random evolution question
 

If at some point humans and other animals are all killed off due to nuclear war or natural disasters or whatever, but all the elements required to generate organic material and maybe even some simple organisms still existed, I assume that the process of evolution would start over?

How likely would it be for species similar to those currently existing on earth to exist again? And mainly, at what point would a species be classified as "intelligent life"? (basically at what point would we consider them essentially 2nd generation humans)

Re: random evolution question
 

yes, evolution would start all over.

if evolution were to occur again from near-scratch, any outcome we predicted would be extremely unlikely to happen. there's no way to know if we'd get human-like beings ever again or if we'd go in some unforseen direction and get moving balls of lard that roll around eating dirt.

we'd consider them intelligent using the same judgement we use now i guess. i also think its possible we'd get intelligent life that I wouldn't call second generation humans because they'd be sufficiently different, but still intelligent.

Re: random evolution question
 

Of course. This has already happened once.

While there are still many theories about why the dinasaurs went extinct, it is still an irrefutable fact that there was mass extinction at some point. Maybe a meteor, maybe disease, maybe a giant volcano, but it killed almost everything except microorganisms. And evolution created what lives now.

Re: random evolution question
 

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How likely would it be for species similar to those currently existing on earth to exist again? And mainly, at what point would a species be classified as "intelligent life"? (basically at what point would we consider them essentially 2nd generation humans)

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Depends on how strict you are with the term "similar to those currently existing on earth". With the same physical laws in place (weight in relation to wingspan and lift) you may get generally the same product (but of course now think of what variation that provides in natural application today even in the limitted example of birds). I dont think it would be surprising though that crossovers occur. You're talking about thousands of species with hundreds of biological niches. Hunting and locomotion restrictions (meaning restrictions in the sense of "stuff that works that allows an organism to avoid natural selection") would likely prevent the evolution of the Hutts on this planet. Three eyed Deer though... why not, if it provides a practical advantage in the sense of survival in that future world it would happen.

As for intelligent life. Thats another front of evolution. In addition to stronger, faster, better camo, etc. Brain power is just another frontier. So in a couple billion years I dont think it would be a stretch to see a (relatively) fragile, slow, and poorly armed intelligent being that makes up for all of that by out thinking the opposition. What the line is for intelligent life... who knows that gets pretty deep (AI, etc). Communication and tool use seem to be good starting points though.

Re: random evolution question
 

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If at some point humans and other animals are all killed off due to nuclear war or natural disasters or whatever, but all the elements required to generate organic material and maybe even some simple organisms still existed, I assume that the process of evolution would start over?

How likely would it be for species similar to those currently existing on earth to exist again? And mainly, at what point would a species be classified as "intelligent life"? (basically at what point would we consider them essentially 2nd generation humans)

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zero. no chance evolution would occur, even given the (incredibly ridiculous) grant of an already existing universe prim soup or whatever. zero. most of the evolution posters on this thread are poorly educated even on primitive evol theories (evidence is i know a lot more than them). but even if they were quasi smart, victor already tried to condemn me in mhslholdempacman, he is not even a good player though. funny. i was banned here for recriticizing lestat after he wrongly criticized me. most of you are psuedo intelligent. that is incredibly euphemistic though. most of you are 1800 at chess. fish

Re: random evolution question
 

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While there are still many theories about why the dinasaurs went extinct, it is still an irrefutable fact that there was mass extinction at some point. Maybe a meteor, maybe disease, maybe a giant volcano, but it killed almost everything except microorganisms. And evolution created what lives now

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AFAIK, mammals coexisted with dinosaurs. But us mammals had to stick to the graveyard shift economy. When dinos croaked, we extended our hours of operation and diversified our workforce.

Re: random evolution question
 

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zero. no chance evolution would occur, even given the (incredibly ridiculous) grant of an already existing universe prim soup or whatever. zero. most of the evolution posters on this thread are poorly educated even on primitive evol theories (evidence is i know a lot more than them). but even if they were quasi smart, victor already tried to condemn me in mhslholdempacman, he is not even a good player though. funny. i was banned here for recriticizing lestat after he wrongly criticized me. most of you are psuedo intelligent. that is incredibly euphemistic though. most of you are 1800 at chess. fish


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It's possible that you know a lot more about evolutionary theory than the average atheist. However, an aquaintance of mine also knows more about the moon landing than almost everybody. He believes it didn't happen! He must be right!
No. He's just a whacko.

But at least I can give him credit for doing his homework. What about you? I've never been impressed by a single post you've made. But that's just a euphemism. What I mean to say is that you're a [censored] troll

Re: random evolution question
 

please elaborate

Re: random evolution question
 

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but even if they were quasi smart, victor already tried to condemn me

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Does not compute. Even if you were quasi smart, purple monkeys don't fly at night.

