People may assume that the human race stopped evolving thousands of years ago, but the process is still taking place.
Evolutionary biologist Nicholas Longrich said that disease, predators and personal violence had been largely eliminated as selective factors.
And in a world where survival does not determine which genes dominate, the ability to reproduce is of paramount importance.
For this reason, he believes that attractive traits – for example, being tall and muscular – could become the new traits that are naturally selected.
But he has revealed some other fascinating ways in which humans will evolve in the coming centuries, including women becoming pregnant well into their 60s to cope with the fertility crisis plaguing the world.
Our brains have changed size and shape in recent decades (stock)
Professor Longrich, an Alaska-born academic at the University of Bath in England, said: ‘We have largely eliminated predators as a selective factor.
‘Violence as a selective factor is dramatically reduced. It still happens, but fewer people are dying from war or murder than at any time in human history.”
‘Diseases have been largely eliminated, but not completely: the coronavirus is not the flu, but it is not the Black Death either. Every now and then someone gets eaten by a shark, but most natural causes of death have been eliminated.”
Get ready for the ‘hot generation;
Longrich said, “In hunter-gatherer times you have two guys, and one is quite handsome, but he’s an idiot and he gets killed – he takes a spear in the chest or a lion eats him.
“Now the woman goes to the remaining man because he is still alive, he may be a little ugly, but ugly is better than dead.”
But in a future where fewer people die, attractiveness will become increasingly important – especially when people meet their partners digitally.
Will baldness become extinct?
As women increasingly choose partners for their height — and both sexes opt for facial symmetry, people will become taller and more beautiful, Longrich suggested.
‘Women often select for height, and I think we will have less baldness – your bald readers may not appreciate this, but baldness can die out.’
Fertile seniors
With countries like Japan, the US, Britain and South Korea all already below replacement level, people with many children will drive human evolution.
That could lead to both evolution favoring strong relationships and humans evolving to reproduce longer — as the genes of people who can reproduce longer will be favored, Longrich explained.
Women will live longer and reproduce later
Longrich said, “Some people would probably have more children if they could keep having them longer.
‘Women who enter menopause five years later will perform dramatically better reproductively than women who enter menopause five years earlier. So I think people can move towards delayed menopause, delayed aging and longer life.”
A world of conspirators and passive-aggressive men?
Physical aggression is selected against because people who attack others are locked up and cannot have children.
What this could mean, however, is that people are becoming increasingly passive, aggressive and conniving.
Longrich said, “It’s already very rare for a man to get another man’s face, let alone kill him or beat him or anything like that.” If you get mad at your coworker, if you slap him, they will fire you.
Physical violence may be rare, but psychopaths and narcissists can still thrive
“What that means is that, you know, the attacks are all through social networks, reputation, destruction, political maneuvering, it’s all of those things.
“The dark part is that we could evolve into a world more like Mean Girls.”
The current mental health crisis is driven by people who may have adapted well in a hunter-gatherer society but are struggling to cope with rapid change.
But as people move toward “coping,” this could favor those with low empathy.
Longrich said: ‘The characteristics that correlate very strongly with anxiety and depression are often high levels of empathy, sensitivity and intelligence.’
“Modern societies are broken in so many ways that if a creature were to adapt properly to them, it would be a very dysfunctional creature.”
…or the rise of the ‘Homer Simpson bid’
With longer lives, women can select men not for their ultra-ripped physiques, but for their likelihood of being a “good dad.”
Women prefer men with lean, hunter-gatherer bodies that resemble Jackie Chan, rather than ultra-built Arnold Schwarzenegger types.
Will women crave the ‘Homer Simpson bid’?
But in the future, women may prefer “daddy bods” like Homer Simpson
‘Maybe women who prefer a dad bod would have more children and that would spread the dad bod genes – I can see it going that way.
“Basically if there’s a physical type that correlates with being a good dad and maybe having a little paunch – Homer Simpson’s body.
“Homer is a great father. He’s an idiot, but he loves his kids and is super patient. Homer is the ultimate father.
“Women who prefer Homer Simpson would be leaving behind tons of kids who will come to dominate within a generation or two, and women who prefer, you know, the guy who looks like an action movie star with the other kids wouldn’t have it so doing well. .’