If 'The Origin of Species' is correct then why?

RandallFlagg

If The Origin of Species is correct why have we got one species that has evolved to a far higher level of capability that any other buy such a huge amount?

Why are all of the other millions of species so far behind, why isn't there at least one other species that has developed to our level or thereabouts?

stimpsonslostson

Your question contains a fallacy. We're not more capable. 
We're all products of our environment & history. It's an incremental change. 
You're not a" fair level higher" if your environment is the sea & eating fish. 

sinbaadi

Because God works in mysterious ways.

stickyfiddle

There are loads. Apes, pigs, and octopuses have all shown significant intellect. But we eat them or put them in zoos, so they have little chance to evolve further (not that human history is anywhere near long enough to see significant evolution of anything).

In evolutionary terms, apes are barely behind us at all. If we didn't exist they would become the dominant species and in a few million years be more like us, probably. 

But as stated, it's about environment. If sea levels rise to cover 99% of the land, octopuses and sharks and dolphins will be looking much more like "the fittest" that's described in Darwin's theories.

RandallFlagg

stimpsonslostson said:

Your question contains a fallacy. We're not more capable. 
We're all products of our environment & history. It's an incremental change. 
You're not a" fair level higher" if your environment is the sea & eating fish. 

Nonsense, our environment was walking the land and eating plants and other animals, same as many others.

sinbaadi

It depends how you look at it.  Are they behind the curve or are we ahead of it?

Why are we a benchmark?  Maybe we should be much smarter by now.  Maybe an alien species will see ourselves and chimpanzees the same way we see pigs and sheep.

stimpsonslostson

RandallFlagg said:

stimpsonslostson said:

Your question contains a fallacy. We're not more capable. 
We're all products of our environment & history. It's an incremental change. 
You're not a" fair level higher" if your environment is the sea & eating fish. 

Nonsense, our environment was walking the land and eating plants and other animals, same as many others.

I'm saying that evolution is acting on all species all the time (to varying degrees) and that we're unique in how we've ended up, but we're NOT more advanced or more special or unique than a sparrow, earthworm or tube worm. 
Sure we have iPads etc, how does that make us better in some way? 

viz

It's the other way round - the theory of evolution wouldn't exist if we weren't so advanced as to develop it.

RandallFlagg

stimpsonslostson said:

RandallFlagg said:

stimpsonslostson said:

Your question contains a fallacy. We're not more capable. 
We're all products of our environment & history. It's an incremental change. 
You're not a" fair level higher" if your environment is the sea & eating fish. 

Nonsense, our environment was walking the land and eating plants and other animals, same as many others.

I'm saying that evolution is acting on all species all the time (to varying degrees) and that we're unique in how we've ended up, but we're NOT more advanced or more special or unique than a sparrow, earthworm or tube worm. 
Sure we have iPads etc, how does that make us better in some way? 

Did I say we were better? No, but we clearly have larger brains and a much more developed intellect.

You're not addressing my question. Why hasn't another species developed similar levels of intellect and so capability?

RandallFlagg

stickyfiddle said:

There are loads. Apes, pigs, and octopuses have all shown significant intellect. But we eat them or put them in zoos, so they have little chance to evolve further (not that human history is anywhere near long enough to see significant evolution of anything).

In evolutionary terms, apes are barely behind us at all. If we didn't exist they would become the dominant species and in a few million years be more like us, probably. 

But as stated, it's about environment. If sea levels rise to cover 99% of the land, octopuses and sharks and dolphins will be looking much more like "the fittest" that's described in Darwin's theories.

Youre not addrssing my question, but acknowledging it as a valid point!

why are apes a few million years behind us? Why did one species accellerate more than the others?

ToneControl

RandallFlagg said:

If The Origin of Species is correct why have we got one species that has evolved to a far higher level of capability that any other buy such a huge amount?

Why are all of the other millions of species so far behind, why isn't there at least one other species that has developed to our level or thereabouts?

they did, we exterminated them (and interbred a bit)

i.e. there were several proto-human species

ToneControl

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13874671

cacophony

probably because we were the only species (i can think of anyway) to truly colonise the whole planet. most other types of animal tend to be restricted to zones according to habitat or climate , we're everywhere which probably forced us to adapt and change.

