Are us humans the end stage in our species lifespan? Or are we just another transition species to is destined to go extinct to then be replaced?

[Magnetar_Byte]

We can pier back in time to see what organisms were the transition species meaning they were destined to die off to then be replaced. So my question then what stage are we HomoSapiens at. Are we the end stage in one of many. Or are we a transition species that is destined to be replaced?

[Volbet]

No one species was destined for anything. If the Earth had a stable ecosystem, then no one species would evolve outside of their niche. There would be no reasons for predators to become larger or smaller and herbivores wouldn't have to adapt to different kinds of food.

The reason species (and branches of species) do die out, is because they fail to adapt to the changing ecosystem. Especially when those changes are accelerated by humankind.

 

There is an interesting discussion to have about whether or not human are a post-evolution beast, considering we can mold our environment to our liking, and therefore do not have to adapt. We create out own niche, so to say.

Although, it's naïve to think, if humans are indeed still evolving, that a new species would just replace us. It would be a gradual change and determining the transition from Homo Sapiens Sapiens to Homo Neo Sapiens will be difficult, considering the way humans carry out recording history.

[Crunchy Dragon]

8 minutes ago, Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

Of course we are not the last. There are robots coming.

And space lizards.

[Tech_Dreamer]

we keep evolving, if that's your question. we'd probably be extinct already if the whole dinosaur extinction hadn't have happened.  yet here we are by that stroke of luck.  i'd say unless there's another giant meteor from the unmapped corner of the space hitting us so hard it resets the earth to pure rubble, we keep evolving more in a controlled manner. due to abundant change in the way we have access to nutrition & survival by sheer numbers gain maybe we'll probably get taller & more agile on average to us comparatively in the future.

[captain_to_fire]

1 hour ago, Volbet said:

considering we can mold our environment to our liking, and therefore do not have to adapt. We create out own niche, so to say.

This reminds me of physicist Dr. Michio Kaku 

 

In a nutshell, 21st century Homo sapiens has taken evolution to their own hands. 

[Guest]

No definitely not. Anyone who thinks that Homo sapiens sapiens is the end of our evolution is a hick. 

Evolution takes hundreds of thousands of years, we are a relatively new species on this planet.

[Radioactive Snowman]

11 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

And space lizards.

We already have lizard people, they're in the white house

[lewdicrous]

It's pretty ignorant to think that we're the last ones of our order, primates.

Biological life tends to sway towards efficiency, not where we want it to go, so if conditions in the future are vastly different to how they are now, then there is a possibility of our future generations mutating in a way that forms a new species of humans.

[Crunchy Dragon]

5 hours ago, Radioactive Snowman said:

We already have lizard people, they're in the white house

Let's not go there.

Quote

• No trolling or flame-bait.
  • This includes topics such as AMD vs NVIDIA, "company X sucks", and political or religious debates.

 

[Radioactive Snowman]

41 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Let's not go there.

 

Sorry!

[redbread123]

20 hours ago, Magnetar_Byte said:

We can pier back in time to see what organisms were the transition species meaning they were destined to die off to then be replaced. So my question then what stage are we HomoSapiens at. Are we the end stage in one of many. Or are we a transition species that is destined to be replaced?

America will evolve ( if they don't all die) will evolve into boneless, gelatinous masses, where their mating grounds are fast food restaurants and the nyse. Most of eastern asia will ascend into a final stage of math, and will be able to solve everything with math, europe? eh they'll invent rain proof everything. africa will learn to digest dirt and sand instead of water, south america will evolve to digest oil and natural resources, australians will evolve into giant spider crabs and fight back the emus and kangaroos

[dalekphalm]

Humanity (Homo Sapiens) as we currently exist are 100% not the "end result" of our species. We will continue to evolve (assuming we don't become extinct) and over thousands and millions of years, if "we" (as in, the descendants of humanity) are still around, we will be biologically very different. And at that point, we won't be Homo Sapiens anymore.

 

There's also the possibility that Homo Sapiens could branch off into multiple different subspecies that could evolve along different paths (along the same lines as the various Homo families like Neanderthal vs Sapiens).

[SpaceGhostC2C]

19 hours ago, Volbet said:

No one species was destined for anything.

I second that. Extinction (and mutation into existence) aren't things "destined to happen", bur rather things that simply "happened".

 

19 hours ago, Volbet said:

 

If the Earth had a stable ecosystem, then no one species would evolve outside of their niche. There would be no reasons for predators to become larger or smaller and herbivores wouldn't have to adapt to different kinds of food.

The reason species (and branches of species) do die out, is because they fail to adapt to the changing ecosystem. Especially when those changes are accelerated by humankind.

That is at the very least debatable. AFAIK there isn't much in terms of evidence for a teleological view of evolution, as opposed to constant mutation that, ex-post, happens to be suitable or unsuitable for a given environment. New species (or rather new mutations, that only when accumulated with others lead to us eventually defining a separate species) may appear in an otherwise perfectly stable ecosystem (although those mutations themselves may bring about changes in the ecosystem), and they may very unsuited for the ecosystem they appeared in. In that case, said species will eventually go extinct, but the process may take many years, even enough for us to find fossils of this failed species down the road.

