There have been stories and sci-fi’s where the future human has been described as a robot. The future human will have hi-tech machine implants, regenerable limbs, and cameras for eyes. The human scientific name is Homo sapiens (sapiens). Human, or homo, evolution started around 4 million years ago. Genetic traits show that the Homo migrated for the first time out of Africa between 2 and 1.8 million years ago. A million years ago, there was more than one human species. One thing that describes humans is bipedalism, the ability to walk on two legs. Other characteristics of humans evolved more recently, around 300 000 to 100 000 years ago. These characteristics are the ability to make and use tools, the capacity for language, symbolic expression, art, cultural diversity, and so on.
Humans have changed a lot over the course of millions of years. In the past 10,000 years, we have learned how to use fire, and now we know how to use technology for our own well-being. We don’t have to think any more about where to get food or how to survive the day. We use science to solve our problems. For example, we can use implants to fix a part of our body that’s broken. Maybe in the future, the implant can improve a person, there even might be brain implants. Gene modification is already a possibility. It can be done with embryonic genes, which means that scientists can design a baby.
Scientists have predicted that the future human might have a smaller jaw, and there might be less room for 32 teeth. Early humans had big jaws because they didn’t know how to use fire to cook their food. Our bodies might get bigger, but there is a limit to how big our bodies can get. There have been some reports that our thumbs might change because teenagers are playing a lot of video games and using smartphones. These changes can only happen in the next generation if they are genetic, but these are are individual change caused by muscle training. In the future, it may happen that we only have one race: hybrids. The future human would have light brown skin, be darked-haired, and the race would be Afro-Euro-Australo-Americo-Asian. Usually, for a new species to arise, you will need three components: variation, natural selection, and geographic isolation. All three have almost disappeared from the human evolution equation.
The biggest change might happen to our brain. Over the past 6 million years, human brain size has almost tripled. The brain got bigger because we were learning how to use tools, language developed, and our social system got more complex. Nowadays, our brains are getting smaller again, in Europe, our brains were the biggest 10 000–20 000 years ago. Our brains might have gotten smaller because our brains use a lot of energy, they use almost 20% of our daily calories. We don’t have to memorize every fruit, what we can eat, and where we can find it. We also don’t have to find out ways to outwit a lion or an antelope. We just have to go to the store to get food. Living in small tribes made us figure out more ways to deal with our daily problems. Nowadays, people are usually good in one specific area. That being said, maybe it is good for modern life that we lost certain abilities, and then we can learn more useful abilities for modern life.
Our personalities might change as well, because when we were hunter-gatherers, we needed to be more aggressive. We used to hunt large mammals, now we can go to stores and get necessary things. If we have problems, then we call the police or go to court to settle the arguments. Humans also live in much larger groups than they used to, and people are able to make new friends through the internet. In the past, people lived in small groups and had only a few contacts. For some of us, it is not easy to adapt to the modern lifestyle because our instincts, desires, and fears are still the same as those of our stone-age ancestors. Modern society effectively fulfills our material requirements, but it falls short of meeting the psychological needs of our primal instincts.
In conclusion, we can’t exactly tell what the future human will look like, we can only predict. Predicting the future is even harder because the environment is changing too fast. Probably the future human will live longer and grow taller. The future human might become more attractive, but they might look more similar. Global media and beauty standards may also be cases of it. In our hearts and brains, we are still like our stone-age ancestors.
Sources:
https://www.bbcearth.com/news/what-will-humans-look-like-in-a-million-years
https://humanorigins.si.edu/education/introduction-human-evolution
https://theconversation.com/future-evolution-from-looks-to-brains-and-personality-how-will-humans-change-in-the-next-10-000-years-176997
https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/what-will-we-look-like-in-the-future/