The developed countries have mostly developed an environment where evolution is no longer happening for human beings – we all get a shot at survival and reproduction. And that’s a good thing: natural (or unnatural) selection is at the opposite end of the moral spectrum from human rights. We’re protecting our weak.

So this means that if this situation lasts (it’s rather an exception in the course of history), we’re not going to evolve one bit, and we might even nurture our minor defects. If we’re going to change at all, it’s going to be by artificial means: either by genetic manipulation, or by digital augmentation, or something we haven’t thought of yet.

The ironic thing is that we’re actually making an extremely harsh environment for all other species. Through changes in temperature, chemicals, disturbances in food chains, random genetic manipulation, we’re manufacturing an environment where only the most adaptable species can survive.

In fact the one thing that doesn’t move, and is plentiful in this environment, is our ever-expanding group. We’re becoming part of the environment. Consequently, we can expect the fastest adapters to adapt to us, in either symbiotic or parasitic relationships. Interesting thought.