Have we reached a stage of "Conscious Evolution?"

[Rduke55]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey, if they're willing to have sex with me I'm willing to look the other way!

[/ QUOTE ]

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[FortunaMaximus]

"Paper or plastic, ma'am?"

"It depends."

[Praxis101]

To OP: out of curiosity, are you a Nietzsche reader?

[pilliwinks]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
From a population genetics point of view, the healthiest population is the one with the least selection operating.

[/ QUOTE ]
In the short term, maybe. In the long term, no.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually quite the reverse. In the short term it is adaptive to be highly selected, and therefore an excellent fit to the current selective environment.

In the long term being highly specialised is a problem because you don't have the diversity to deal effectively with changes to the selection pressures.

In other words, if you believe that intelligence is being selected (which I don't), then your inbred Yale population is going to do well. Until the Midwest elect a president who declares intelligence to be unAmerican and persecutes them....

[Praxis101]

[ QUOTE ]

We rely a lot on cheap human labor still, even in the First World. What would we use if a large mass that are quite happy when they get a job paying $18 an hour in the US, for instance, got too smart to settle for that?

[/ QUOTE ]

Let me venture an answer: they capitalize on their opportunities and are eventually paid more?!

[FortunaMaximus]

Yes, but not all at once. And that's probably a good thing. If the Head Count all wanted to become Senators, it'd destroy civilization.

I'm not saying it's perfect, but we're still pretty far from Utopian capability. Day by day, we seem to be getting closer to it. The enclosing walls keep needing to expand, and I'm not entirely sure we could outstrip the pace of population growth enough to clamp down on the global village effectively enough to bring about widespread, positive changes.

The UN's ineffectual and tries, but when the US refuses to take it seriously... There's no way. And the US, try as it might, would be ineffective in ruling the whole planet. Nobody likes bullies. Gnats terrorists may be, but they wouldn't resort to terrorism if they didn't have reasons, no matter how misguided those reasons might be sometimes.