biomimicry nomme we cannot exclude ourselves from the evolutionary processes of flesh we are the changing ageless nation of humankind born from nature unto nature beneath a wild moon and primeval stars we live in everything natural and naturally consist of everything supernatural we must learn to adapt our ways to our changing environment and its changing needs how can we learn to sustain beyond the confines of our modern global economy how can we bring ourselves to give without taking more than what has been fairly given we are evolving we are growing we are learning the present future changing how we could only live in such harmony if we would wholeheartedly begin to try 030715 ... jane if only people understood the momentum 030716 ... Syrope yea but i'm convinced humans are a dead end on the evolutionary tree. 030716 ... Strideo yes, its obvious that lemur monkeys will evolve to rule the world. you , er , us humans don't stand a chance! ... 030716 ... Syrope oooh lemurs. i always suspected them! 030716 ... User24 but are we advancing faster than we are evolving? 031020 ... Lemon_Soda And theres the trick User. Each new adnvancement is meant to make our lives more convienient. Those convieniences are tailored to our present form. We longer need to evolve to suit the environment. We simply make the environment suit us. But at what cost? 031020 ... minnesota_chris it only looks like I have a life 031020 ... nom http://physicspost.com/articles.php?articleId=172 031025 ... creature of unknown origin whatever i am, it does an uncanny job of almost looking human 031025 ... User24 surely the cost is the evolution of every other thing on the planet? we're holding everything back because our accumulated skills exceeds our evolutionary skills.. 031030 ... marked [see URL] . 031030 ... the marker if only we began to try, nomme, if only.. do you think humanity will ever realise? 031104 ... stork daddy evolving in an envoirment means some die and some are selected...remember that...although i guess they could be selected side by side with different answers to the same questions...however, humanity's homogenizing of the envoirment does seem to preclude that....i think the idea that we adapt on a behavioral level was our last real necessary evolution. the thumb helped though. selective pressures just don't exist (for the most part) anymore unless we want them to really. 031104 ... nom if realization is the goal and humanity the race i am sure we will - whatever that means,... i'm not quite sure 031104 ... nom first of all stork_daddy, may i ask, did you read the article: http://physicspost.com/articles.php?articleId=172 and second of all, do you think you could elaborate on your blathe "selective pressures just don't exist (for the most part) anymore unless we want them to really. " 031104 ... stork daddy a very interesting article. i think the stance i take is a variation on the one that there is no evolution due to change that we can tell of. it is always possible that an extreme envoirment weeds some of us out, and of course there are some human possibilities which will be selected or proven more fit due to sexual selection. i feel that sexual selection, however, as it developed with natural selection does more to preserve the status quo that got us to what seems a slowpoint in evolution. i do not disagree that some evolution is taking place, but i feel that our brain has precluded most significant changes. in poor countries where food is scarce, the heartier might start to out represent the less strong and immune systems might change, but most selective pressures (pressures from the envoirment that measure fitness in various ways) will be dealt with by our last significant change, our brain and our ability to react behaviorally. if there were some apocalyptic change in weather etc....i find it more likely that humans survive by burrowing underground or finding heat sources than surviving by those genetic mutations which allow for survival in harsher climates. of course our gene pool is changing, so yes evolution occurs and it is a mistake to think of evolution as progress which seems to underlie most people's understanding of evolution and their stance that it no longer continues, however, i feel that the changes we go through currently are not in response to any pressure that can be determined (making whether or not we are evolving somewhat untestable) and that the changes are just fluctuations from some mean of genetic identity. we are evolving but we aren't really going anywhere which is the definition i feel this thread had of evolution. even sexual selection will always have both the fit and the unfit, but thanks to some human behavioral strategies (i.e. monogamy) the unfit have a much better chance of passing on their genes than they would in a more instinctual sexual selection process. either way, i see the article's point but find also that it has misleading implications. 031104 ... stork daddy and what i meant by not existing unless we want them to is that for a large part, we are now becoming able to decide who survives and who does not, by policy, by who gets or does not get medicine. we, as a developed nation, can either leave third world countries ravaged with disease or plagued by starvation to their bodies own defenses (in which case a selective pressure exists) or bestow upon them the answers that the behavioral adaptation of technology allows. 031104 ... stork daddy some major selective pressures were perhaps the black plague, every war we've ever had, slaveries, holocausts, famines. you see that some of those are quite human-made. if designer genes ever catch on, that might be the next thing. i worry about it all sometimes, but then think...as the article went over, i only have to worry about minutes and years and seconds and not eons. 031104 ... mon enjoyed that three blathe e lab oration 031105 ... x so then, what does any of this have to do with biomimicry? 031105 ... stork daddy did you mean to look in an encyclopedia? 031105 ... x can i help you get your toes our from between your teeth? you ought to be more careful. 031105 ... stork daddy or perhaps it's that you misunderstood my desired result 031105 ... stork daddy if i was blathing on the title then yes my post wouldn't've had much to do with biomimicry...but since i was posting in response to a previous post which you probably didn't even read, i think it's you who has the foot in your mouth. does that contradict your vegetarian lifestyle i wonder? 031105 ... stork daddy go ahead and be sarcastic and bitter all the time and see where it gets you. 031105 ... nom http://www.biomimicry.org 031105 ... x or perhaps i wasn't addressing you personally, egomaniac. 031105 ... x the book uses the word with a new definition- humans using nature in technology. they also mention the traditional definition, though, which is organisms in Nature imitating each other to increase their chances of survival. For example NEW:studying chromatophores in plant cells to inspire a new design for solar harvesting OLD:a nonpoisonous animal evolving to look like a poisonous one to avoid getting eaten- note- this is not a conscious process. It is most common in insects because they evolve very rapidly. 031105 ... x i meant the book that nom's link -refers to/is about- 031105 ... nom :.) 031105 ... stork daddy i know you were referring to the blathe in general...it just bothers me when people are anal. it's not like this is the first time you decide to criticize some blather or another. but yeah...biomimicry....fake monarch butterflies and what not. anyways...i'm not an egomaniac...i've just evolved to mimic one for the benefits it provides. 031105 ... u24 every student aspires to become greater than their teacher 031114 ... nom) my thoughts are just mostly loosely connected mush, but that's nothing new this is though: "University Of Chicago Researchers Find Human Brain Still Evolving Human evolution, University of Chicago researchers report, is still under way in what has become our most important organ: the brain. In two related papers, published in the September 9, 2005, issue of Science, they show that two genes linked to brain size are rapidly evolving in humans. "Our studies indicate that the trend that is the defining characteristic of human evolution--the growth of brain size and complexity--is likely still going on," said lead researcher for both papers Bruce Lahn, PhD, assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Meanwhile, our environment and the skills we need to survive in it are changing faster then we ever imagined. I would expect the human brain, which has done well by us so far, will continue to adapt to those changes."...Each variant emerged around the same time as the advent of "cultural" behaviors. The microcephalin variant appears along with the emergence of such traits as art and music, religious practices, and sophisticated tool-making techniques--which date back to about 50,000 years ago. The ASPM variant coincides with the oldest-known civilization, Mesopotamia, which dates back to 7000 BC." 2005-09-09 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050909221043.htm 050912 what's it to you? who go blather from