• Question: If we were going to evolve again (us into something new) how long do you think that it would roughly take us ? And would this take a longer or shorter time than when we changed from chimp to human?

    Asked by anon-195343 to James, Ed, Anthony on 15 Jan 2019. This question was also asked by anon-195859, anon-195767, anon-195744.
    • Photo: James Cole

      James Cole answered on 15 Jan 2019:

      Interesting question, thank you. It has taken about 7 million years or so for us to diverge from our last common ancestor with chimpanzees, with our species (Homo sapiens) appearing around 300 thousand years ago. So in that sense, evolution works across very large time scales. However, given that we are living in an age where technology is developing so rapidly, especially biotechnologies, whatever happens next in terms of human evolution, may occur within the next few thousand years rather than tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Although I’m not sure anyone can really predict the future developments with any degree of certainty.

    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 15 Jan 2019:

      Evolution is a gradual process. It’s probably too early to even say if human evolution has slowed almost to a stop like say many sharks or crocodiles. So you can’t really say it takes x years to become something else. If you compare humans today to fossil hominids from a few hundred thousand years ago you can find anatomical differences.

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