• Question: How will mankind evolve given changes in technology and climate?

    Asked by zaina to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 8 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 8 Jun 2012:

      Hi Zaina, that’s a really interesting question! The answer is that nobody can be sure, and there are plenty of options! However a good place to start is to think about which people today survive to adulthood, and which people have the most children. So statistics say that more people will be short sighted in future, because glasses help shortsighted people lead a normal life and look after children (which they coudn’t as cave people!). Technology may have a big effect, with genetic screening of embryos for diseases, and if in future generations we use genetic engineering to make healthy babies.

    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 8 Jun 2012:

      Good question and one i don’t know the answer to. Its sure to happen though but who knows in what way

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 9 Jun 2012:

      Hi zaina, the cool thing about evolution is that it is not directed – animals did not plan to evolve in certain ways, it was simply that some with certain mutations survived for longer to pass on that mutation to their kids than other animals. These mutations then became normal. So there will probably be some things that we can’t predict will happen. It’s also very hard to see patterns of evolution over short periods of time (like our lifespans), evolution has been happening on earth for billions of years!

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