is it possible to accelarate evolution?

Yes.

o Selective breeding. We can quickly change the gene pool of a population by allowing only individuals with the desired phenotype to reproduce.

...unfortunately this tends to produce populations that are dependent on us for continued survival.

o Genetic engineering. We can put genes into bacteria, plants, and animals that they may never have evolved on their own.

Absolutely.

The rate of selection has a huge impact on the rate of evolution. When the forest dried into prairie or savanna there was enormous selection pressure on our ancestors to convert to upright walking. That triggered many other slower changes that were not as heavily selected for.

The exposure to mutagens has a huge impact on the rate of evolution. After penicillin was discovered the penicillin mold that produces it was very low yield. Samples of the mold were exposed to ultraviolet light to induce mutations and the samples that produced more penicillin were isolated and bred further. This example includes extreme selection as well as exposure to mutagens.

Another example of extreme selection without mutagens was the production of the domesticated fox by a Russian scientist. For 20 generations he culled for the least hostile then eventually the most friendly foxes.

A fun example that questions radiation as a mutagen is the wildlife near Chernobyl. Some level of radiation is automatically corrected for but we don't know what that level is or if humans have a different level than other species.

Evolution can be defined as deviations in the frequencies of alleles. The prime (but not solitary) driver, or pressure for evolution, is Natural Selection (NS). In evolutionary history, yes, these deviations, and any morphological or behavioural adaptations, can accelerate, or slow down, in response to a changing environment. Declines in an average rainfall, an adaptation made by a food source, the arrival of new prey, competitors, or predators, an eruption of a super volcano - all of these, and many other factors, can either drive a lineage to adapt, or to hit extinction.

If you however are asking if humans can act as a force on evolution - that is not natural selection, but artificial selection, and yes, we have been practicing it on many species of animal and plants for thousands of years. It's commonly called domestication.

If you are asking if humans can "accelerate" their own evolution - then you have a common misunderstanding of what evolution by natural selection is. Evolution does not have targets, goals, pinnacles. It does not have stages of more or less evolved. We are no more evolved than any other species of Life on Earth. There is no process of natural selection that will make us more intelligent.

Yes, the discovery of fire made consuming cooked food possible. That is what has made us Homo sapiens. The chemical structure of cooked food is broken down when heat is applied to it, turning it in to a more useful, and tasty, food product. That increase of calorie consumption permitted us to grow our larger brains which are responsible for 20 percent of the calories we use. Larger brains in turn meant smarter humans, which led us to where we are today, a public Internet forum in the middle of the night.

If you re asking can we accelerate our own evolution as a species, then other questions follow. First one being, is it a good idea? In the 1920 s and 30 s there was a popular idea called eugenics. It advocated the culling of humans that were inferior in some manner. Basically, it s supporters argued that improving human stock mean they would sire better humans. In the United States, the mentally retarded were sterilized so they couldn t reproduce. Elsewhere, eugenics took a more terrible turn. Nazi Germany decided that the Jews, Slavs, gays, and gypsies were inferior. I don t think I need to tell you the steps they took.

Ultimately, I don t think it is possible for us to consciously decide to evolve in a certain manner or to accelerate our evolution. Humans, because of those big, fuel burning brains of ours, are unique in at least one manner. Evolution occurs when a species adapts to environmental pressure, but humans alter their environment to suit their needs. We are evolving right now, but since it s directionless, I don t think we need to get in a hurry to do it.

Sure. Apply a selective pressure or isolate 2 populations so they do not interbreed.

Selective Pressure examples: The Peppered Moth and industrialization or the London Underground Mosquito or the Lenski Experiment E coli.

Isolation example: Lizards isolated on an island (few insects but plenty of plants) separate from the parent species (insect eaters). The isolated lizards are evolving to be plant eaters.

In some things where you don't mind a really high mortality rate and lots of diseases, kind of. There are such things as atomic gardens where a sample of highly radioactive material is placed at the center with the aim of increasing the rate of mutations in the plants. And they have produced a lot of useful strains of plants we are using today. But whether inducing lots and lots of mutations and keeping the ones you like counts as accelerating evolution or not, I will leave up to you.

Generally immediately after an extinction event the 'rate' of speciation increases.

Jesus Christ is the truth. Get a kjversion Bible and believe Evolution is not real. What you are talking about is Hitler's religion of "eugenics" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AttREJly8Cg It is an excuse to kill is all. And they are still pushing it today with vaccines as Bill Gates says, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjj4Iq-rsNg and so on. It is sick lie that supports evil is all. Get a kjversion Bible and believe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKnll-pOMPA and so on.

Evolution is fiction.

No. It would have to actually begin first. Moreover, by definition, evolution is supposedly an unguided process.