10万年后的人类长怎样

2014-03-11 12:54
时代英语·高二 2014年2期
关键词:拉姆人脸艾伦

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.

正如人脸自石器时代至今已经发生了相当大的进化,我们可以预见在未来我们的脸庞也将发生不断的变化。

如今,人类大脑是我们的祖先灵长类动物大小的三倍。随着我们大脑的进化,我们的头变大了,我们的颅骨扩张了,我们的面部特征也变平了。

如今随着可穿戴传感技术(比如谷歌眼镜)的出现,在两万年后、六万年后甚至十万年后,我们的大脑将变成什么样子呢?这是艺术家兼研究员尼克欧蕾·拉姆向艾伦·坤博士提出的问题,艾伦·坤是一位在圣路易斯华盛顿大学获得了计算基因组学博士学位的博士。

根据他们的讨论结果,拉姆创建了一系列令人惊叹的图像,展示了在十万年后人类将进化成什么样子。

坤博士认为,人类未来的进化关键在于人们为了满足需要,在形成自然进化和适应人体生物学拥有“控制权”。

随着基因工程学的规范化,“人脸面对的命运将逐渐由人类的品味决定。”坤博士写道,而人们的前额会由于大脑不断变大而不断扩大。

由于人们能够完全掌握人类遗传形态基因,人脸也将朝人们普遍认为具有吸引力的特征方向发展:强壮、高贵的线条、笔直的鼻子、炯炯有神的眼睛,还有让左右两边完全对称的黄金分割比率。

坤博士认为,眼睛将变得“大得可怕”,由于人类将移居到太阳系,而人们开始生活在远离太阳更阴暗的环境中。

眼睛还会以其他方式进化——从我们今天的观点来看会觉得很吓人——新特征包括:变得更亮,弱光下的视力会更好,半月皱襞构造也发生变化,能使我们从侧面眨眼,以保护眼睛免受宇宙射线伤害。

皮肤颜色将变得更深,来帮助减轻由于臭氧层破坏下地球紫外线的辐射造成的危害。

坤博士同样预测,人们将有更厚的眼皮和更明显的眉骨(眉毛下光滑的额骨),来解决低重力的影响。

某网站报道称,人类同样会有其他功能性的需要:大鼻子有助于在外太空环境下的呼吸;因为头部较大,还要密集的头发来控制热量流失。

除了为适应变化的环境的一些实用性进化外,同样有一些美观的进化。父母可以精确地为后代选择外观——为他们选择眼睛的颜色、头发等。

坤博士还预测另一个朝着人类愿望发展的趋势:人们的皮肤看起来很自然,因为皮肤下已经植入了很多先进的科技设备。

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