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Comment on There are people out there who could utterly smash world records but no-one will never know as they haven't taken up that sport.

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state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

I don’t think you understand how evolution works. There is no evolutional pressure on humans to run long distances, jump far or high. And even if there suddenly were, it would take generations for noticeable changes. It’s much more likely that some parents let their kids be CRISPRd to create more red blood cells which would grant them an endurance boost or other such changes. That will probably happen in our lifetime.

Besides, your ostrich example is not helpful. A snow albatross is as tall as a small human and also has two. Maybe we will grow wings and fly!

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howrar@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I think they’re referring to random mutations. There’s no evolutionary pressure to get better at any of these skills, so at a population level, we’re unlikely to see any change. But at the individual level, it’s still possible through these mutations.

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chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I didn’t say anything about natural selection, I said evolution. Humans evolve by more means than natural selection. We also evolve through culture, through technology. And of course we still do evolve by natural selection, it’s just hard to see because the pace of technology is so rapid.

Take birth control as an example. It’s very recent technology. A blink of an eye in natural selection terms. You might think it would wipe us out by causing population crashes. But culture is evolving to counteract it. Cultural norms have already begun to shift heavily against birth control. I think it’s fairly easy to anticipate a future where birth control is not used very much.

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