Evolution, hypotheses, and the question of whether humans are still evolving

A central requirement of this journal is that ideas should be testable. Can evolutionary ideas be tested? Ones about the past evolutionary history can be, but only if the hypothesis extends beyond describing what has happened into its present day implications. Evolutionary mechanisms can clearly be tested if they apply to fast-growing species, or provide specific tests of outcomes that would not otherwise be expected. But the future path of evolution, and especially of human evolution, is a more fraught area. There are still strong selective pressures on humans even in the affluent, urban West, deriving from pre-reproductive mortality, family size and age, and reproductive success. I skim the evidence that all three factors have substantial genetic components, and hence are likely to be the subject of future human evolution, and challenge readers to consider what testable hypotheses about human evolution these forces suggest.