英专家狂想：40年内进化出新人类

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 2017, 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.

“环球大脑研究所”的卡德尔•拉斯特称，人类正在经历一场“革命性的转变”。受到新科技、新行为和自然选择的影响，将有一种全新的人类在2050年之前进化出来。

拉斯特声称，在不到40年的时间里，人类的寿命将延长，生育年龄将推后，而平常不用动脑子的琐事则完全交给人工智能机器来完成。拉斯特认为，人类的这一变化意义重大，可以和猴子变成类人猿、再由类人猿变成人类的进化过程相提并论。

有学者认为，到2050年，人的寿命将显著延长，能活到120岁。拉斯特进一步猜想说，等我们老了以后，大部分生活都是在虚拟世界中进行的。他还大胆预言，人类的性成熟时间将推后，声称这是自然选择的结果。他的理由是，人的大脑功能将进一步加强，整个机体需要更多能量和时间才能生长、成熟，而性成熟的时间也随之延后。

拉斯特批评当今世界“完全是一团糟”，而人类即将创造的“下一套人文系统会复杂得多，并且更加公平、富饶”。拉斯特还设想，将来会有先进的科学技术，能够随时叫停我们的生物钟。

拉斯特说：“从生到死，我们的时间和精力都有限，所以你得想明白要投身到生物性繁殖还是文化性繁殖中去。随着各国在经济、社会方面不断进步，越来越多的人——尤其是女性——将更多地参与到文化性繁殖中来。”

另外，拉斯特预言人工智能将得到广泛应用，取代低技术工作。另一方面，人类必须努力适应不断进步的科学技术，随之而来的压力也持续抬高生儿育女的成本。

拉斯特的研究已经在《当代老龄科学》上发表。