Next evolutionary step?

[Lallapalalable]

Is it at all possible that the next phase in evolution would be, very loosely speaking, the conglomeration of all of what we call life on earth into a planetwide organism? Elaborating, that each individual animal, plant, fungi etc play a small but redundant role within their species, much like cells in living organisms. It would be a similar leap as from single celled to multicelluar organisms. Considering individual cells of an organism arent "aware" of their place in or the scope of the whole being, Im not sure we, or later iterations similar to us, would be much aware either. Essentially, Earth becomes a single being comprised of "cells", some more dominant and influential than others, just as in other beings.

Oh, and I dont write with much flow, so if thats not clear just look at it as a list of ideas. Also, Im not saying "This is how it will happen", but asking if its likely or even possible, and what you think about the idea.

 

[Duvelthehobbit666]

I would first say that it is impossible to be able to make long term predictions on how species might evolve. Second, I think such things are very unlikely. There is a certain limit to which organisms would be able to grow which is usually limited by the food which is available. I would see that something like this would need a lot of energy making it impractical. However we do have something similar which is artificial in construct called the internet. The internet is a connection from one human to all other humans with internet.

 

[Squawk]

Wouldn't that just be equivalent to referring to the earth as an organism? We have that situation right now, all the individual bits playing a part in the whole.

 

[Unwardil]

Well, I think the next step would be for the entire earth organism to develop some sort of mega consciousness. Like a Hive of bees has a collective consciousness. I don't think the earth's ecosystems are anywhere near that state in development yet but I can imagine that they could be eventually.

 

[Duvelthehobbit666]

Well, I think the next step would be for the entire earth organism to develop some sort of mega consciousness. Like a Hive of bees has a collective consciousness. I don't think the earth's ecosystems are anywhere near that state in development yet but I can imagine that they could be eventually.

I think the major problem with that is complexity. With a "small" system like a bee hive I can understand that it is possible. The problem is for a global consciousness is that it is too many organisms combating for to few resources. This collective consciousness could only come from artificial construct in my opinion. Because evolution is too short term I don't think this can happen. This is ignoring things like geographical challenges like how do you get signals across oceans in a large biological system without artificial constructs like we have today. It might not be possible through evolution but we may have technology in the future to construct a similar system.

 

[Unwardil]

Well, two things with that. One, there's no reason that this collective consciousness has to be operating quickly. Think of the time it takes for you to think something as compared to the speed of a mitochondria, or the actions inside any one of the body's cells. There's energy exchanges going on in there at blisteringly high speeds, making thought processes seem glacial by comparison and yet, as species go, Humans are pretty quick thinkers.

A planet sized organism would necessarily "think" at a much slower rate. I use the word think only because I don't know if there is another word to describe how an insect colony reacts to a situation, but I really mean that, not actual cogitation, just reactionary response to stimuli.

Thing two, when you have a situation like we do now where technological advancement leads directly to further technological advancement, the line between invention and evolution becomes pretty blurred. Especially when we're actually using mock evolutionary models to drive most of the really high powered technological advancement. That's how we design better computers is we create an evolutionary program and run it through existing computers. The program comes up with a better model and then we build that and repeat the process. It's basically the evolution of silicon based life.

 

[RichardMNixon]

It would be a similar leap as from single celled to multicelluar organisms.

This is where I'd say this won't happen. It wouldn't be a similar leap because multicellular organisms existed in competition with single celled organisms. They had a competitive advantage in some areas and thus thrived and most importantly reproduced. They didn't "go towards" multicellular, it just happened and natural selection took care of the rest. As for the planetary organism, I don't see any mechanism by which it could happen or any selective pressure to further it along.

More importantly as I think about it is the issue of specialization. I'm not a biologist so I can't talk about it too much, but it's often explained that the more specialized something is, the less it can change (the wikipedia article on this subject which I can't find showed a raccoon's paw). The idea is that tiktaliik's simple flippers can become bird wings or hands, but hands can't suddenly become bird wings because there's already too much there.

