Is modern technology hindering the human's ability to evolve?

You could argue for both sides if you want.

My father was a lifelong diabetic, led a very productive life and still had six healthy children...all of whom have productive lives and no diabetes...nor any of his grandchildren. So there's an example where technology and medicine allowed a man to lead a long productive life than if such technology were not available. There are also many examples of leaders and presidents who have had severe illnesses that still led very productive lives....Roosevelt, Kennedy, Lincoln, Reagan, etc.. that would otherwise have been cut short without technology. How much less would humanity have progressed without the intervention of modern technology and medicine?

Reagan....

"He was so nearsighted that, as a college football player, his vision was limited to the square yard of turf occupied by the opposing team's guard. His vision disqualified him from serving in combat units in World War II [8b].

As a child, Reagan would have to sit in the front row in class to see, which embarassed him. In sports, Reagan sometimes got hit in the head with the ball he could not see. It was only at age 9 or 10 that a visiting nurse made the diagnosis. Reagan later said that when he got glasses, he was surprised to discover that trees had leaves and that butterflies existed -- neither of which he had ever been able to see [10]. "

Medical history of US presidents....

http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/

"Abe Lincoln's possible genetic defect discovered"

"If Lincoln, one of the greatest Presidents in U.S history, was conceived in our age of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and pre-natal genetic testing, would he have been aborted or tossed out as a "defective" embryo?"

http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2006...

On the other hand, there is growing concern that health problems and genetic defects may cause the extinction of humanity by the end of this century. Some futurists like Ray Kurzweil and others suggest that nanotechnology and miniaturized supercomputers could lead to immortal humans and overcome our biological problems by replacing body parts and brains with advanced technology. It's called the Singularity when man and machine become one. I personally don't think it's achievable since there are other considerations such as the concept of dualism...that the non-physical "mind" and the physical brain are two separate entities which no computer can replicate.

"McKusick: Mendelian Inheritance in Man,

Reported Genetic Disorders 1966 to 1999. The number

of medically reported genetic disorders in 1966 was

1,487. The number reported by 1999 was 11,099. A

curve of best fit has an R2 of 0.995"

"By 2031, it is estimated (R2 = 0.995) there will be

100,000 human genetic disorders and by 2096 1,000,000

(see Figure 3). “At least one clinical disorder has been related

to 1,318 of the mapped loci (roughly 30%)”

(McKusick, 1998, Vol. 1, xiii–xviii). That suggests genetic

disorder saturation of each locus by 2031 and supersaturation

by 2096.

These data confirm human devolution and suggest imminent permanent genetic extinction in this century"

http://lifescienceprize.org/PDF/evoletha.pdf

"Diabetes may affect as many as 1 in 3 Americans by 2050"

http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/di...

"Nearly 8 Million Babies are Born With

Genetic Defects Yearly, Study Finds"

http://www.mindfully.org/Health/2006/Birth-Defects...

"Landmark Report Reveals Massive Global Cost of Alzheimer's: One Percent of Global GDP -- And Growing"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/10092...

Without technological intervention, the human race may be doomed to extinction in a very short time....and it still may not be enough.

Human evolution is not slowing. It takes millions of years for a species to evolve into another species and humans have only been around for maybe a hundred thousand years which is why you don't see great leaps of evolution. Even then it has less to do with the environment then it does with mutations in the DNA. Besides, how you measure if a organism is successful is not by how strong, fast, or smart it is; its if they are able to pass there genes to the next generation.

In some ways maybe, but I think we're evolving neurologically. For instance, everything is instant now, so I think people are going to evolve to process things much faster. An example is instead of doing the hard work to research something, we can just look it up on google. In the amount of time it would take us to do one thing twenty/thirty years ago, we can do 10 things today in the same amount of time. I don't think that's really a good thing. If you look around there is a huge increase in mental illness in the past decade, which I think has to do with the constant stress and strain from the media and our instant culture.

Human evolution is proceeding at a faster pace than ever before in our history. The rate that a species evolves (if such a rate could ever be defined) is tied to the population size. Since our population is larger than it ever has been, more mutations will create more new traits that will be acted upon and spread at an unprecedented pace regardless of any alterations that we put on selective processes.

The majority of humans do not wear glasses. These devices are invented for ppl who are already suffering and we can release their pain with our technology. There are plenty of people who can carry on the strong genetic code. And no because everything evolves...you cannot stop evolving even if disease evolves so will immune systems. and so will medicine it could take a disease years to evolve and yet we can discover its code crack it and make a vaccine within months...The human brain is ever evolving so no need to fear.

UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NO.

Our evolutionary path happens based on what we need to survive. For example for fishes to survive underwater they develop gills. ( i may have spelled it wrong) . For charmelions to survive they develop the ability to change thier skin pigment and so forth. In the current day and age. What we need to survive is our five senses a good immunity and a flucking smart arsy brain. So with that our eyes will not detiorate unless technology makes it possible to see without our eyes . Until then the dna code for creating eye balls above the nose will remain intact.

it's not technology so much.... it's the idea of 'safety' and human rights.

airbags, seat belts, parachutes, lifejackets, these things allow those who

would be too stupid to survive and reproduce even a few hundred years ago

would have been eliminated from the gene pool... now even the most brain

dead individuals are allowed to live and reproduce.

Who says are evolutionary path slows??? You do? Humans are bigger, stronger, smarter, faster, healthier, live longer....... Perhaps these defects were never to happen if people learned proper nutrition instead of the junk they are told is good for them and the other poisons around them that they are unaware of. It people like you that are hurting us and not exposing the lies we are told. Its not your fault, your a product of what has been given to you. Until you start to learn and realize that humans are much more then what we are told about ourselves and how much more we can be or do then your being a tool.