# Will Humans Eventually Be The Same Race?



## Kane (Sep 28, 2005)

People from many different backgrounds are mixing together and if this keeps up do you think there will be only one human race? Will the elimination of different facial features and skin color really end discrimination or racism? Or is racism based more on national origin? How long do you think it will take for all humans to be members of the same race and what will this new "superhuman" look like? What do you think?


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## Shu2jack (Sep 28, 2005)

I think humanity will destroy itself first or be destroyed. Assuming that the human race will live on for countless thousands of years, I still don't think we will be "one" race. If nothing else, as humans begin to interracially mate and merge features over the centuries, other factors in region specific factors will slowly bring distinct features in other humans. The humans on Earth may slowly start to look different than humans on Mars, or the ones growing up on a space station, or a station under the sea. 

Unless there is a sharp decrease in the human popluation, I think the human popluation is too large to totally merge all features as well.


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## BlackCatBonz (Sep 28, 2005)

even if it does......there will always be class discrimination. lots of that going on right now.


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## hemi (Sep 28, 2005)

Well given what we do know of our universe to date, humans will at some point be forced to leave Earth due to many factors. The biggest being that the sun in our solar system has a life span and at some point its life will end. I have to believe that by that time we will have colonized Mars. People living on Mars may look different and have other abilities than those on Earth. But as the life of the sun ends we would have to leave this solar system to find a new star (sun) being that stars are so far away humans as we are today could not make at trip into space that would take hundred or thousands of years just to reach the destination. We would be forced to use other means such as genetic mutation to change human DNA and adapt our bodies to undertake such a trip. In doing that we will have changed one race of humans and as time goes on at this other planet there is no telling what kind of changes would take place. Factors like gravity, atmosphere, and temp would play a key role in how we would be forced to change just to survive.   



I would like to think that as time goes on and the Human race as a hole matures and undergoes radical changes discrimination, hate, war, and many other flaws that we face today will end.


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## Kenpodoc (Sep 28, 2005)

We are the same race.

Jeff


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## Makalakumu (Sep 28, 2005)

We are the same species, but some taxonomists have split us into different sub-species.  This is highly controversial...yet there is a little bit of observation that supports the distinction.  

Looking at it from a taxonomic perspective, I can say that as the sub-species interbreed, one can expect a general reversal of the subspeciation that occured when homo sapians spread into various parts of the world.

In the future, humans will have much less morphologic difference due to the lack of isolation.


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## shesulsa (Sep 28, 2005)

Kane said:
			
		

> People from many different backgrounds are mixing together and if this keeps up do you think there will be only one human race? Will the elimination of different facial features and skin color really end discrimination or racism? Or is racism based more on national origin? How long do you think it will take for all humans to be members of the same race and what will this new "superhuman" look like? What do you think?


 I don't think our species will live to see that day.  However, if conditions were ideal for the continuation of the species, I think we would all eventually look a bit like either Hale Berry or a VERY tan Sheryl Crow only taller and meatier. 

 There will always be cultural dysfunction and international controversy - even if the entire globe became one political entity (which it very may well be right now and we haven't been informed).


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## Blindside (Sep 28, 2005)

At least in the US there is probably less cultural biases against mixing races than there was 100, 50, or even 25 years ago, but those prejudices are still there and they exist in many other cultures.  I don't believe that those prejudices will be overcome and a racial homogenization occur before the species ends or we start colonizing beyond the solar system and a new differences occur naturally or are genetically designed.

I must say that I would look forward to a world where we all look like versions of Halle Berry. 

Lamont


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## arnisador (Sep 28, 2005)

upnorthkyosa said:
			
		

> In the future, humans will have much less morphologic difference due to the lack of isolation.


I'd guess the same. Yet, as we know, there will always be individual variations...they just won't be identified as 'race' anymore.

I see race per se disappearing, but in the looooooong run...as long as China maintains its current governmental policies, for example, the rate of mixing will remain low.

As to looking like Halle Berry...I was kinda hoping for Brad Pitt, but I'll take what I can get. It'd still be an improvement for me.