Axe_meister

By luck. We happened to evolve a bigger brain at the same time as evolving fingers that could grip tools.
We were then able to control our environment any species potentially able to start competing with us we were able to kill.
But in many ways we are less evolved that other even closely related species. We are nowhere near as strong as an ape.

EricTheWeary

Humans are only a few million years old and in evolution terms that's very, very short so we are a bit of a blip at the moment. There were competing versions that homo sapiens  ( just looked up, the stuff @ToneControl is saying)co existed with until surprisingly recent times.

There's probably no point in apes becoming more human like as that territory is ,so well taken. The chicken is, arguably, successful in evolutionary terms as vast numbers of them now live in all parts of the world.

RandallFlagg

Axe_meister said:

By luck. We happened to evolve a bigger brain at the same time as evolving fingers that could grip tools.
We were then able to control our environment any species potentially able to start competing with us we were able to kill.
But in many ways we are less evolved that other even closely related species. We are nowhere near as strong as an ape.

There it is, along with the ability for complex communication and so the ability to pass on complex learning, appears to have accelerated our mental development and so the ability to control our environment.

Seems a hell of a stroke of luck though...as does the luck involved in life starting on Earth in the first place.

Is this why we created religion and the idea of God? because the chances of these things happening by luck is not a satisfactory answer to us? 

RandallFlagg

So has our accelerated metal ability upset the theory of evolution as we now can change the environment around us so dramatically? Rather than it taking millions of years for us to adapt to the environment we can change the environment to suit us in a very short space of time, how does the human continue to evolve and in what direction if we keep changing the environment we are in?


and perhaps the biggest mystery of all, why, after all this accelerated mental development, did some of our fellow humans create the 2015 Gibson line up? :-)

Sporky

RandallFlagg said:

So has our accelerated metal ability upset the theory of evolution as we now can change the environment around us so dramatically?

It will have shifted the selection criteria, so we're less restricted by natural selection and more by other factors.

However, as pretty much everyone can have kids now you're right that evolution probably isn't doing much for us. Bear in mind though that it operates over very, very long periods of time - longer than civilisation has existed, fer example.

One other reason why no other species has hit the same heights as us is that it may not be advantageous. Being conscious must have helped us survive and pass on our genes. It might be a hindrance for other species in other environments.

Axe_meister

If anything we as a species are evolving into a very frail version of what we could be.
Due to our sedate lifestyle and our medical advances we are allowing genes to flourish that would have been wiped out in the wild.
Should something like a massive solar flare wipe out all electrical devices, and we get thrown back 400 years, we will probably experience a natural culling of the weaker of our species.

stimpsonslostson

RandallFlagg said:

So has our accelerated metal ability upset the theory of evolution as we now can change the environment around us so dramatically? Rather than it taking millions of years for us to adapt to the environment we can change the environment to suit us in a very short space of time, how does the human continue to evolve and in what direction if we keep changing the environment we are in?


and perhaps the biggest mystery of all, why, after all this accelerated mental development, did some of our fellow humans create the 2015 Gibson line up? :-)

This is why we're seeing mass extinctions of other species- we're changing environments at a rate most other things can't deal with. Bacteria & viruses can though due to their faster generation times, high mutation rates and string selection pressures as MRSA etc prove.

 Human evolution interesting, maybe we'll see a propensity for the ability to grow topknots, longer arms to accommodate full sleeve tattoos and a chameleon like ability to independently move our eyes meaning we can look at a phone screen whilst simultaneously crossing a road safely.

ToneControl

RandallFlagg said:

So has our accelerated metal ability upset the theory of evolution as we now can change the environment around us so dramatically? Rather than it taking millions of years for us to adapt to the environment we can change the environment to suit us in a very short space of time, how does the human continue to evolve and in what direction if we keep changing the environment we are in?

my metal ability has waned as I've mellowed with age