Richard,

Are we evolving passed this 'selfish' phase? I guess some people are and always have been but, it's not a trend that is immediately obvious. Is this not known as the 'I want it now' generation?

Physically and mentally we are regressing or at least stagnating to some extent. I know people will argue that our technology shows we are progressing but, in fact only our technology is evolving to produce better technology while we become ever more reliant on that technology. Doesn't sound like WE are actually progressing does it?

As a species we have not altered for at least 30,000 years. This was around the time when the male Y chromosome became so damaged it could not be fixed and took on it's 'Y' characteristic. Some studies now show that there was a male genetic 'bottleneck' at this time producing the 'mitochondrial Adam' all current men are decended from. If you think about it, it's quite scary.

It is believed each and every one of us today carries at least one genetic defect in our recessive genes. If you consider the Human Genome project used the DNA of one individual then there could be countless errors and undesirable charateristics that are now considered the benchmark for our understanding of everyone's genetic make-up.

I really have to question Medicine's role in all this too. We 'cure' diseases with drugs that, if left to our natural defenses, would allow our immune system to evolve. This aspect of our evolution has ceased in every 'developed' country. Indeed, we have now created drug resistant strains of most of the common 'killer' bugs of the Victorian era. Drugs are obviously not the solution we thought they were and, in our arrogance we continue to develop 'better' drugs which will no doubt result in even better killer bugs.

What about industry? We've been polluting the environment for over 200 years and now it seems the oceans have been taking the brunt of this onslaught. The seas are becoming acid so, if the plankton don't evolve, the seas, which are the real air refinery since we destroyed most of the forests, could die too and us along with them.

Human evolution eh? Somehow I don't see it. Unless we're becoming cold-blodded, UV tolerant, anerobic bottom-feeders.

The only way we can evolve is to let Nature start doing its thing again. We need to back-off and accept that Nature knows best. Its what got us here in the first place and somehow I don't think Nature intended us to start destroying or usurping our own creator...

You see all we're actually getting good at is managing our own stupidity. If we weren't placing such demands on Nature we wouldn't need to think about changing the genetic code of our crops to make them grow bigger, stronger, faster. We wouldn't be poisoning the food chain with pesticides, fertilisers, ripening agents etc. We have gone off the rails, plain and simple.