Humans Evolve at Minuscule Rates Over Thousands of Years

[jstern]

Ey what is dis BS. A course humans is WAY more sophistictated an highly evolved now

You think a ford model T could drag race a buggati veyron? A hunnid years ago kids played wit rocks today kids use sophistctated electronix. U think a kid from the 18 hunnids would know how to operate a PS4?!?!

jesse owens wouldnt place on my junior high track team f outta hear wit dis "humans dont evolve" shit. A thousand years ago cave men was 5 feet tall an dragged they knuckles an aint know how to soe clothes. But nah we don evolve

The other day someone posted a very interesting video that put past eras in sports in perspective. For example, Jesse Owens Olympic time was 10.2, while Usain Bolt's was 9.77, but Jesse Owens ran on a different surface, and started off a hole of ash that he had to dig. Something to that effect. If Owens had race on the same track, he would had just been on Bolt's back.

This is really not a topic for the ignorant. The ignorant that think that anything before the moment they were born is somehow rotten just because they have new computers that have more cores every few years.

I found the video. https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epst...ronger#t-56886

It's not a simplistic subject for simplistic people.

[Smoke117]

People vastly overrate how fast humans evolve... they exponentially overrate how fast it happens.

If humans advance physically and evolve as fast as people think they do as it relates to sports, than in the next 25 years, players will be able to dunk on 15-foot rims.

The truth is that humans evolve so incrementally, you can't tell over a short period like only a few decades...

For one, players are actually shorter today than they used to be... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_lea...ing_experience

And athletically, people get fooled by the longer shorts, the latest fashions, and newer, more aesthetically appealing dunking STYLES into thinking these guys are jumping so much higher, but they aren't - Lebron doesn't jump higher than Jordan, Wade doesn't jump higher than Drexler, Blake Griffin doesn't jump higher than Shawn Kemp did... and on down the line.

Science tells us that humans evolve very slowly over thousands of years, and comparing say Shawn Kemp to Blake Griffin or Wilt to Shaq provides sort of a marker that shows over just a few decades, athletic advancements will always be negligible.
.

Yeah no shit Sherlock...nobody ever said Wade an higher Vert than Drexler...

[3ball]

The other day someone posted a very interesting video that put past eras in sports in perspective. For example, Jesse Owens Olympic time was 10.2, while Usain Bolt's was 9.77, but Jesse Owens ran on a different surface, and started off a hole of ash that he had to dig. Something to that effect. If Owens had race on the same track, he would had just been on Bolt's back.

This is really not a topic for the ignorant. The ignorant that think that anything before the moment they were born is somehow rotten just because they have new computers that have more cores every few years.

I found the video. https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epst...ronger#t-56886

It's not a simplistic subject for simplistic people.

Ben Johnson's Olympic time was 9.78 in 1988... the long jump record has been the same for 25 years.

I mean, for a guy like Larry Bird to not be able to play today, NBA players would need to have made tremendous strides athletically, so much so that if such a pace were kept up, players would be dunking from the 3-point line in 5 years... and then 5 years after that, they'd be dunking from half court..

Instead, humans evolve incrementally over thousands of years, which is why Scottie Pippen, Dominique, Rodman and Worthy match up very well with (actually completely destroy) Durant, George, Leonard and Batum... that's why the bigs of today have actually REGRESSED - there is a ton of variance that can occur over just a few decades and players can actually go backwards.
.

[inclinerator]

The other day someone posted a very interesting video that put past eras in sports in perspective. For example, Jesse Owens Olympic time was 10.2, while Usain Bolt's was 9.77, but Jesse Owens ran on a different surface, and started off a hole of ash that he had to dig. Something to that effect. If Owens had race on the same track, he would had just been on Bolt's back.

This is really not a topic for the ignorant. The ignorant that think that anything before the moment they were born is somehow rotten just because they have new computers that have more cores every few years.

I found the video. https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epst...ronger#t-56886

It's not a simplistic subject for simplistic people.

if bolt had competition he would have ran faster

[jstern]

if bolt had competition he would have ran faster

He had no competition, I guess humans haven't evolved into super humans the last few decades then.

[moe94]

The other day someone posted a very interesting video that put past eras in sports in perspective. For example, Jesse Owens Olympic time was 10.2, while Usain Bolt's was 9.77, but Jesse Owens ran on a different surface, and started off a hole of ash that he had to dig. Something to that effect. If Owens had race on the same track, he would had just been on Bolt's back.

This is really not a topic for the ignorant. The ignorant that think that anything before the moment they were born is somehow rotten just because they have new computers that have more cores every few years.

I found the video. https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epst...ronger#t-56886

It's not a simplistic subject for simplistic people.

That's an incredibly interesting video.

[NumberSix]

People need to understand that environment has changed significantly in recent history. With current technology and medical science, humans are able to come closer to reaching their potential than ever before.

[dubeta]

Maybe its cause nba players of the 60's and 70's needed to work 2 jobs to make ends meet so they didnt have time to work out?

How many of them actually worked out and conditioned regularly?

[Dunaprenti]

Thousands of years is very small amount of time for any mammal to "evolve" drastically. Humans have changed much more than gorillas, in the last few thousand years.
40 years is basically nothing in terms natural evolution.
Having said that, techniques develop much faster than humans and we can enhance ourselves through medicine.
I suppose physical peak, now, should be higher than before, but overall should be about the same.
Stories about strong men and their feats have existed throughout history. They are here to inspire us.

[navy]

How many serious post have claimed what the OP is refuting? Please link examples.

[Dunaprenti]

How many serious post have claimed what the OP is refuting? Please link examples.

The problem with the OP is that he is taking a false argument and builds on it.
Overall the human population is not evolving on a high rate but the basketball "gene pool" is. So on average the athletic level is up. There was one Spud Webb now every dunk contest has at least one small guy.

[bdreason]

Evolution happens by necessity, and there hasn't been any reason for the human species to physically evolve in thousands of years. The next major evolution of the human race will probably be induced by a lack or resources or armageddon type event (i.e. Asteroid). Humans who are able to survive on less water, or in more toxic conditions will survive, while the rest of mankind will die off.


Humans have all but destroyed the process of evolution not only for humans, but for all species. The only places on the Earth still experiencing significant evolution are at the bottom of the Oceans, or in remote places like Papa New Guinea.

[SpanishACB]

trainning, tactical techniques and diet tech has evolved very fast, what's your point OP?

[Asukal]

"BIGGER, FASTER, STRONGER" arguments...

Good job OP.

[jstern]

People need to understand that environment has changed significantly in recent history. With current technology and medical science, humans are able to come closer to reaching their potential than ever before.

The problem with modern technology is that it keeps a significant amount of people with health problems alive. They reproduce and pass down those medical problems, while a hundred years ago they would had died.

We also rely less on physical strength and quickness in this modern world, so again we're having a much large percentage of non physically exceptional people having babies compared to the past. So that will also go down.

The one area where we will probably go up is intelligence, which is something that's needed more right now to better survive, with technology, and other things. But in terms of physical strength and quickness, the trend will be for it to go less athletic, more health problems.

Once we get good at genetic manipulation, then we will probably be able to eliminate those health problems, and become faster.

The majority of people who believe in evolution really don't understand it. They just think that a human will become bigger, stronger, faster, simply because that's better than before. They have no concept of the environment driving what beneficial genes get passed down.