I'm sort of buy into the idea that our evolution is being held back by our ability to compensate externally. There's no evolutionary pressure when we can manipulate our environment as efficiently as we do. Though evolution takes, like a really long time, so maybe not. Maybe it's just not noticeable 😅
Discussion
There’s no need for biological evolution when you can make technological adaptations.
Exactly
That being said, biological evolution also takes place over a much longer time period and there’s a solid argument to be made that our biological evolution is what has made technological adaptation possible, and there will likely be feedback effects. I.e. rather than nature deciding which genes continue to flourish with scarcity as a filter, access to technology decides which genes flourish with wealth as a filter.
I have a hard time accepting that technological interference would still be considered evolution. It's more like slow manipulation at that point.
the bone collectors records seem to suggest that humans have not physically changed for some 300,000 years. some variations in stature and skull shape but i think that when you reach the language/tool/reprogrammable brain stage as we are, there isn't any further to go, except into the intangible.
it might sound cringe but there might actually be a good reason to believe that spacefaring aliens all basically look a lot like us.
Which kind of routes back to the original, unanswerable question that I didn't ask. Are we not evolving outside of the brain because of our ability to compensate? Without our tools, we are still a very vulnerable species. The way people can self-sabatoge for sake of comfort in a single lifetime is what leads me to believe that we may ultimately become the creators if our own demise... but maybe we will build the tools to join the other intergalactic humanoids instead.