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The limits of evolution?; super-fast evolution
Topic Started: Apr 15 2009, 10:13 AM (1,409 Views)
Toad of Spades
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Clorothod
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Is it possible for organisms similar to earth life to exist that evolve at breakneck speed to exist (200 million years worth of evolution in a few days). What would be required? Is that even possible?
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Transhuman
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If the bacteria already exist and in a very high population, not long. Maybe just a million years if everything goes well (Way less then it did here)
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

And how long do you think it takes for a new species to evolve/emerge?
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food for thought
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ATEK Azul
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Transhuman
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I would personally say that species with the right evolutionary presures can evolve in a million years give or take some depending on the ancestral form and presures. I my self want to call demesticated animal breeds species my self becouse they have alot of differences from their ancestral forms and they arose within thousands of years.
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Terrence of Chance
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Infant
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Wasn't there a movie made, based on this concept of super-fast evolution? I think they way THEY had gone about it, was that the DNA of the aliens actually included a lot more Base Pairs than that of earth life.
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ATEK Azul
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Transhuman
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The fastest evolution can go for complex life is most likely the speed of artificial evolution which can happen in thousands of years with domesticated life being our source of evidence, which can possibly accelerate as more variations happen which is also shown in domesticated life.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

If it's nanotech-based life, evolution can happen rapidly, due to Lemarkian evolution.

Artificially intelligent nanobots can select the traits they want to show in subsequent generations. Sort of like selective breeding on themselves. Think of Michael Crichton's book "Prey".
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ATEK Azul
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Transhuman
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Sounds awsome I would love to see that world.
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

I see lots of disagreeing, but I'm not so sure it's impossible. It depends at the rate at which they age and die. We age relatively slow because the chances of us getting cancer are relatively low until we get into our mid 30's and early 40's. After that we begin to age a bit quicker because our DNA reaches a kind of tipping point where it's become so damaged due to gradual build up of errors during cell division that it just kind of falls apart and our tissues and organs either fail or develop cancerous cells.

But think about organisms that somehow survive on a planet with either a thin atmosphere or very close to a star. If they're bombard with enough radiation, they may either develop cancer or slowly become sterile, so they reproduce, develop, and undergo cell division at an accelerated rate. Their lifespans are very short by our standards, perhaps as short as half an hour or less. They may not become very complex, but they would evolve very quickly due to mutations via the radiation and rapid reproduction.

I doubt they could undergo millions of years of evolution in a few days, but they might cut it down to centuries or even decades.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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ATEK Azul
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Transhuman
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Thats an interesting idea thanks for sharing maybe evolution can go faster but it might require alot of enviromental pressure on the organism itself and while short not super short life spans with enviromentaly tollerable genetics with a high mutation rate in reproduction and underdeveloped forms? maybe with a high predator population high variaties of food and symbiotic, parasitic and microbial presures?
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

So in other words, a very brutal environment. Very unforgiving, very difficult to thrive in.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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ATEK Azul
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Yeah pretty much.
I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's!
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Theoretically if you could simulate the entire envirmonment on a computer, down to the atom level, you could actually fastforward evolution. I realize that it would be a simulation but you could then speed up the rate at which time goes by and yes make millions of years of evolution happen in a night.
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ATEK Azul
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Transhuman
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Thats a good idea though we don't have the abillity to yet.
I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's!
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