In a very intuitive sense, it's easy to picture a mutation causing bacteria to clump together and share stuff. It's harder to picture a mutation that befits humans clumping together and sharing metabolism. Our homeostatic systems are already highly developed to be just for ourselves.

 

[Prolescum]

Someone's been reading Foundation's Edge recently...

 

[Nemesiah]

Is it at all possible that the next phase in evolution would be, very loosely speaking, the conglomeration of all of what we call life on earth into a planetwide organism? Elaborating, that each individual animal, plant, fungi etc play a small but redundant role within their species, much like cells in living organisms. It would be a similar leap as from single celled to multicelluar organisms. Considering individual cells of an organism arent "aware" of their place in or the scope of the whole being, Im not sure we, or later iterations similar to us, would be much aware either. Essentially, Earth becomes a single being comprised of "cells", some more dominant and influential than others, just as in other beings.

Oh, and I dont write with much flow, so if thats not clear just look at it as a list of ideas. Also, Im not saying "This is how it will happen", but asking if its likely or even possible, and what you think about the idea.

I don't think evolution would take us in that direction, and I don't think it actually could EXCEPT if we start with a lot of science fiction, let's say that at some point (and stablishing that it was possible) some higher animals started to exhibit telepathic abilites, then let's say that there was an advantage to functioning as a hive instead of as individuals, then, either all species start to move towards telepathy or they start to get asimiliated by the telepathic race (maybe as mind slaves), maybe then you have a hive that encompases the entire planet and uses indivuduals both for physical tasks and computing power; lets remember that all this comes from the magic telepathy asumed as posible earlier. This is asuming evolution and not genetic engenierrring which could (again if it was possible) speed things up quite a bit. To be honest I find it quite impossible but in any case, it would not be the NEXT step in evolution the next setep in evolution would be, for humans, maybe a larger head, or less toes.

Then again IF we take the biosphereto be such an entity, we are all ready there, what one species does affects the others and the way we humans interact with each other over long distances makes ideas to become world wide and resistant to time, so if we deem the biosphere to be alive it already has some of the proceses you describe.

 

[Lallapalalable]

Someone's been reading Foundation's Edge recently...

Actually it came from watching Serial Experiments Lain. Ive been looking for the foundation books, but to no avail (I dislike internet commerce, so its kinda hard).

Also, I wasnt trying to say "The very next step, like tomorrow", but far down the line as one of the countless possibilities. Duvelthesatanichobbit almost read my mind, that the internet is *like* the precursor to a worldwide consciousness, where any one idea can be spread across the globe to each other individual, or at least the ones that deal with ideas. Perhaps there will be groups focused entirely on thinking (scientists), some that execute those ideas (governments), others on acquiring materials and energy (laborers), and still others doing specific tasks. Again, we already have unions similar in structure, people educated to do specific tasks that keep the world flowing.

Anyway, thanks for the fresh perspectives, this was a very raw idea when I posted

 

[CosmicJoghurt]

The next evolutionary step is that we start being able to spit out fire and grow wings and are able to fly and we're able to live underwater and breathe there, then we make robots that we attach to our bodies and become super flying beasts with armor that resists direct sunlight and we travel in space and go to mars and then we colonize every planet then we go to the sombrero galaxy go to a planet there and make an artificial beach and then we just lie there with a sombrero on our heads like bosses, then we get more powerful and start traveling through galaxies and then we go inside a black hole and come out in a parallel universe where we were promised cake.

No kidding, that's actual scientifically supported data.

 

[havanacat]

The next evolutionary steps seem to be going in at least two different directions: one is the more frequently seen changes in the brain with disorders such as both autism and psychopathy, the other in the less evidenced, but seemingly apparent phenomenon of telepathy, psychokenesis, etc.