Re: random evolution question
 

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maybe even some simple organisms still existed

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This isn't a "maybe even." It's the core of the question. If we have bacteria, then evolution would probably be very likely to occur again. If there is no life at all, then personally I don't think it would happen (certainly not in a timely enough manner - the sun won't last forever).

But there's no way to know for sure. We still don't fully understand the origins of life on Earth, and until we do speculation is all you'll get.

Re: random evolution question
 

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most of the evolution posters on this thread are poorly educated even on primitive evol theories (evidence is i know a lot more than them).

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It's always a comfort to know we have a real expert to keep us in line.

Re: random evolution question
 

I never know what to think of some people. Either they're laughing it up at home by annoying the internet, or they're retarded.

Re: random evolution question
 

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I never know what to think of some people. Either they're laughing it up at home by annoying the internet, or they're retarded.

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Why can't they be both?

Re: random evolution question
 

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How likely would it be for species similar to those currently existing on earth to exist again?

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Depends what you mean by similar. There are plenty of examples of convergent evolution. Still mustn’t forget what ever caused the imminent mass extinctions might still be around and prompting evolution through new channels. I assume that we are starting again from whatever single celled life forms were able to survive.

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And mainly, at what point would a species be classified as "intelligent life"?

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Pick you own definition, its really not that important; although the difference between intelligent and technological is significant.

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(basically at what point would we consider them essentially 2nd generation humans)

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WTF is a 2nd generation human? A new intelligent spices being formed would be en example of convergent evolution. You seem to be using the word human as a synonym for intelligent in some really confusing way, so I don’t understand the question.

Re: random evolution question
 

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Of course. This has already happened once.

While there are still many theories about why the dinasaurs went extinct, it is still an irrefutable fact that there was mass extinction at some point. Maybe a meteor, maybe disease, maybe a giant volcano, but it killed almost everything except microorganisms. And evolution created what lives now.

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A better example would be the Permian/Triassic extinction event... much more devestating. Either way, life rebounded quickly because a lot of complex organisms (mammals, turtles, crocs, various fish, amphibians, and insects 65 millions years ago and mammal-like reptiles, various amphibians, fish and insects 225 million years ago) survived these events and their offspring formed the wide array of life in in the Jurassic/Cretaceous and what we see today. If an event happened that destroyed everything except bacteria then or even single celled organisms then things would certainly have taken a hell of a lot longer to come about.

I agree with madnak that if no life survived then it would be very likely to see life come about again on this planet.

Re: random evolution question
 

it would take a truly monsterous astronomical collision to destroy life on Earth. bacteria live as far as 2 miles under the surface of the Earth and in terms of mass, there is more life under the surface than above it.

Re: random evolution question
 

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it would take a truly monsterous astronomical collision to destroy life on Earth. bacteria live as far as 2 miles under the surface of the Earth and in terms of mass, there is more life under the surface than above it.

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I bet God could do it in 3 days flat.

Re: random evolution question
 

If ALL life were to go extinct, I do not know if we could predict if life would rebegin/reevolve. No one is too sure how life first evolved and a lot of older theories don't hold as much water as they did maybe 10 years ago (primordial ooze, urea being formed from inorganic matter, etc.). Theoretically, if life were just abolished from the planet, I do not think it would evolve again in the current conditions but might once the planet heats up/cools down or whatever we foresee in the next billion years.

Let's say that life DOES occur again, however. Not long ago I went to a lecture about someone who described what life would be like on Mars if there were indeed Martians. Basically, he made some predictions based on constancies in life on our own planet. Things that have reevolved more than once include joints, skeletons and support structures, limbs for locomotion, and GENERAL forms of these things would probably reappear. However, other aspects would probably be so vastly different that we couldn't predict it. For instance, we all know that the reproductive and excretory system are combined in tetrapods. This is not some sort of "natural" state but just a coincidence that the creatures that eventually moved onto land had this system; they could easily be separate while other organ systems could have been combined. Its possible that totally unknown forms could evolve as well, things unlike anything seen today.

However, the odds against any organism that exists now reevolving from scratch is probably greater than the number of molecules in the universe, or some huge improbability like that. I don't really want to get onto intelligent life, though, as I havent' really thought about it before.

Re: random evolution question
 

sorry was not trying to impress you. you are in a different league. probably freakishly intellectual. still smarter than you, most likely. yes, i will wager a tenth of my (elevated) roll to play lestat at chess poker or basketball. he appears smart at times, but is no sklansky. pretty sure sklansky could not score 1590 or higher 75% of the time. not even in his prime. perhaps i underestimate

Re: random evolution question
 

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yes, evolution would start all over.

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Two misunderstandings here I think: 1) evolution would not have stopped so it cannot start all over; 2) evolution does not a have starting place and a direction or goal, so again the notion of starting "all over again" is meaningless.

Re: random evolution question
 

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victor already tried to condemn me in mhslholdempacman, he is not even a good player though. funny.

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lol, talk to me when you can beat 5-10 let alone 30-60. youre not on my level and NEVER will be.