rglass1946

A few thoughts on this topic: There appear to be additional factors relating to humans that are actually accelerating evolution of our species: The "grand experiment" of human evolution has expanded from a few thousands individuals (around 100K years ago) to many billions of individuals now. As result, the cummulative rate of occurance of mutations of varous kinds has vastly increased for our species, presuming the rate of mutation/individual is roughly unchanged (possibly actually significantly increased due to our exposure to many manmade chemicals). This means that the human genome as a whole is growing more diverse much more rapidly as the earths population increases. Modern transporation and civilazation trends mean that new genetic features developed in any part of the world can now propagate much more rapidly through the gene pool as people of our planet migrate and intermarry. This means that both beneficial and non-beneficial mutations spread out in the gene pool at an accelerated rate. Technological progress has enabled the vastly increased populations and ability to move quickly across vast distances, allowing "new" genes to occur and propagate widely. Technology also, as pointed out in earlier postings, makes it possible for mutations that would otherwise be fairly quickly selected out of the gene pool to survive for longer periods (medical treatments, etc). It is further likely that with increased introduction of mutations in the human gene pool that interbred multiple mutations that would individually be inconsequential will more frequently occur that will operate together to result in more significant changes to the resulting individuals. Presuming these hybrids are in some cases beneficial, they would more likely be enhanced by selection due to recognized positive attributes. Humans use intelligence to select their mates (usually) based on perceived superiority vs other choices. Intelligence based selectivce interbreeding has been practiced for many thousands of generations, only the number of variations from which to select has vastly increased. Hope these thoughts are helpful. Welcome comments from all. Richard

Hello, I'm a retired Intel engineer, enjoying a leisure filled life back in Central Texas after spending the 15 years in Washington state. I'm interested particularly in discussing naturally accumulated evolution accelerating mechanisms and possible means for transfer of genes between distant organisms. Thanks, Richard