Just as the human face has evolved considerably since the Stone Age so it is expected to keep changing in the future.
Today the human brain is three times the size of our primate ancestors. As our brains grew so did our heads get bigger, our skulls expanded and our features became flatter.
Now with the advent of wearable technology (Google Glass), how will our heads and faces evolve in 20,000 years, 60,000 years and even 100,000 years from now? This was the question posed by artist and researcher Nickolay Lamm when he quizzed Dr Alan Kwan, who holds a PhD in computational genomics from Washington University in St. Louis.
Based on their discussions, Lamm has created a stunning series of images which display one possible evolution for the human race over the next 100,000 years.
Dr Kwan believes that the key to our future evolution will be man “wresting control” of the human form from natural evolution and adapting human biology to suit our needs.
As genetic engineering becomes the norm, “the fate of the human face will be increasingly determined by human tastes” writes Dr Kwan, while foreheads will continue to expand as our brains continue to grow larger.
As man achieves total mastery over human morphological genetics, the human face will become heavily biased towards features that humans find fundamentally appealing: strong, regal lines, straight nose, intense eyes, and placement of facial features that adhere to the golden ratio of left and right perfect symmetry.
Dr Kwan believes eyes will grow “unnervingly large” as the human race colonizes the solar system and people start living in the dimmer environments of colonies further away from the sun.
Eyes will also develop in other ways— that would seem startling from our viewpoint today—with new features including eye-shine enhance low-light vision and even a sideways blink from re-constituted plica semilunaris to help protect our eyes from cosmic rays.
Skin will also become more pigmented to help alleviate the damage by harmful UV radiation outside of the earths protective ozone.
Dr Kwan also predicts that people will have thicker eyelids and a more pronounced superciliary arch (the smooth, frontal bone of the skull under the brow), to deal with the effects of low gravity.
There will be other functional necessities: larger nostrils for easier breathing in off-planet environments, denser hair to contain heat loss from a larger head, reports a website.
As well as practical developments to suit changing environments, there will also be more cosmetic developments. Parents will choose precisely the genetic makeup of their offspring—selecting the color of their eyes, hair etc.
Dr Kwan predicts a trend towards humans wishing to look as natural as possible even as there are greater numbers of technological advancements under the skin.
正如人臉自石器時(shí)代至今已經(jīng)發(fā)生了相當(dāng)大的進(jìn)化,我們可以預(yù)見(jiàn)在未來(lái)我們的臉龐也將發(fā)生不斷的變化。
如今,人類大腦是我們的祖先靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物大小的三倍。隨著我們大腦的進(jìn)化,我們的頭變大了,我們的顱骨擴(kuò)張了,我們的面部特征也變平了。
如今隨著可穿戴傳感技術(shù)(比如谷歌眼鏡)的出現(xiàn),在兩萬(wàn)年后、六萬(wàn)年后甚至十萬(wàn)年后,我們的大腦將變成什么樣子呢?這是藝術(shù)家兼研究員尼克歐蕾·拉姆向艾倫·坤博士提出的問(wèn)題,艾倫·坤是一位在圣路易斯華盛頓大學(xué)獲得了計(jì)算基因組學(xué)博士學(xué)位的博士。
根據(jù)他們的討論結(jié)果,拉姆創(chuàng)建了一系列令人驚嘆的圖像,展示了在十萬(wàn)年后人類將進(jìn)化成什么樣子。
坤博士認(rèn)為,人類未來(lái)的進(jìn)化關(guān)鍵在于人們?yōu)榱藵M足需要,在形成自然進(jìn)化和適應(yīng)人體生物學(xué)擁有“控制權(quán)”。
隨著基因工程學(xué)的規(guī)范化,“人臉面對(duì)的命運(yùn)將逐漸由人類的品味決定。”坤博士寫(xiě)道,而人們的前額會(huì)由于大腦不斷變大而不斷擴(kuò)大。
由于人們能夠完全掌握人類遺傳形態(tài)基因,人臉也將朝人們普遍認(rèn)為具有吸引力的特征方向發(fā)展:強(qiáng)壯、高貴的線條、筆直的鼻子、炯炯有神的眼睛,還有讓左右兩邊完全對(duì)稱的黃金分割比率。
坤博士認(rèn)為,眼睛將變得“大得可怕”,由于人類將移居到太陽(yáng)系,而人們開(kāi)始生活在遠(yuǎn)離太陽(yáng)更陰暗的環(huán)境中。
眼睛還會(huì)以其他方式進(jìn)化——從我們今天的觀點(diǎn)來(lái)看會(huì)覺(jué)得很嚇人——新特征包括:變得更亮,弱光下的視力會(huì)更好,半月皺襞構(gòu)造也發(fā)生變化,能使我們從側(cè)面眨眼,以保護(hù)眼睛免受宇宙射線傷害。
皮膚顏色將變得更深,來(lái)幫助減輕由于臭氧層破壞下地球紫外線的輻射造成的危害。
坤博士同樣預(yù)測(cè),人們將有更厚的眼皮和更明顯的眉骨(眉毛下光滑的額骨),來(lái)解決低重力的影響。
某網(wǎng)站報(bào)道稱,人類同樣會(huì)有其他功能性的需要:大鼻子有助于在外太空環(huán)境下的呼吸;因?yàn)轭^部較大,還要密集的頭發(fā)來(lái)控制熱量流失。
除了為適應(yīng)變化的環(huán)境的一些實(shí)用性進(jìn)化外,同樣有一些美觀的進(jìn)化。父母可以精確地為后代選擇外觀——為他們選擇眼睛的顏色、頭發(fā)等。
坤博士還預(yù)測(cè)另一個(gè)朝著人類愿望發(fā)展的趨勢(shì):人們的皮膚看起來(lái)很自然,因?yàn)槠つw下已經(jīng)植入了很多先進(jìn)的科技設(shè)備。