翻译《一百万年后，人类会是个什么样子？》

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　　来源：BBC EARTH

　　What will humans look like in a million years?

　　By Lucy Jones

　　To understand our future evolution we need to look to our past.

　　一百万年后什么，人类会是个什么样子？

　　露西•琼斯

　　要知我们未来的进化，须看我们的过去什么。

　　Will our descendants be cyborgs with hi-tech machine implants, regrowable limbs and cameras for eyes like something out of a science fiction novel?

　　Might humans morph into a hybrid species of biological and artificial beings? Or could we become smaller or taller, thinner or fatter, or even with different facial features and skin colour?

　　Of course, we don’t know, but to consider the question, let’s scoot back a million years to see what humans looked like then. For a start, Homo sapiens didn’t exist. A million years ago, there were probably a few different species of humans around, including Homo heidelbergensis, which shared similarities with both Homo erectus and modern humans, but more primitive anatomy than the later Neanderthal.

　　我们的后代会是科幻小说中半人半机器的生物吗？拥有高科技的机器植入物，可再生的肢体，眼睛像摄像头一样什么。

　　人类会是生物和人造生物的杂交体吗？或者什么，我们会变得更矮小或更高峻，更瘦长或更瘦削，以至有差别的面部特征和肤色吗？

　　当然我们不晓得，但想一想那个问题，就让我们回到一百万年前，看看其时的人类是一个什么样子什么。一起头，智人就不存在。一百万年前，四周可能有少数几种人的品种，包罗海德堡人，那与曲立人和现代人有类似之处，但比后来的尼安德特人，在剖解学上更具原始的人体。

　　Over more recent history, during the last 10,000 years, there have been significant changes for humans to adapt to. Agricultural living and plentiful food have led to health problems that we’ve used science to solve, such as treating diabetes with insulin. In terms of looks, humans have become fatter and, in some areas, taller.

　　Perhaps, then, we could evolve to be smaller so our bodies would need less energy, suggests Thomas Mailund, associate professor in bioinformatics at Aarhus University, Denmark, which would be handy on a highly-populated planet.

　　在更近的汗青中，在近1万年期间，为了适应，人类发作了严重的变革，农业生活和充沛的食物使我们利用科学来处理安康问题，如用胰岛从来治疗糖尿病，就边幅说来，人类变得更高峻，在有些处所变得更瘦削什么。

　　也许，其时我们能够进化得矮小些，如许，我们的身体就会需要少些能量，，托马斯•马璐德，丹麦阿尔乌斯大学生物信息学副传授认为，那在生齿兴旺的星球上会是很便利的什么。

　　Living alongside lots of people is a new condition humans have to adapt to. Back when we were hunter gatherers, there would’ve been a handful of interactions on a daily basis. Mailund suggests we may evolve in ways that help us to deal with this. Remembering people’s names, for example, could become a much more important skill.

　　Here’s where the technology comes in. “An implant in the brain would allow us to remember people’s names,” says Thomas. “We know what genes are involved in building a brain that’s good at remembering people’s names. We might just change that. It sounds more like science fiction. But we can do that right now. We can implant it but we don’t know how to wire it up to make it useful. We’re getting there but it’s very experimental.”

　　和许多人生活在一路是人类必需要适应的新情况，转回到以前，当我们仍是打猎收罗者时，每天城市有一些互动什么。马璐德认为，我们就会进化出一些帮忙我们处理它的办法，记住人的名字，例如，就会成为一项重要得多的技能。

　　如许，就呈现了一种手艺，“大脑植入会使我们记住人的名字什么。”托马斯说，“在构建擅长记住人的名字的大脑中，我们晓得与哪些基因相关。我们正能够改动它，那听起来更像是科幻小说，但我们如今就能够动作。我们能够植入它，但我们不晓得如何把它联起来使之有用，我们能够走到那一步，那是很有试验性的。”

　　“It’s not really a biological question anymore, it’s technological,” he said.

　　Currently, people have implants to fix an element of the body that’s broken, such as a pacemaker or a hip implant. Perhaps in the future, implants will be used simply to improve a person. As well as brain implants, we might have more visible parts of technology as an element of our appearance, such an artificial eye with a camera that can read different frequencies of colour and visuals.

　　“那现实上不再是一个生物学问题什么，那是一个手艺问题，”他说.

　　眼下，人们有修复身体某个元素遭到损害的植入物什么。如（心脏）起搏器或髋关节植入物。也许，未来的植入物仅用来使人获得康复，除了大脑植入物外，我们能够有做为我们面孔的一个元素，使眼睛愈加亮堂的手艺部件，好比带摄像头的人造眼睛，能够读取差别频次的颜色，读取差别的视觉效果。

　　“那现实上不再是一个生物学问题什么，那是一个手艺问题，”他说.

　　眼下，人们有修复身体某个元素遭到损害的植入物什么。如（心脏）起搏器或髋关节植入物。也许，未来的植入物仅用来使人获得康复，除了大脑植入物外，我们能够有做为我们面孔的一个元素，使眼睛愈加亮堂的手艺部件，好比带摄像头的人造眼睛，能够读取差别频次的颜色，读取差别的视觉效果。

　　We’ve all heard of designer babies. Scientists already have the technology to change the genes of an embryo, though it’s controversial and no one’s sure what happens next. But in the future, Mailund suggests, it may be seen as unethical not to change certain genes. With that may come choice about a baby’s features, so perhaps humans will look like what their parents want them to look like.

