Thursday, November 10, 2011

Future of humans' physical traits

Source: http://www.gorillatours.co.ug/tours/
uganda-chimpanzee-trekking-tours.html
 
I was discussing with my roommate about the use of finger nails, and toenails that I found out that humans barely use toenails or even toes. If the evolution theory of Darwin is correct that we are pretty much come from the same family with chimpanzees, humans are still in the process of evolving. Comparing the ratio of the lengths of toes to the lengths of feet, we can see that this ratio is relatively small compare to the ratio of  the lengths of fingers to the lengths of hands. Are humans' toes are getting shorter? I strongly believe the answer is "yes". We are evolving by getting rid of what we don't need because it's a cost of energy for nothing. Chimpanzees have very long toes relative to human, and their toes are used for climbing. Our toenails are also somehow shorter than our fingernails. What's the point of having these "claws" anyway? What will happen in the next million years or even haft a million years? Will humans have toes, anymore? The answer for this question does have relation with the reason why we don't have tails or a lot of hair covering our body like chimpanzees. It all comes to one answer "if we don't need it, our bodies will try to get rid of it".


There's another trait that I want to point out that is it true that our noses are getting bigger because of the polluted air? Well, our noses are relatively bigger than chimpanzees for the fact, and with the increase of dust in the air, the human body definitely need a more sophisticated respiratory system to filter the pollutants. One of the solutions is a big nose with lots of hair. Eww!!! Yes, I know but that's the direction human is "racing" to.
Source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com
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On a brighter side, technologies may improve our physical traits. For example: straighter teeth, smoother skin, bigger boobs.  A lot of artificial objects are being attached to our bodies to increase our vision, hearing, beauty, strength... Therefore, there's nothing unreasonable that one day human can run a hundred mph, fly like a bird, swim and breath like a mermaid. It's just a matter of time before our  scientists and engineers develop such attractive abilities for humans, and these traits become socially acceptable. Soldiers will have infrared vision, their brains connect to a computer system, radars... along with metallic skulls, stronger muscle, supersonic ears. Pilots will have pairs of fold-able wings near their shoulders, and compressed oxygen tablets attached to their lungs in case their planes crash into the ocean. Wall street banker will have a calculator attached to their brains or even a tiny supercomputer. There are zillions of other unimaginable abilities, technologies can bring to human bodies. As I said, it's just a matter of time that science and technology will bring about these possibilities, and perhaps it will even take longer for these possibilities to become socially acceptable. However, it can't be denied that we are heading to this direction, for example we are using contact lenses attached directly into our eyes, artificial blood in place of real blood, artificial kidney, ceramic teeth... We are going there, the only problem is how long we want to wait.