@lochlantaylor: Great question! It really made me stop and think.
Physically – I think our ‘ideal image’ and ‘reality’ will continues to get further apart as obesity continues to increase and silly tabloid media continue to blow reality out the window with photoshop.
If we follow the trends of the last few hundred years we’ll keep getting taller. but I think I saw just last week that our life expectancy is set to drop (because of our poor eating habits and lack of physical activity) – at least in the current generations.
If we can shake sugar, fat and other unhealthy patterns we’ve adopted over the past twenty years, and embrace medical advances, we might have a life expectancy that stretches out longer.
In terms of how we live – hopefully in a way that is more sustainable with our world. We can’t keep going the way we are now – we need to change!
Great answer, Mia – I would like to look even further into the future, where I suspect that increased emphasis on intelligence, rather than physical ability will lead to weaker bodies and larger brain-cases. Our brain-cases are already so large they cause problems during birth, but this is routinely overcome by Caesarean births. So some of the shriveled bodies and enlarged brains seen on Sci Fi shows (Dr Who is one of my favourites) are quite possible.
If we manage not to kill a large fraction of the earth with military or environmental disasters, I think we will continue to improve our technology until we have solved a lot of the problems we have now, especially related to food and energy production. Whether or not we will collectively decide to make these resources available to everyone or whether just the rich/fortunate will hoard them is a moral/ethical/political question that is tough to predict. We are certainly capable of acting in a just and humane fashion towards other people, but by no means is it guaranteed…
I’m agreeing with @Mia for part of her answer. I think the ever increasing divide between rich and poor, or middle class and poor will determine how humans will appear in western countries in the short term future. We already see this starting to happen now.
I think the cost and social acceptability of growing our own food and eating well at a higher cost is likely to become ‘the way things are done’ and ‘sneaking a cheeseburger’ will make people think even less of that act.
@lochlantaylor: Great question! It really made me stop and think.
Physically – I think our ‘ideal image’ and ‘reality’ will continues to get further apart as obesity continues to increase and silly tabloid media continue to blow reality out the window with photoshop.
If we follow the trends of the last few hundred years we’ll keep getting taller. but I think I saw just last week that our life expectancy is set to drop (because of our poor eating habits and lack of physical activity) – at least in the current generations.
If we can shake sugar, fat and other unhealthy patterns we’ve adopted over the past twenty years, and embrace medical advances, we might have a life expectancy that stretches out longer.
In terms of how we live – hopefully in a way that is more sustainable with our world. We can’t keep going the way we are now – we need to change!
0
Great answer, Mia – I would like to look even further into the future, where I suspect that increased emphasis on intelligence, rather than physical ability will lead to weaker bodies and larger brain-cases. Our brain-cases are already so large they cause problems during birth, but this is routinely overcome by Caesarean births. So some of the shriveled bodies and enlarged brains seen on Sci Fi shows (Dr Who is one of my favourites) are quite possible.
0
If we manage not to kill a large fraction of the earth with military or environmental disasters, I think we will continue to improve our technology until we have solved a lot of the problems we have now, especially related to food and energy production. Whether or not we will collectively decide to make these resources available to everyone or whether just the rich/fortunate will hoard them is a moral/ethical/political question that is tough to predict. We are certainly capable of acting in a just and humane fashion towards other people, but by no means is it guaranteed…
0
I’m agreeing with @Mia for part of her answer. I think the ever increasing divide between rich and poor, or middle class and poor will determine how humans will appear in western countries in the short term future. We already see this starting to happen now.
I think the cost and social acceptability of growing our own food and eating well at a higher cost is likely to become ‘the way things are done’ and ‘sneaking a cheeseburger’ will make people think even less of that act.
0