and which can fill a given space in such a way that every other body will be excluded from it; which can be perceived...
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