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## TonyM. (Sep 28, 2005)

We started out as the same race. We all carry the same markers as the San people. It's located on different parts of the chain as people migrated further from Africa. The San are being systematically exterminated as more diamonds and gold are discovered in south africa and namibia. The San are being pushed further into the kalahari. They are not a desert people and are suffering horribly. It seems as a people we have forgotten "Honor thy Mother and Father".


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## okinawagojuryu (Sep 28, 2005)

I know I am doing my part to try to make this happen , & loving every bit of it ! 
Blidside wrote " I must say that I would look forward to a world where we all look like versions of Halle Berry."
I 2nd that , only in my dreams , only in my dreams . 
A while ago I seen a movie that was taken place many yrs into the future , where we all are of the same race . Some very beautiful people . I would love to see that happen in my lifetime , & end this madness .

David


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## Shizen Shigoku (Sep 28, 2005)

Short answer: Maybe.

   Long answer: 

 Inter-racial 'mingling' does lead to more homogeneity, but the factors that caused different races in the first place don't go away, so over the long term, as long as people are living in different places and isolate themselves to some degree, they are going to acquire differences, so it will balance out to a point.

 I would imagine that there would be less racial diversity over time, but not to a point of one race (as we're defining it here). The fact is that differences in language, culture, geography, education, & social class (and/or wealth) weigh in much more heavily in our dealings with eachother as human beings than racial differences.

 It might turn out that we all become racially 'color-blind' to such petty differences before we all homogenize into grey melting-pot clones.

   Or at least that's what I hope.

*
  Kane :    "Will the elimination of different facial features and skin color really end discrimination or racism?"*

 My pessimistic view is that if the human race lost superficial ethnic differences to use as an excuse to mistreat one another, they would find something else to use as an excuse. (*Shu2jack :    "I think humanity will destroy itself first or be destroyed."* - also likely given current trends)

*"Or is racism based more on national origin?"*

 Depends on the brand of racism or other bigotry that a person subscibes to, and that depends on that person's own level of ignorance, which itself depends on self-imposed isolation (physically or mentally).

 I think at the core, people are naturally distrustful or at least cautious about things that are different from themselves. It is an automatic self-defense response. It isn't always rational, but rationality depends on having information. When that information isn't there, we default to fear of the unknown.

   Therefore, racism is more like a phobia - an irrational fear caused by ignorance and reinforced by strong emotional response.


*2004hemi:    "**Well given what we do know of our universe to date, humans will at some point be forced to leave Earth due to many factors. 

   The biggest being that the sun in our solar system has a life span and at some point its life will end."*

 Given the estimates and probabilities I've seen, I think we are more likely to be wiped out by a serious of asteroid impacts and global-climate change than we are from the sun blowing up (which isn't likely to happen for another 5 billion years - slightly longer than life itself as we know it has existed on this planet.

*"People living on Mars may look different and have other abilities than those on Earth."*

 Yeah, think of how much higher you can jump with less gravity! Wee! Less strain on the spine too - people will probably be taller. 

*"But as the life of the sun ends we would have to leave this solar system to find a new star (sun) being that stars are so far away humans as we are today could not make at trip into space that would take hundred or thousands of years just to reach the destination."*

 Accelerating at the same rate as earthly gravity, the speed of light can be reached in about a year. To conserve fuel, and to avoid nasty relativistic effects, I would recommend turning off the engines at around half the speed of light. At that speed, we could reach the next-nearest star in under ten years.


*"... **the Human race as a hole ..."*

   That's poetic.

*"... matures and undergoes radical changes discrimination, hate, war, and many other flaws that we face today will end."*

 Yeah, "radical changes" like acquiring intelligence, being reasonable, having more courage, encouraging more logical, rational thinking as opposed to emotionally-induced violent outbursts...

   I don't think we simple animals are up to the task. I guess we just have to wait for the Borg to assimilate us.


*Kenpodoc:    "We are the same race."*

   See, it's that irony that makes the whole idea funny. Or at least it would be funny if it weren't so tragic and disgusting.



 shesulsa: "...even if the entire globe became one political entity (which it very may well be right now and we haven't been informed)."

   What, you didn't get the memo?


