Evolving Ourselves Chapter Summary

429 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of technology on modern society

Evolving Ourselves explained well about how human is depending on technology, and it is changing our life quickly and easily. The mushrooming technological development changing the environment as well as our DNA. In the book, it was nicely introduced about Darwinism and compared the theory on natural selection and random mutation which are not the primary determinants to change life forms. If Darwin is alive today, he will add unnatural selection and nonrandom mutation to the theory. We have changed many species for our desire to make our life efficient. In the result, we have changed our own species indirectly and more changes will come to us and other creatures through man made evolution. Many heart breaking fact from a skinny lady about the choice between living forever childless or making space for children. …show more content…

The book gives us the vision that we have a way now to change other species and even our destiny. Everyone should be aware of this new-found ability and they should be aware of its ups and downs. It is hard to define what is natural today. Organisms have always influenced each other in subtle and significant ways. The difference is the artificial selection; human came in and added unnatural tools with human purpose and desire.
I do agree that if we created a unique organism that was able to survive in an alien environment and it changed and became something else, that would be evolution. I believe that people are already changing, "evolving", to meet changes to the earth and our environment, even without the intervention of science. The real question is how do we regulate this evolution so that the enhanced do not harm those who are not? People will likely use this science and technology to harm each other, that's in our

Show More
Related

  • Natural Man Lewis Thomas Analysis

    1053 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our awareness, our perception within nature, as Thomas states, is the contrast that segregates us from our symbols. It is the quality that separates us from our reflections, from the values and expectations that society has oppressed against itself. However, our illusions and hallucinations of nature are merely artifacts of our anthropocentric idealism. Thomas, in “Natural Man,” criticizes society for its flawed value-thinking, advocating how it “[is merely] a part of a system . . . [and] we are, in this view, neither owners nor operators; at best, [are] motile tissues specialized for receiving information” (56). We “spread like a new growth . . . touching and affecting every other kind of life, incorporating ourselves,” destroying the nature we coexist with, “[eutrophizing] the earth” (57). However, Thomas questions if “we are the invaded ones, the subjugated, [the] used?” (57). Due to our anthropocentric idealism, our illusions and hallucinations of nature, we forget that we, as organisms, are microscopically inexistent. To Thomas, “we are not made up, as we had always supposed, of successively enriched packets of our own parts,” but rather “we are shared, rented, occupied [as] the interior of our cells, driving them, providing the oxidative energy that sends us out for the improvement of each shining day, are the mitochondria” (1).

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of The Blade Runner And Mary Shelley's Frankenstein And Blade Runner

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ndaries, overpower nature and therefore control society, will result in adverse affects. Both creators, ultimately lost control of their creations; representing their loss of power and both creators attempting to play God faced death from their creations. Human nature embodies rationality and passion and also undeniably, the lust for power and control. Humans and “artificial” humans are seen to convey these elements. However, challenging the heirarchy will only lead to corruption and destruction of the individual and society.

    Read More

  • The Evolution Of The Tufted Titmouse

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    Evolution, also known as descent with modification, is a phrase Darwin used in proposing the evolution of Earth’s many species. Charles Darwin noticed that the descendants of ancestral species were different from the present day forms of species. Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin who was an English naturalist. He expounded the theory of evolution in his book of the Origin Species in 1859. He expresses that all types of organisms emerge and develop through natural selection, small, acquired traits that expands the individuals of capacity, survival, and reproduction. In this book, Darwin theorized that animals and plants evolve and develop with the aid of the creator through the process of natural selection.

    Read More

  • Oryx And Crake Analysis

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Notes from the Underground, the narrator claims that the natural world follows its own rules and laws regardless of human desires. He describes this by saying that “Nature doesn’t ask your permission; it doesn’t care about your wishes or whether you like its laws or not. You’re obliged to accept it as it is and consequently all its results as well” (13). It is not as though nature cares if humans are content with what it is doing, it acts by its own will so much that humans cannot try to control or alter it, they can only adapt.

    Read More

  • Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and Social Darwinism

    2626 Words  | 6 Pages

    Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written.

    Read More

  • Why Darwinism Is Just A Theory?

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    Keith Henson a writer in evolutionary psychology once said that “Evolution acts slowly. Our psychological characteristics today are those that promoted reproductive success in the ancestral environment.” Evolution was first introduced by a naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin. Darwin had written an autobiography, at the age of 50, On the Origin of Species (1859) explaining how species evolve through time by natural selection; this theory became known as Darwinism. “Verlyn Klinkenborg, who writes editorials and vignettes on science and nature for the “New York Times”” (Muller 706) questions Darwin’s theory in one of his essays he wrote called Darwin at 200: The Ongoing Force of His Unconventional Idea. Both articles talk about the theory of Darwinism, but the authors’ use different writing techniques and were written in different time periods. Darwin himself writes to inform us on what the theory is, where as Klinkenborg goes on to explain why Darwinism is just a theory. Today, evolution is still a very controversial topic among many. It comes up in several topics that are discussed everyday such as in politics, religion and education.

