Re: Future of Man: the Speciation Process

From: Fabrizio J. Bonsignore (fbonsignore_at_beethoven.com)
Date: 10/01/04 

Date: 30 Sep 2004 20:01:23 -0700

zerge@hotmail.com (zerge) wrote in message news:<f0a1621c.0409201117.5a8dc4ba@posting.google.com>...
> fbonsignore@beethoven.com (Fabrizio J. Bonsignore) wrote in message news:<768f7623.0409142034.7fe8e8b1@posting.google.com>...
> > That Evolution is stopped in relation to Reason doesn`t mean that the
> > basic definition of the human species is not changing, only that this
(snip)
> In this modern age migration between countries is enormous in
> comparison, so the chances of speciation, in my opinion, seem pretty
> slim.

There are very effective barriers to migration: countries and
language, and they may become harder to penetrate, less porous, the
ore humans inhabit the planet.

> The only possibility of speciation for humans is in the distant
> future, if human groups colonize other planets and stay isolated from
> each other for millenia. But my intuition tells me that for speciation
> to occur, it requires a LOOOONG time of isolation.

Maybe even millenia is a short span for the speciation process to take
place, but then the species did develop races. It took less than a
million years, it seems, and countries developed physical
characteristics in a short span of time, some hundred years, though
modern transportation will change those ethnic characteristics as it
effectively puts in touch populations that were previously isolated. I
don`t know how long it takes for a species to diverge; I guess time
will vary from family to family, but nothing precludes the possibility
of change being very swift, like a recessive or hidden mutatio
spreading throughout a population confined by the barriers of a
national State. Even if speciation as such doesn`t occur, other
changes might do. Think for instance very tall and very small
populations. I am speculating, but very small women may have trouble
delivering the children of very tall people (?). In such case both
populations would act as different species if offspring tends to be
non viable. We might even speak of `virtual human species`, even
within a race, if for any reason, (historical, cultural), those
populations don`t `mix`. The criteria is leaving offspring. Infant
killing, if widespread and sanctioned by a culture may have the same
effect as impossibility to reproduce, though in our modern age such
phenomenon would be very unlikely...

Relevant Pages

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