The world is constantly changing, and each new decade and century brings its own changes that are characteristic only of it. At the same time, changes are happening faster and faster. Man also changes with the world. Despite the fact that many changes that occur with a person are invisible at first glance, over time they manifest themselves in full force.
Man is still subject to natural selection, despite the rapid development of modern technology and medicine. Currently, there are many different theories that are trying to determine how a person will develop in the future. At the same time, some researchers and anthropologists are confident that evolution is no longer as important as it used to be.
Biological evolution is considered to be the natural processes of development of living nature, which are accompanied by changes in the genetic composition of populations, speciation, the formation of adaptations, the extinction of species, as well as the transformation of ecosystems and the biosphere in general.
Some scientists, in particular the British professor Steve Jones, believe that evolution has receded into the background. If in ancient times only the strongest survived, then now, in the modern world, a person who is surrounded by comfort will not continue to adapt. On the other hand, scientists do not exclude that the human body will continue to change and develop.
In addition, it is worth remembering the so-called Hardy-Weinjerg's law, according to which evolutionary changes are mathematically necessary until the time when the genetic population is influenced by at least one of the main factors: mutation, gene flow, non-random mating, natural selection and drift. genes.
Thanks to the development of modern communications and vehicles, fewer and fewer people remain isolated. There is a mixing of races between people whose ancestors were from different parts of the planet. The consequence of this confusion will be that genetic differences will fade over time, and racial differences will become less noticeable. Simply put, people will become more alike.
In the process of evolution, those signs disappear that are no longer needed. One of these signs is muscle strength. People no longer need to rely on strong muscles in the process of performing labor-intensive tasks, because technology does such work for a person. Research has already shown that modern man is much weaker than his ancient relatives. It is possible that the situation will only get worse in the future. In addition, a person is likely to begin to explore space more and more, losing most of his muscle mass (it is known that astronauts who have been in a long space flight lose the ability to physical labor by almost half).
As people become more and more dependent on drugs, the immune system weakens. In the future, people will become more susceptible to pathogens. The discovery of antibiotics and modern medical technology have improved life expectancy and health, but have caused the immune system to work less to maintain health. Thus, it has become less necessary for the body from a biological point of view.
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The man of the future will be not only physically weak, but also taller. Over the past few decades, human growth has increased. If we analyze the data for a century and a half, it is obvious that the person has become taller by about 10 centimeters. Scientists believe that the main reason for this lies in the abundance of food available to humans. The more a person eats, the more energy he has for growth. And as long as people can eat in abundance, it will continue to grow. But whether there is a limit to growth, evolution will show.
Another characteristic feature of the person of the future is the almost complete absence of hair. Already, man is called the hairless monkey. Of course, humans have hair, but there is much less of it than their ancestors. The warming function of hair has become obsolete thanks to modern technology and clothing. Nowadays, women are considered more attractive without hair on certain parts of the body, and it is possible that over time, there will be no hair at all.
Technology also has a negative impact on human memory. Already, the human brain remembers not the information itself, but the place where it is stored. In the Internet age, this has become more noticeable. A person, unsuccessfully trying to remember something, simply searches for the necessary information using search engines. The habit of checking everything with a computer taught a person to use technology and technology as an external memory, relieving his own brain of the need to store information.
The man of the future will not have wisdom teeth. Nowadays, wisdom teeth are usually removed. This is due to the fact that most people have a jaw that is too small to accommodate them without interfering with other teeth. Wisdom teeth are considered to be rudimentary teeth that modern humans inherited from distant ancestors, whose jaw was much larger and who ate hard food.
No wonder wisdom teeth start to fade, no. Nowadays, about 35 percent of people are born without these teeth, some have only one or two teeth (there are four in total). In addition, the rest of the teeth will also become significantly smaller. Over the past 100 thousand years, human teeth have decreased by half, and this trend will continue in the future, researchers are sure.
Besides fewer teeth, the person of the future will have fewer toes. Until people learned to walk upright, their toes were used for grasping. But due to the fact that the person began to walk more, the toes began to gradually decrease. If the thumb helps to maintain balance while walking, then the little finger has no special purpose. Perhaps for this reason, in the future, people will have only four toes on their feet.
Computer technologies, which have already become an integral part of modern life, will be reflected in the development of the human body. Continuous use of touch screens and keyboards can cause a person's hands and fingers to become thinner, dexterous and longer, and the number of nerve endings in them increases dramatically.
And if technical progress continues to develop so rapidly, then it is possible that various kinds of interfaces can migrate into the human body. It is possible that a person of the future will have a keyboard in the palm of his hand and answer an incoming call with a joint of his thumb and forefinger. It is also likely that the human body will be stuffed with hundreds of sensors, with the help of which a person will be able to transmit data to external devices.
Humanity already has the ability to direct attention to certain things they hear. This is the so-called cocktail effect. Among the many conversations at a noisy party, a person may well focus on a specific person who, for some reason, attracted his attention. At the same time, the human ear does not have a special physical mechanism for this, everything happens in the brain. In the future, this feature may become especially useful and important, because with the development of the Internet and media, our world is full of information. And the man of the future will have to learn how to more effectively determine what is useful for himself, filtering out noise. Thus, a person will be less stressed, which will be beneficial for health and will take root in the genes.
With the development of reproductive technologies, traditional reproduction will disappear into oblivion. Parthenogenesis and cloning can greatly expand the possibilities for human creation, which will erase all boundaries between male and female. In the future, people will not be attached to a particular gender. It is possible that humanity will mix completely, forming an androgynous single mass. Moreover, gender identity itself will disappear and the line between the role models of behavior of women and men will be eliminated.
There is another theory, which is based on the structural features of some fish. So, in particular, most fish have a lot of cartilage in the skeleton. A person may well follow a similar path of development, having received more flexible bones. Of course, in this case we are not talking about evolution. A similar problem is solved using genetic engineering. But such a feature would give a person many advantages and protect against injury. In addition, a flexible skeleton would be very useful in the process of childbirth.
Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics has put forward the theory that over time, the human race will split into two types: the upper class (tall, slender, intelligent superhumans) and the lower class, consisting of short men, resembling goblins. But this will happen, according to the scientist's forecasts, not earlier than in 100 thousand years.
Of course, all these are just assumptions, and no one yet knows what the person of the future will be like. Perhaps one of these hypotheses will turn out to be correct. It is also likely that all of them may turn out to be wrong, and the man of the future will grow wings …
Be that as it may, all these theories have the right to exist as long as their inconsistency is not proven.