My early training as a biologist – fortunate student of one of the most significant evolutionary biologists of the 20th century, John Maynard Smith – taught me that evolution is not something we will, any of us, experience directly.  In the 1980s it was assumed (and is still assumed by many) to be a slow, generations-long process that is only detectable in the fossil record.   JMS said, not unreasonably (neo-Darwinian that he was), that human beings, having removed all evolutionary pressures through their ingeniousness, were no longer evolving. He pointed out that a few thousand years ago, being desperately short-sighted, he would have been easy prey for a sabre tooth tiger, and would have been unlikely survive even long enough to pass on his genes.  The invention of spectacles removed that evolutionary pressure;  further inventions, removed the others.   Physically, at least, we were unlikely to evolve any further.

In the last few years, however, a new phase of human evolution has become apparent; and one that is so rapid in its effects that they are observable within an individual’s lifetime.   What is more, it is an evolution often triggered by external factors, but driven by internal ones: driven, indeed, by the individual themselves, with a little dedicated application.    The results of embracing the challenge to evolve oneself?  An ability to succeed where others are crumbling under the stress of modern existence.  Because yes, it turns out that evolutionary pressures haven’t vanished at all. They are simply on a different plane: a mental and emotional one.  And if you want to evolve yourself to a point where you are entirely unstressable, the next evolution of human, the answer is at your fingertips.

I’ll be giving a succinct, practical, and hopefully entertaining talk on this subject at The Catalyst Club on Thursday April 14th at 7pm.   If you’re interested, come early – the place is usually rammed and latecomers often turned away.