 

[australopithecus]

The next evolutionary steps seem to be going in at least two different directions: one is the more frequently seen changes in the brain with disorders such as both autism and psychopathy, the other in the less evidenced, but seemingly apparent phenomenon of telepathy, psychokenesis, etc.

Surely you mean the "not evidenced, and seemingly non-existent phrnomena of telepathy, psychokenesis...ect"?

 

[Bearcules]

Surely you mean the "not evidenced, and seemingly non-existent phrnomena of telepathy, psychokenesis...ect"?

One could make a (weak) argument that our technology is an evolutionary adaptation, and thus things like the internet, mobile phones, and the like are "part" of our species. One could then stretch this flimsy line of thought to possible future technology that would include non-verbal, thought based email/instant messaging (using brain implants maybe?). This is sort of like telepathy, though not in the conventional sense.

Following this line of thought a global hive-mind is not out of the question, though I find it somewhat unlikely.

 

[Dean]

@havanacat

The next evolutionary steps seem to be going in at least two different directions: one is the more frequently seen changes in the brain with disorders such as both autism and psychopathy, the other in the less evidenced, but seemingly apparent phenomenon of telepathy, psychokenesis, etc.

Hmm...I have a marginal tendency to concur with australopithecus's comments somewhat on this point. First of all, the former mentioned evolutionary "steps" are not in any way survival advantages conducive to the evolution of our species, and second, "telepathy" and "psychokenesis" are in no way "apparent", neither are they supported by the findings of science. "Seemingly apparent", but also - - "less evidenced"? Piquant!

On close examination; this seems more ideology than science.

 

[Grimlock]

The question is will the next big evolutionary step even be natural? Whose to say that when we finally make nanomachines that can interact with living tissue we won,´t use it on our selves to give our immune system a HUGE boost so most bacteria and viruses won,´t have any effect on us more then at the top most give us a bad cold now and then.
Also maybe we can use then to repair our bodies so that the average lifespan of humans increase so that 500 years is the new 50 or so.

Or it might be that instead of nanomachines we use gene-manipulation giving us all those advantages through our genes.

So maybe the next big evolutionary step for mankind won,´t be natural, but artificial.

 

[Dean]

Indeed, although, nanotechnology is very much of an emerging form of technology, so far as I have seen. This doesn't affect the reality of course.

 

[Grimlock]

Indeed, although, nanotechnology is very much of an emerging form of technology, so far as I have seen. This doesn't affect the reality of course.

Well we all have to start someplace and while real Nano technology isn,´t on par with their sci-fi counter part yet, i would say it is only a matter of time really it may not be in our our for that matter our great grand children's time that Nanomachines takes that final step and become a part of our physiology, but maybe our great great Grandchildren will witness it who knows.

An example take the Internet when it first came out there was little to nothing you could do with it and nobody thought it would ever evolve past a military use. Now a days it's an integral part of our lives and when the last of the generation who where young in the 80s and 90s die out so does the last people who remembers a time before the Internet.

So i think that there is a VERY real possibility that the next HUGE evolutionary step will be one of our own making not of natures making.

And nanomachines might be part of it transfered through semen and the blood stream of the mother into the fetus thus making nano machines something that,´s naturally passed on from one generation to another.

 

[CosmicJoghurt]

And what's difference between us making the evolutionary step and nature doing it?

 

[Grimlock]

And what's difference between us making the evolutionary step and nature doing it?

In a word Control.

An example drop a bunch of people on a planet that has eternal night then let them and their descendants be for a few generations or so and then come back to check up on them.
They will have adapted to the world yes, but how is anyones guess it could be all from the mirror reflex eyes of a cat to the huge eyes of a Mouse lemur to something completely third we won,´t be able to tell.

When we humans do it we would actively be able to make the evolution/adaptation go as we want.

We put them on a desert world fine we equip them with the abilities of the Fremens from Dune to an extreme on a night world we can give them the mirror reflex eyes if thats what we want when we want.