    Read More

  • The Evolution of Human Skin Color

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Darwin and his theory on evolution, organisms are presented with nature’s challenge of environmental change. Those that possess the characteristics of adapting to such challenges are successful in leaving their genes behind and ensuring that their lineage will continue. It is natural selection, where nature can perform tiny to mass sporadic experiments on its organisms, and the results can be interesting from extinction to significant changes within a species. Human beings are no exception to biological evolution. Like other organisms around the world, humans have significantly changed over time and have developed all sorts of diverse characteristics.

    Read More

  • NATURAL SELECTION

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    In all actuality, most of the human species is relatively evolved compared to all the other organisms in the world, but they are far from the perfect beings. Adaptation and evolution will always be a part of survival for the human race, there is no way humans can survive without the process of natural selection. It has played a major part in survival in the past and is sure to affect the human race for generations to come. Natural selection has not just contributed in the survival of the human race, but of all the organisms on Earth.

    Read More

  • The Evolution Of Human Evolution

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    Human evolution began in Africa six million years ago, it describes the process of our ancestors went through to ultimately become the modern humans we are today. Major changes in the evolution of humans have eventuated into the appearance and development of modern Homo sapiens. These major changes have included skull shape, brain size and muzzle size. This research essay will outline and evaluate these changes to describe and explain how modern humans have evolved. Natural selection plays a major role with the development of humans over time. Natural selection is Darwin’s most famous theory; it states that evolutionary change comes through the production of variation in each generation and differential survival of individuals with different combinations of these variable characters (Natural Selection, 2009).

    Read More

  • Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species

    2156 Words  | 5 Pages

    Charles Darwin in his book, On the Origin of Species, presents us with a theory of natural selection. This theory is his attempt at an explanation on how the world and its' species came to be the way that we know them now. Darwin writes on how through a process of millions of years, through the effects of man and the effects of nature, species have had an ongoing trial and error experiment. It is through these trials that the natural world has developed beneficial anomalies that at times seem too great to be the work of chance.

    Read More

  • We Are One Species Essay

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    The small revision and modifications represent the microevolutionary changes and can lead to new species over time. The immense vast and varied diversity of life on Earth, from birds to butterflies, from apes to humans these baffled and bewildered Darwin. Each organism and species alluringly and appealingly acclimatized and habituated to the environment around the them. Prior to Darwin, humans, were not looked upon as a part if the World. Though, humans resembled primates, like chimpanzee and orangutan and had a lot of similarities with the primates, only few of the Naturalists, grouped humans as

    Read More

  • Analysis Of John Mcphee's The Control Of Nature

    1710 Words  | 4 Pages

    The question of man’s ability to live in harmony with nature is one as old as humanity itself. The problem then becomes can humanity truly control nature. This is the question John McPhee seeks to answer in “The Control of Nature”. Like any good investigator McPhee begins by asking simple questions to those who have seen first hand some mankind’s most ambitious attempts at domesticating nature’s brute force. While McPhee does not comment specifically as to what the answer might be to the book’s question, he leaves the evidence for the reader to make their own decision as to man’s ability to conquer nature.

    Read More

  • Evolution Of Management Essay

    2647 Words  | 6 Pages

    These are some of the various aspects which have undergone changes and some of the people tat influenced such. The evolution is not over yet. Various people are still coming up with new ideas of how to improve on these theories. In this way, the evolution is a continuous process that does not end with the present, but rather gets more refined as we much into the future.

    Read More

  • Holding On To What Makes Us Human Summary

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    History should not be a class all college students have to take. As L.D Burnett wrote in his article, “Holding on to What Makes Us Human” he mentions people whom also agree that history should not be necessary. L.D Burnett wrote, “Policy makers and the public of view the purpose of college as purely vocational, and see humanistic inquiry—the study of literature, the arts, history, philosophy—a waste of time and money” (Holding on to What Makes Us Human). College is extremely expensive, students should use money wisely by spending money on classes related to their major. In contrast, there are college students who like to learn and have no problem with history being a mandatory class.

    Read More

  • Reflection Paper On Evolution

    1066 Words  | 3 Pages

    I never really gave thought to evolution I retrospect to science. However, I never really thought about evolution in the aspect of playing a part in the development of living creatures or the human life form. This was a result of my religious upbringings and lack of self-educating beyond what was taught to me in school. As a result of reading this chapter, I understand somewhat evolution means in regards to science. Evolution is a very diverse area of scientific studies. It shows the process in which living organisms have developed and diversified during this history of Earths existence. Evolution is supposed to be a model of the life forms of history on the

    Read More

More about Evolving Ourselves Chapter Summary

Open Document