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## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 28, 2005)

I agree with the sad belief that, no matter how homogeneous the species may become, there will always be something to seperate the social strata. As a species, we categorize and pigeonhole everything, especially ourselves.

_'We need someone to talk to and someone to sweep the floors' - Distant Early Warning - Neil Peart_

egg


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## arnisador (Sep 28, 2005)

OnlyAnEgg said:
			
		

> I agree with the sad belief that, no matter how homogeneous the species may become, there will always be something to seperate the social strata. As a species, we categorize and pigeonhole everything, especially ourselves.


Yes, anyone who's been to public school has seen this happen.



> _'We need someone to talk to and someone to sweep the floors' - Distant Early Warning - Neil Peart_


Ah, a fellow Rush fan!


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## arnisador (Sep 28, 2005)

okinawagojuryu said:
			
		

> A while ago I seen a movie that was taken place many yrs into the future , where we all are of the same race . Some very beautiful people .


What movie was this?


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## Martial Tucker (Sep 28, 2005)

OnlyAnEgg said:
			
		

> I agree with the sad belief that, no matter how homogeneous the species may become, there will always be something to seperate the social strata. As a species, we categorize and pigeonhole everything, especially ourselves.


 
 Agreed.......Remember "Lord of the Flies"?


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## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 28, 2005)

Martial Tucker said:
			
		

> Agreed.......Remember "Lord of the Flies"?


All too well.  Beneath this thin veneer of 'humanity', we're just a bunch of frightened, dangerous monkeys.


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## someguy (Sep 28, 2005)

Define race...
There are a million ways to define race.  There a philosophers who debate about the word race all the time.
As for people all looking the same.  NO.  Unless of course you wipe out vast parts of the population.  
I suppose that racism would end if race ended.  Of course I'm assuming you are using race to inicated skin color and features.  But there will allways be people who judge other cultures or subcultures as inferior.  This is part of humanity.


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## Kenpodoc (Sep 28, 2005)

I continue to maintain that race is an extremely artificial distinction.  We do have familial lineages which carry useful information but race as it is generally defined is both political and racist but not useful. If I tell you that someone is caucasian you have no useful information physically or genetically. You can't even tell me if they are light skinned or dark skinned. We need to quit dwelling on race.

Jeff


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## Martial Tucker (Sep 28, 2005)

Kenpodoc said:
			
		

> I continue to maintain that race is an extremely artificial distinction. We do have familial lineages which carry useful information but race as it is generally defined is both political and racist but not useful. If I tell you that someone is caucasian you have no useful information physically or genetically. You can't even tell me if they are light skinned or dark skinned. We need to quit dwelling on race.
> 
> Jeff


 Race is just another way of defining someone else as being somehow "different from us"....and therein lies the problem, at least for those who are somehow uncomfortable with themselves.


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## okinawagojuryu (Sep 28, 2005)

Arnisador ,

     I cant remember the name of the movie off of the top of my head right now . I wish I did , I was just talking to a friend of mine about it last week . Imagine the world w/ nothing but beautiful woman like Halle Berry , or Mariah Carey walking around ? Somebody please wake me up , I'm dreaming again , lol . 

David


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## MisterMike (Sep 28, 2005)

Without Ugliness, how do you discern Beauty?


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## okinawagojuryu (Sep 28, 2005)

That is a good question I could not answer .

David


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## okinawagojuryu (Sep 28, 2005)

The movie is called The Time Machine .

David


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## arnisador (Sep 28, 2005)

okinawagojuryu said:
			
		

> The movie is called The Time Machine .


H.G. Wells? But they had two races, right...above and below ground?


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## Kane (Sep 28, 2005)

someguy said:
			
		

> Define race...
> There are a million ways to define race.  There a philosophers who debate about the word race all the time.
> As for people all looking the same.  NO.  Unless of course you wipe out vast parts of the population.
> I suppose that racism would end if race ended. Of course I'm assuming you are using race to inicated skin color and features. But there will allways be people who judge other cultures or subcultures as inferior. This is part of humanity.


    I knew this question would arise, so I'll describe what I mean by race.