Now, I think there are biologists pushing for some neo-Lamarckian views on evolution, but again, AFAIK those don't hold more ground than the random mutation + natural selection view.

[amdorintel]

23 hours ago, Magnetar_Byte said:

We can pier back in time to see what organisms were the transition species meaning they were destined to die off to then be replaced. So my question then what stage are we HomoSapiens at. Are we the end stage in one of many. Or are we a transition species that is destined to be replaced?

its peer not pier

 

stage; who knows. judging by how humans are treating mother earth, who knows how long we will survive, but one thing is certain is that technology will save the day that is why space exploration is critical. 2 planet species is an actual accomplishment, but saving our own planet now can be done.

 

remember too that we are a species of transition, we human are evolving like any other species

 

 

[dalekphalm]

Another thing to consider is that not every species "dies off", yet still goes away.

 

Take the Neanderthal, for example. While large portions of them did indeed die off, the real kicker is that Neanderthal and early Homo Sapiens interbred - seemingly a lot. Pretty much all people of European descent have Neanderthal DNA. You're the byproduct of Neanderthal and Sapiens cross breeding. But, for example, those of African descent (that don't have European ancestors) don't have Neanderthal DNA.

[TetraSky]

Unless we go through a mass extinction event where everyone is caught off guard.... No, no we are not.

 

Climate change? Eh, fuck it we can live in giant bubble cities or something that protects us from the heat... Or find some other way to cause an everlasting winter, because it's easier to deal with the cold than it is with the heat.

Rising sea levels? Fuck your beach property, come inland, the new beach property.

Super volcano going off? Welp, climate change is fixed now for a while.

etc etc...

Overall, most people in developed countries will be fine if anything happens for a good long while now.

[YellowJersey]

Only time will tell. I'm not sure humanity will go extinct in the immediate future, but I think some kind of societal collapse or regression is definitely possible because of... well... *gestures vaguely at everything*

[harryk]

I think you'll be very interested in reading about the mildly misnamed Doomsday argument.

 

Essentially the conjecture is that based on some fundamental statistical distribution arguments we can estimate the total number of humans who will ever live to be about 1.2 trillion. Based on current population statistics this puts the end of the human race around the year 11000. Obviously this is a bold claim but it's wrapped up in some very interesting statistics. 

[The Torrent]

On 11/14/2019 at 7:54 PM, Magnetar_Byte said:

We can pier back in time to see what organisms were the transition species meaning they were destined to die off to then be replaced. So my question then what stage are we HomoSapiens at. Are we the end stage in one of many. Or are we a transition species that is destined to be replaced?

Or are we just part of a universe entirely that’s destined to be consumed by a black hole and be replaced?

[Bombastinator]

On 11/14/2019 at 1:54 PM, Magnetar_Byte said:

We can pier back in time to see what organisms were the transition species meaning they were destined to die off to then be replaced. So my question then what stage are we HomoSapiens at. Are we the end stage in one of many. Or are we a transition species that is destined to be replaced?

That’s a really complicated way of asking the chicken and egg question.

 

 

[Bombastinator]

On 11/14/2019 at 4:40 PM, Caroline said:

Oh, this post is like something a kid, probably a 7 yr old would ask, don't you think?

You mean like an innocent question Involving something actually quite complicated that you don’t really have an answer to so you wind up lying to them?

[Bombastinator]

9 hours ago, amdorintel said:

its peer not pier

 

stage; who knows. judging by how humans are treating mother earth, who knows how long we will survive, but one thing is certain is that technology will save the day that is why space exploration is critical. 2 planet species is an actual accomplishment, but saving our own planet now can be done.

 

remember too that we are a species of transition, we human are evolving like any other species

 

 

“Certain” and “will” are a bit more than I can muster at the moment.

I just watched a movie that sucked the hope right out of me.  I may feel better tomorrow.

 They are more or less all we got.  It must be tried even if it fails.  As an act of repentance if nothing else.

[jones177]

We are the endgame because we assimilated all the competition.

We are worse than cockroaches.

 

Fortunately the dinosaurs are still with us and will inherit the earth again.

 

[GGhi_REAL]

Not sure what we're taking about, but its about humans, so here is something i wanna say. PEOPLE ARE GETTING SHORTER. At my sisters middle school, my sister is in 8th grade, she said that the 6th graders only reach her waist. My sister is only 5 ft, so that concludes that people are getting SHORTER. 

PS(Plz come to my post, i need help with my pc)

[Bombastinator]

28 minutes ago, GGhi_REAL said:

Not sure what we're taking about, but its about humans, so here is something i wanna say. PEOPLE ARE GETTING SHORTER. At my sisters middle school, my sister is in 8th grade, she said that the 6th graders only reach her waist. My sister is only 5 ft, so that concludes that people are getting SHORTER. 

PS(Plz come to my post, i need help with my pc)

I don’t think it works that way.  What is wrong with your computer?