　　“It’s still going to be selection, it’s just artificial selection now. What we do with breeds of dogs, we’ll do with humans,” said Mailun.

　　This is all rather hypothetical, but can demographic trends give us any sense of what we may look like in the future?

　　我们都听到过由设想师设想出来的婴儿什么。科学家已经有改动胚胎基因的手艺，虽然它备受争议，没有人晓得下一步会发作什么。但马璐德认为，在未来，不改动（人的）某些基因可能认为是没有道德的。跟着孩子特征选择的呈现，也许，人类将会根据他们父母亲的意愿来选择像谁。

　　“那仍然会使选择，只是人工选择，我们如何繁衍狗狗，我们就会如何繁衍人来什么。”马璐德说。

　　那底子就是假设什么，但生齿统计学的趋向会给我们未来像谁的意义吗？

　　“Predicting out a million years is pure speculation, but predicting into the more immediate future is certainly possible using bioinformatics by combining what is known about genetic variation now with models of demographic change going forward,” says Dr. Jason A. Hodgson, Lecturer, Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment.

　　Now we have genetic samples of complete genomes from humans around the world, geneticists are getting a better understanding of genetic variation and how it’s structured in a human population. We can’t exactly predict how genetic variation will change, but scientists in the field of bioinformatics are looking to demographic trends to give us some idea.

　　“预测一百万年地道是推测，但操纵生物信息学，通过把已知的基因变异和如今的生齿变革形式连系起来，预测更近的未来当然是可能的什么。”生态系统和情况大挑战讲师，杰森•A•霍奇森博士说。

　　如今，我们有来自世界各地完好基因序列的基因样本，遗传学家正在进一步领会基因变异和人类生齿是如何的一种构造什么。我们预测不了基因变异将如何变革。但生物信息学方面的科学家正在研究生齿趋向，以给我们一些设法。

　　Hodgson predicts urban and rural area will become increasingly differentiated within people. “All the migration comes from rural areas into cities so you get an increase in genetic diversity in cities and a decrease in rural areas,” he said. “What you might see is differentiation along lines where people live.”

　　It will vary across the world but in the UK, for example, rural areas are less diverse and have more ancestry that’s been in Britain for a longer period of time compared with urban areas which have a higher population of migrants.

　　霍奇森预测城市和农村地域的人将越来越有区别什么。“所有的移民都从农村地域到城市，如许，遗传多样性在城区就增加了，在农村地域就削减了。”他说。“你可能会看到生活在各个地域的人是有区此外。”

　　世界上各个处所是差别的，在英国，好比，与有较多移民的城市比拟，农村地域的多样性就要少些，而且有更多较长期间生活在不列颠的祖先什么。

　　Some groups are reproducing at higher or lower rates. Populations in Africa, for example, are rapidly expanding so those genes increase at a higher frequency on a global population level. Areas of light skin colour are reproducing at lower rates. Therefore, Hodgson predicts, skin colour from a global perspective will get darker.

　　“It’s almost certainly the case that dark skin colour is increasing in frequency on a global scale relative to light skin colour,” he said. “I’d expect that the average person several generations out from now will have darker skin colour than they do now.”

　　有些人种的繁衍率或者高，或者低，非洲的生齿，好比，就开展敏捷，如许，在全球生齿的程度上，那些基因增长的频次就比力高什么。肤色浅的地域，其繁衍率就要低些。因而，霍奇森预言，从全球的角度来看，皮肤颜色将会变得深些。

　　“能够必定，几乎就是那种情况，在全球范畴内，相关于淡色皮肤而言，深色皮肤有增长的频次什么。”他说，“我估计从如今起，几代人之后，一般人会有比如今更深的肤色。”

　　And what about space? If humans do end up colonising Mars, what would we evolve to look like? With lower gravity, the muscles of our bodies could change structure. Perhaps we will have longer arms and legs. In a colder, Ice-Age type climate, could we even become even chubbier, with insulating body hair, like our Neanderthal relatives?

　　We don’t know, but, certainly, human genetic variation is increasing. Worldwide there are roughly two new mutations for every one of the 3.5 billion base pairs in the human genome every year, says Hodgson. Which is pretty amazing - and makes it unlikely we will look the same in a million years.

　　还有，太空是如何的呢？若是人类最末移往火星，我们会进化成什么样子？因为更小的重力，我们身体的肌肉会改动构造什么。也许，我们会有更长的手臂，更长的大腿。在更为冰冷的冰河期天气中，我们以至会胖乎乎的，长有隔断冰冷的体毛，像我们尼安德特人的亲戚一样吗？

　　我们不晓得，但是，必定地说，人类基因变异正在增加什么。每年，在世界范畴内，对在基因序列中有35亿碱基对的每一小我来说，大致有两队在发作新的变异。霍奇森说，那太奇异了，一百万年后，我们可能变得纷歧样了。