 A race is nothing more than a division within a species based more on differences in superficial features rather than genetic features. All humans today are a decedent of a few thousand people 60,000 years ago during a close run with extinction. Meaning all people today are of the same subspecies and no human population currently known has been isolated long enough to be considered different subspecies.

 So in a sense the term race is a division within a subspecies, more or less like the different breeds of dog. Race is actually based more on facial features rather than skin color.


  Here is a chart to understand more on what I mean;


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/Human-phylo-tree.png

  [font=&quot]There are many ways to classify the races of the world, some use the 19th century system but it really doesn't matter. How I classify the many races that are all created equal;

 Indigenous Europeans: The majority of people who originated from Europe and Russia. Often called the white race and belongs to the Caucasoid family of races.

 Indigenous Middle Easterners: The majority of People who originated from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Indian Subcontinent. Often called the brown race and belong to the Caucasoid family of races.

 Indigenous Oriental Asians: The majority of people who originated from Central Asia and Southeast Asia such as China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, ect. Often called the yellow race and belongs to the Mongoloid family of races.

 Indigenous Americans: The Native American people that made up North and South America before the West came. Often called the red race and belongs to the Mongoloid family of races.

 Indigenous Africans: The majority of people who originated from Sub-Sahara Africa, Central Africa, and South Africa. Often called the black race and belongs to the Negroid family of races.

 I don't see the problem with categorizing people in different races; it doesn't change the fact that we are all equal and all human beings. So no offense if that list offended anybody.

 Anyway back to the original question, would mixing of the major races bring more peace to the world or is discrimination based more on nationality? 
[/font]


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## Marginal (Sep 29, 2005)

Shu2jack said:
			
		

> I think humanity will destroy itself first or be destroyed. Assuming that the human race will live on for countless thousands of years, I still don't think we will be "one" race. If nothing else, as humans begin to interracially mate and merge features over the centuries, other factors in region specific factors will slowly bring distinct features in other humans. The humans on Earth may slowly start to look different than humans on Mars, or the ones growing up on a space station, or a station under the sea.
> 
> Unless there is a sharp decrease in the human popluation, I think the human popluation is too large to totally merge all features as well.


Somehow I doubt humanity's stupid or smart enough to ensure 100% eradication. Nature's indifferent, so we can't count on that either. I think civilization's more likely to fall into a lesser state well before the species vanishes entirely. (Oh, and this is in topic, since a fragmented world of smaller civilized areas etc would lead to greater geographical concentration, less travel thusly descreasing the odds of the elimination of superficial traits.)


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## RandomPhantom700 (Sep 29, 2005)

Kane said:
			
		

> People from many different backgrounds are mixing together and if this keeps up do you think there will be only one human race? Will the elimination of different facial features and skin color really end discrimination or racism? Or is racism based more on national origin? How long do you think it will take for all humans to be members of the same race and what will this new "superhuman" look like? What do you think?


Race is based on social definition, not really biological. Thus, even if our skin colors and facial features begin to merge enough not to be distinguishable, so long as people operate on some "us-vs.-them" mentality, there will always be some distinction on which to base our opposition. The blending of skin color and facial features just means that the traditional distinctions are crumbling. 

I recall a time magazine cover that presented a computerized rendering of what a person who had global blood looked like. I gotta say, I couldn't make any distinction, but she was prety hot. :supcool:


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## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 29, 2005)

arnisador said:
			
		

> H.G. Wells? But they had two races, right...above and below ground?


Yeah, the Morlocks were the not Halle Berry ones


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## BlackCatBonz (Sep 29, 2005)

RandomPhantom700 said:
			
		

> _Race is based on social definition, not really biological. Thus, even if our skin colors and facial features begin to merge enough not to be distinguishable, so long as people operate on some "us-vs.-them" mentality, there will always be some distinction on which to base our opposition. The blending of skin color and facial features just means that the traditional distinctions are crumbling._


i completely agree with this. there will always be discrimination based on social classes.
unless the world was to accept a completely socialist method of operation breaking down monetary barriers, you will always have the distinction of upper, middle, and lower class citizens.


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## okinawagojuryu (Sep 29, 2005)

Arnisador,

     Yes , I had forgot there were actually two races in the movie , Eloi & Morlock , I believe.

David


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