Yesterday there was a talk in UP Lahug on Darwin 2009: the Origin of Species of the 21st Century. The speaker, Dr. Michael D. Purugganan is from the New York University and is doing research in the NYU laboratory. More information of his research can be found here: link. (just search up it in that site, I still have to write about it later)
In the first part of his talk he discussed how Charles Darwin was very much interested in the development of species as a result of domestication. He later described domestication as the mutualism or the evolutionary genetic change due to the cultivation of one species to another. This is exemplified in the products of agriculture of today such as Rice. Once it was merely the O. rufunos, now we have the O. sativa.
But this is merely the domestication of one higher species to the lower ones. What if, there was intra-specie domestication. What if man domesticated man himself?
One of the developments of produce of agriculture was the plants lost the ability to shatter and spread their seeds like in the wild thus allowing the farmers to collect their seeds easily.
Now what about humans? Can we raise our own kind so that they do not need to challenge their selves in the pursuit of food, shelter of clothing? Can we spoil man so that he need not use his mind well? Can we spoil our own kind that they will not use their basic functions of survival?
Think of it this way, we raise a race of people (although I strongly think we are developing a new subspecies) that do not need to think, work, or worry at all. They do not need to strive to survive because everything is provided for them. Once the chicken was a bird capable of true flight. But over the years of domestication, it has lost its ability to fly. If man is raised in an environment where little mental stimulation is present, will man genetically evolve to become dumb?
Some people may think this crazy but that’s the whole concept of adaptation right? When one loses the need for a certain part of himself, then that part becomes under developed or gone right? Such as the case of the chickens and the case of Agricultural plants losing the ability to scatter their seeds freely. Will man come to a point that he needs not think too much to survive?
I can’t help but think that this is but a scary theory of mine that derives it from the development of technology as to ease the life of man. Will there come a time that there will be technology enough to cease all problem of man, all needs of survival and the like? When such time comes man will no longer need to think as the machines do everything for him.
Some may argue that there are those who are still thinking. These people are those who create, manipulate, and continuously improve technology. I can already picture it out. The human race splitting into two different race: the Producers and the consumers. The thinkers and the slackers. The dominant and the weak.
I know this is a rather twisted concept and some people may strongly disagree with me. But to each his own opinion right? But I can’t help but wonder if those movies about the future, machines controlling everything, or the cultivation of man for their body parts has a large amount of reality to it.
