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.
正如人臉自石器時代至今已經發生了相當大的進化,我們可以預見在未來我們的臉龐也將發生不斷的變化。
如今,人類大腦是我們的祖先靈長類動物大小的三倍。隨著我們大腦的進化,我們的頭變大了,我們的顱骨擴張了,我們的面部特征也變平了。
如今隨著可穿戴傳感技術(比如谷歌眼鏡)的出現,在兩萬年后、六萬年后甚至十萬年后,我們的大腦將變成什么樣子呢?這是藝術家兼研究員尼克歐蕾·拉姆向艾倫·坤博士提出的問題,艾倫·坤是一位在圣路易斯華盛頓大學獲得了計算基因組學博士學位的博士。
根據他們的討論結果,拉姆創建了一系列令人驚嘆的圖像,展示了在十萬年后人類將進化成什么樣子。
坤博士認為,人類未來的進化關鍵在于人們為了滿足需要,在形成自然進化和適應人體生物學擁有“控制權”。
隨著基因工程學的規范化,“人臉面對的命運將逐漸由人類的品味決定。”坤博士寫道,而人們的前額會由于大腦不斷變大而不斷擴大。
由于人們能夠完全掌握人類遺傳形態基因,人臉也將朝人們普遍認為具有吸引力的特征方向發展:強壯、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稱的黃金分割比率。
坤博士認為,眼睛將變得“大得可怕”,由于人類將移居到太陽系,而人們開始生活在遠離太陽更陰暗的環境中。
眼睛還會以其他方式進化——從我們今天的觀點來看會覺得很嚇人——新特征包括:變得更亮,弱光下的視力會更好,半月皺襞構造也發生變化,能使我們從側面眨眼,以保護眼睛免受宇宙射線傷害。
皮膚顏色將變得更深,來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。
坤博士同樣預測,人們將有更厚的眼皮和更明顯的眉骨(眉毛下光滑的額骨),來解決低重力的影響。
某網站報道稱,人類同樣會有其他功能性的需要:大鼻子有助于在外太空環境下的呼吸;因為頭部較大,還要密集的頭發來控制熱量流失。
除了為適應變化的環境的一些實用性進化外,同樣有一些美觀的進化。父母可以精確地為后代選擇外觀——為他們選擇眼睛的顏色、頭發等。
坤博士還預測另一個朝著人類愿望發展的趨勢:人們的皮膚看起來很自然,因為皮膚下已經植入了很多先進的科技設備。