The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist.
100,000 years into the future, sexual selection could mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed.
The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000.
These humans will be between 6ft and 7ft tall and they will live up to 120 years.
"Physical features will be driven by indicators of health, youth and fertility that men and women have evolved to look for in potential mates," says the report, which suggests that advances in cosmetic surgery and other body modifying techniques will effectively homogenise our appearance.
Men will have symmetrical facial features, deeper voices and bigger penises, according to Curry in a report commissioned for men's satellite TV channel Bravo.
Women will all have glossy hair, smooth hairless skin, large eyes and pert breasts, according to Curry.
Racial differences will be a thing of the past as interbreeding produces a single coffee-coloured skin tone.
The future for our descendants isn't all long life, perfect bodies and chiselled features, however.
While humans will reach their peak in 1000 years' time, 10,000 years later our reliance on technology will have begun to dramatically change our appearance.
Medicine will weaken our immune system and we will begin to appear more child-like.
Dr Curry said: "The report suggests that the future of man will be a story of the good, the bad and the ugly.
"While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is the possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other.
"After that, things could get ugly, with the possible emergence of genetic 'haves' and 'have-nots'."
Dr Curry's theory may strike a chord with readers who have read H G Wells' classic novel The Time Machine, in particular his descriptions of the Eloi and the Morlock races.
In the 1895 book, the human race has evolved into two distinct species, the highly intelligent and wealthy Eloi and the frightening, animalistic Morlock who are destined to work underground to keep the Eloi happy.
Comment: This is not such a harmless joke as it may seem. Recent social changes and scientific advances certainly corroborate the old prediction that H.G. Wells had made. All over the world inequality is rising, while upward mobility is stagnating, which contributes to the physical and reproductive isolation of classes from one another. Additionally,
technologies for genetic enhancement are beginning to be discussed; like plastic surgery, they will be available primarily to the upper class, further separating people.
The author of the current hypothesis,
Oliver Curry, has a background in political sciences. His interest is in evolutionary explanation of social, moral and political behavior. He is a member of the interdisciplinary research group called EMPG (the Evolutionary Moral Psychology Group) that hopes to understand human morality using "recent advances in evolutionary biology,
game theory, animal behaviour, evolutionary psychology and neuroscience". In other words, they say that we do good unto others because it ultimately serves ourselves or our genes.
Dr. Curry's current work aims to "deepen and extend this evolutionary account of morality by turning some of the predictions that evolutionary theory makes about human moral and political psychology into tractable experiments, and putting them to the test. This includes work on the evolution of patience, on attitudes to abortion, and
on moral decision-making in psychopaths."
It is ironic that to explain altruism, Dr. Curry uses a framework that glorifies selfishness (evolutionary or otherwise). Even so, he can't help noting that the current societal trends lead to the rise of psychopathic behavior. An older
BBC NEWS story on this same subject quotes him as follows:
Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, they [people] could come to resemble domesticated animals. [..] Social skills, such as communicating and interacting with others, could be lost, along with emotions such as love, sympathy, trust and respect. People would become less able to care for others, or perform in teams. The problem with Dr. Curry's overall conclusion is that psychopaths have no concept about the long-term effect of their actions. This is precisely why they are 'amoral' in a conventional sense of the word that Dr. Curry and his colleagues are sticking to. Psychopaths view other people and their whole environment as an expendable resource. It doesn't occur to them that when they trash everything around them, they themselves will to be destroyed.
It is obvious to anyone who follows the news that we don't have 100,000 years to split into two morphologically different subspecies, nor do we have a thousand years to get to live for 120 years.
On the other hand, one can say that psychopaths do represent a distinct sub-species of
Homo sapiensl. They look the same as the guy next to you, but their evolutionary survival strategy is different: instead of cooperating with others, they feed on them. This is eerily similar to how Morlocks feed on helpless Elois, while the latter are ignorant of danger even though they feel it unconsciously.
The world is burning NOW. It behooves one to descend from the ivory tower and face the grim reality.
It sounds like Oliver Curry email box is being spammed like mine, in which case he has started to believe in cosmetic surgery, bigger penises and god knows what else. Wonder which species he sees himself as belonging to.
Maybe it would be more accurate to talk about devolution than evolution.