Scientists Say Human Evolution Isn’t Over Yet — And Here’s How Our Bodies Could Change in the Future

It has been 200,000 to 300,000 years since we, Homo sapiens, existed as a species. Hominins, which include our direct early ancestors and our evolutionary relatives like Neanderthals and Denisovans, have been evolving for millions of years, long before the first modern human was born.

Over all this time, we have changed a lot, but we’re not done yet. However, with the existence of technology and AI, it might be a little bit harder to predict where our species is heading evolutionarily. So, today, let’s discuss different theories and ideas about how our bodies could change in the future, and if it would affect the factors that make us human.

Human Evolution Is Still Happening Today

Yes, humans are still evolving, and some of the best evidence can be directly observed in our bodies and DNA today. For example, recent studies revealed 155 new human genes that were created from scratch. In other words, they are genes that did not form by just duplicating existing genes, but rather, these microgenes were originally created in certain DNA regions.

A few more noticeable changes are our shrinking jaws and wisdom teeth. Before humans invented advanced cooking techniques and agriculture, we used to eat hard-to-chew foods like raw plants and meat. However, after the introduction of softer diets, humans no longer needed the large, strong, and powerful jaws, with a full set of teeth, and more.

Read more: Scientific American | Cell Reports

Imagining Future Changes in Our Bodies by Understanding Our Past

Science Reveals What We’ll Look Like in 1,000 Years

Now, there is a certain complexity about predicting how humans could evolve in the future. It is because the progression of our technology will directly influence where our evolution is headed. To understand this idea, one would have to be familiar with the concept of natural selection, selective pressure, and the lack thereof.

Selective pressure refers to any factor that could cause a certain trait to be more favorable for survival and reproduction. A good example would be fur. Humans and apes shared a common ancestor millions of years ago, but they retained their fur while we lost ours.

Scientists think it is because of a theory called the open savanna hypothesis, where early humans moved to open grasslands, under the heat of the sun, causing them to develop some new traits, such as bipedalism, and lose others, like fur.

There was a selective pressure to lose body hair to efficiently thermoregulate and sweat, to be able to keep on moving in the open areas, and chase animals around. It was also thought to help in removing parasites from our bodies back then.

So, how does technology play a role in an evolutionary path such as this? Well, after we lost our fur, the Ice Age came, but we did not gain it back. Why? Because we developed a technology called clothing, which allowed humans to stay warm.

This trend of technology buffering against natural selection still applies today, but on a whole new level. We have advanced medicines for people who were born sick or got sick as they live their lives. This circumvents the selective pressures of diseases. We also relied less on physical strength, as different machines do the heavy lifting for us. In other words, human evolution is not just affected purely by biological pressure now, but also by our technological progress.

How AI and Robotics May Shape Us

There are several ways humans might continue evolving; some could be beneficial, and some could drive us to the worst. Let’s explore each one, beginning with our shortening attention spans.

Ever since the use of social media, we have always wanted something quick that could hit our brains with dopamine. It reinforces the need for instant gratification or rewards, even if it is just the notification pings in our phones. Over time, humans could evolve to potentially weaken our ability to deeply focus on one specific subject or task.

Another would be cognitive offloading, where we use technology such as search engines or chatbots like ChatGPT to memorize and understand information for us. Instead of the human brain doing the complex calculations and memorization, it is offloaded to this technology.

It might seem harmless at first, but it removes the selective pressure for our brain to maintain a certain size and functionality. In other words, we could develop smaller brains and skulls. However, the opposite could be true as well. With this much information transferring in and out of our brains with the help of AI, we might get a bigger or more efficient nervous system, like an advanced processor instead of a memory storage device.

These thought experiments highlight just how complicated it is to predict our future evolution because of our rapidly advancing technology, which no one will be able to stop. In fact, there are even some theories that predict we are going to merge with both AI and robotic bodies.

Read more: ArXiv

The Path Ahead: Blending Evolution and Technology

The Future of Human Evolution?

Combining what we know, evolution will not stop; instead, it might be guided by AI and our increasing closeness to the machines and technology. We might evolve to be healthier, smarter, or more connected to technology than ever, to the point that we can’t survive without it. Just watch the film, Wall-E, as it is a good thought thought-provoking movie.

So, the future is still up for debate, and that is the main point. We can try to predict how we are going to evolve, but ultimately, because of how fast our technology is advancing, all those predictions might be outdated pretty quickly. Now, the question is, what kind of human will we be, or will we still be considered humans when we are mixed with AI and robotics?

Author's Final Thoughts

Human evolution has not stopped, but rather, we are still evolving physically and mentally, influenced by our environments, genes, culture, and increasingly by technology. AI and robotics may guide our next evolutionary path, helping us shape not just who we are today, but also who we will become.

Read next: Scientists Reveal Humans Are Evolving to Lose Some Body Parts — Here’s What We May Not Have in the Future

References & Further Reading

Field, Y., et al. (2016). Detection of human adaptation during the past 2000 years. Nature Genetics. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5182071/

Beauchamp, J. P. (2016). Genetic evidence for natural selection in humans in the contemporary United States. PNAS. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1600398113

Byars, S. G., et al. (2010). Natural selection in a contemporary human population. PNAS. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0906199106

Milot, E., et al. (2011). Evidence for evolution in response to natural selection in a contemporary human population. PNAS. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1104210108

Schoech, A. P., et al. (2019). Quantification of frequency-dependent genetic architectures in 25 UK Biobank traits reveals action of negative selection. Nature Communications. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08424-6