英專家狂想：40年內進化出新人類

By 2050, a completely new type of human will evolve as a result of radical new technology, behaviour, and natural selection.

This is according to Cadell Last, a researcher at the Global Brain Institute, who claims mankind is undergoing a major 'evolutionary transition'.

In less than four decades, Mr Last claims we will live longer, have children in old age and rely on artificial intelligence to do mundane tasks.

This shift is so significant, he claims, it is comparable to the change from monkeys to apes, and apes to humans.

'Your 80 or 100 is going to be so radically different than your grandparents,' Mr Last says, who believe we will spend much of our time living in virtual reality.

Some evolutionary scientists believe this age could be as high as 120 by 2050.

Mr Last claims humans will also demonstrate delayed sexual maturation, according to a report by Christina Sterbenz in Business Insider.

This refers to something known as life history theory which attempts to explain how natural selection shape key events in a creature's life, such as reproduction.

It suggests that as brain sizes increase, organisms need more energy and time to reach their full potential, and so reproduce less.

Instead of living fast and dying young, Mr Last believes humans will live slow and die old.

'Global society at the moment is a complete mess,' he told MailOnline. 'But in crisis there is opportunity, and in apocalypse there can be metamorphosis.

'So I think the next system humanity creates will be far more sophisticated, fair, and abundant than our Current civilisation.

'I think our next system will be as different from the modern world, as our contemporary world is from the medieval world.'

'The biological clock isn't going to be around forever,' he added, and said that people could pause it for some time using future technology.

The change is already happening. Today, the average age at which a woman in Britain has her first baby has been rising steadily stands at 29.8.

In the US, just one percent of first children were born to women over the age of 35 in 1970. By 2012, that figure rose to 15 percent.

'As countries become socioeconomically advanced, more and more people, especially women, have the option to engage in cultural reproduction,' Mr Last added.

And as well as having more child-free years to enjoy leisure time, he believes artificial intelligence will offset the need for low-skill jobs.

We may also spend a large amount of time living in virtual reality.'I'm not quite sure most people have really internalised the implications of this possibility,' Mr Last said.

His views are detailed in a paper, titled 'Human Evolution, Life History Theory, and the End of Biological Reproduction' published Current Aging Science.“環球大腦研究所”的卡德爾•拉斯特稱，人類正在經歷一場“革命性的轉變”。受到新科技、新行爲和自然選擇的影響，將有一種全新的人類在2050年之前進化出來。

拉斯特聲稱，在不到40年的時間裏，人類的壽命將延長，生育年齡將推後，而平常不用動腦子的瑣事則完全交給人工智能機器來完成。拉斯特認爲，人類的這一變化意義重大，可以和猴子變成類人猿、再由類人猿變成人類的進化過程相提並論。

有學者認爲，到2050年，人的壽命將顯著延長，能活到120歲。拉斯特進一步猜想說，等我們老了以後，大部分生活都是在虛擬世界中進行的。他還大膽預言，人類的性成熟時間將推後，聲稱這是自然選擇的結果。他的理由是，人的大腦功能將進一步加強，整個機體需要更多能量和時間才能生長、成熟，而性成熟的時間也隨之延後。

拉斯特批評當今世界“完全是一團糟”，而人類即將創造的“下一套人文系統會複雜得多，並且更加公平、富饒”。拉斯特還設想，將來會有先進的科學技術，能夠隨時叫停我們的生物鐘。

拉斯特說：“從生到死，我們的時間和精力都有限，所以你得想明白要投身到生物性繁殖還是文化性繁殖中去。隨着各國在經濟、社會方面不斷進步，越來越多的人——尤其是女性——將更多地參與到文化性繁殖中來。”

另外，拉斯特預言人工智能將得到廣泛應用，取代低技術工作。另一方面，人類必須努力適應不斷進步的科學技術，隨之而來的壓力也持續擡高生兒育女的成本。

拉斯特的研究已經在《當代老齡科學》上發表。