When I was a senior in college I was forced to take Biological Anthropology.  I both liked and hated this class but that is neither here nor there, the reason I am writing this blog entry is because something dawned on me this week.
In that class we were asked to write an essay on wither we believed if the theory of evolution was still in effect for humans even though we have medical technology available to take care of many conditions that used to effect humans.  To my dismay, this was a trick essay – there was a “right” answer and only those who wrote that evolution is still in effect got points!
It is true that evolution still effects us humans but has anyone ever paid attention to how it affects us today?  Just 10-15 years ago, if you were diagnosed with Cancer your chances of survival were very slim.  Not that we have cured cancer, not in the slightest, but we have an extremely good patient survival rate and incredible prevention programs as well as public awareness.  As little as 5 years ago a diagnosis of HIV meant a certain death sentence though the time was different in each case.  We have not cured AIDS but we *do* have medication to suppress AIDS to the point where it has no or little effect on the life’s of those patience (other than the ridicules cost of the “Triple Cocktail”).  In the foreseeable future (100-200 years) there will be little to no outbreaks of AIDS.  The fact is that technology, both medical and otherwise, have changed the effect of evolution on us.
What does that mean?  Let’s take some for-instances.  Humans have enormous brains!  Scientists claim that one of the most risky moves in our evolutionarily line was the move from being a quadruped to biped (going from walking around on four legs to walking around on two).  This was very risky because it means there would be less space in the hips to give birth; therefore, if we want to keep this enormous brain of ours we were going to have to give birth to infants that are far too immature to fend for themselves in any way.  Unlike a baby horse who is up and walking around just hours after birth, human babies have a lot of growing to do before they become equal to their equine cousins.  One common myth is that we are born with all of the brain cells we will ever use and we can never re-generate any of them.  The truth is that your brain continues to develop well into childhood – though that is it! 
Okay, so now that we are familiar with what I am talking about with the babies let’s take this discussion a little further.  Today, in America, about 25% of all live births among humans are performed via C-Section.  The reasons for the procedure could have meant that both fetus and mother died but that’s not want I want to focus on.  What I would like to propose is that perhaps the use of technology has turned this evolutional disadvantage into an advantage.  If more C-Sections are performed then that means that it no longer matters (for those woman) how wide their hips are.  Given enough time, say 1,000-100,000 years, nearly all of our offspring would have to be “extracted” through a medical process because their brains are too large to fit through any existing woman’s pelvis.  Perhaps babies will come out more mature and be able to walk with-in hours like most other mammals.  One thing is for sure – ALTHOUGH EVOLUTION CONTINUES TO PLAY A PART IN HUMANS, TECHNOLOGY DOES AND WILL EFFECT HOW WE ARE AFFECTED! 

Rather than being Man vs. Nature it is now Man vs. Man + Nature.  We will see more and more of this come to light in the next few decades but the exciting part of this is that for the first time ever, we are a part of our own evolutionary design.  The connection between Man and Technology will only continue to increase as we get better at making artificial and real human parts (cloning).  Eventually, someone will figure out how cool it would be to make educated predictions on the evolution of our species and will invent the study of Evolulogy (the study of Evolution in our species).  It is possible that, in a distant future, there is very little about us that is natural.  Perhaps we are all connected to a computer or some sort and completely dependent on it to survive.  If so, will someone from then come back in time and let me know?  Oh wait, how will you handle your computer umbilical cord?

--NZ