Thursday, July 01, 2010

Evolution

"If confirmed, this would be the most recent known example of human evolutionary change. Until now, the most recent such change was the spread of lactose tolerance — the ability to digest milk in adulthood — among northern Europeans about 7,500 years ago. But archaeologists say that the Tibetan plateau was inhabited much earlier than 3,000 years ago and that the geneticists’ date is incorrect."
Taken from the NYT.

How fast does evolution happen?

Professors Cochran and Harpending proposed in a recent book: "The 10,000 Year Explosion" , that human evolution has been faster than previously thought. They claim that Ashkenazim Jews were bred in Europe for mental skills, and point out to the disproportionate amount of US citizens that have gone out to get Nobel prices in Physics and Chemistry.

Now the authors quoted in the note above, claim that Tibetans developed their ability to live with less oxygen than the rest of us in 3,000 years.

It seems to me that the evidence is strong, therefore now with the known human genome we can only expect very rapid genetic change. This reminds me of Ray Kurzweil singularity. If you make it to 2040 or so, you have it made. I think that we will be less than 7, 000, 000, 000 people by the end of this century.

Hard times are going to come.

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