240 evolution: the ages and tomorrow 



eight and ten million years, but man is very likely to multi- 

 ply that span of time many times over before his career on 

 this earth is over. Man has not specialized in any v^ay other 

 than in his brain and foot. His feet will walk the earth and 

 his brain, even though it survives only at primitive human 

 levels, will guide his marvelously adaptive hands through to 

 a solution of the problem of staying alive, although all his 

 cultures may deteriorate to the stages of his early origin. 



A prediction of man's future, since he is to be around for 

 so many hundreds of millions of years, is not likely to be 

 very convincing. From a physical point of view the prob- 

 lem of what is to come is not so difficult; but the mental and 

 cultural future of man is quite obscured by the haze on the 

 horizon of those far distant years. It would seem, however, 

 that the enjoyment of the very high levels of understanding 

 which are possible to him can come only through his own 

 conscious knowledge and use of the process. 



Man's physical evolution has nearly or actually reached 

 its end. He is not now going to sprout wings with which to 

 fly, or fins with which to swim; he will remain generalized, 

 and his mating instincts will very likely restrain him from 

 the generating of monsters. He will not radiate into various 

 distinct types but will probably fuse the slight racial differ- 

 ences of our day into one blended race with high variability, 

 and thus be free of the ugly prejudices that so plague us 

 now. Anthropologists see only minor changes in man's 

 body, at least in the next many thousands of years. The 

 head may become more globular but not larger so long as 

 the female pelvis remains at its present size. A. Hrdlicka 

 thinks that man will become still more hairless with gener- 

 ally more refined facial features, even by present standards 

 more gently beautiful. The forehead is rising, becoming 

 larger. We may indeed be highbrows in the future with 

 narrow noses and more prominent chins, slightly taller more 

 slender bodies, and somewhat longer legs and shorter arms. 



