00:00You wake up 100 years later, and everything seems strange.
00:04Your body doesn't look the same anymore.
00:07You look in the mirror, and there, yes, it's very real.
00:11You have a second eyelid, and...
00:14no more hairs on the body.
00:16It looks like science fiction.
00:18But there is a real scientific explanation for this.
00:21Think about the frequency at which you check your phone.
00:25Very often, isn't it?
00:26Well, that could explain this new eyelid.
00:29With the proliferation of screens in our lives,
00:32our body has developed this additional eyelid
00:35to filter out blue light and reduce eye fatigue.
00:39You blink, and a kind of translucent shield covers your eyes,
00:43like a natural response to the excess of digital light.
00:47The downside?
00:48We look a bit more like robots.
00:50Nowadays, Americans spend about 7 hours a day online.
00:54Some researchers have relied on this data to conduct studies.
00:58This is how Mindy was born,
01:00a 3D model representing humans in 100 years.
01:03It shows us the effects of the incessant use of phones,
01:06and of these long hours of work in front of a screen on our body.
01:10Mindy has a curved back,
01:12a thick skull,
01:13a shrunken brain,
01:14constantly arched elbows at 90 degrees,
01:17and a texture grip.
01:19It seems unbelievable, doesn't it?
01:21All these hours spent fixing a screen require your cervical muscles
01:25and alter the alignment of your spine.
01:28As for the texture grip, it's even weirder.
01:31This mutation comes from constantly holding your smartphone.
01:35And for the elbows?
01:36Always bent at a right angle,
01:38reminiscent of a rigid doll.
01:40Imagine trying to move in crowded streets.
01:43It would be a festival of collisions.
01:45And the body hair?
01:47We could all lose them in the future,
01:50but this phenomenon is still largely unexplained.
01:53Let's go back for a moment.
01:55You've probably heard that body hair used to protect us from harsh weather conditions.
02:01Scientists have discovered that our ancestors,
02:04who began to lose this hairiness,
02:06have taken considerable advantage of it.
02:09Those who had lost the hair of their palms or wrists
02:12were much more skilled at handling stone tools
02:15and the first mechanical devices than the others.
02:18A well-known theory,
02:20the Aquatic Monkey Hypothesis,
02:22provides an explanation for this phenomenon.
02:24Like hippos and dolphins,
02:26we have deactivated the genes responsible for fur production.
02:30This theory suggests that our human ancestors,
02:33living in the African savannah,
02:35migrated to oases during the dry season.
02:38During these periods,
02:40they hunted in shallow waters.
02:43However, hairs do not make good insulators in water,
02:46which led our species to lose its fur
02:49in favor of a layer of fat.
02:51The question is,
02:53in the future,
02:54are we going to completely deactivate these genes
02:56and become entirely a beard?
02:58We will probably have to wait to discover it.
03:01What concerns geneticists is something else,
03:04the human uniformity.
03:06A phenomenon called human similitude,
03:09or high leveling.
03:11Open any social network application
03:14and you will see it.
03:16Everyone dresses the same way,
03:18speaks the same way,
03:20and so on.
03:22But this homogeneity could well slow down human evolution.
03:25Evolution is based on genetic differences
03:28and their transmission through generations.
03:30Over time,
03:31these variations should transform the population.
03:34If these changes are marked enough,
03:36a new species can emerge.
03:38However,
03:39the three pillars of evolution,
03:41variation,
03:42natural selection,
03:44and geographic isolation,
03:46seem to fade away little by little.
03:48Scientists describe humans
03:50as a unique genetic continent,
03:53mixing without reproducing
03:55within distinct cultural or ethnic groups.
03:59Over time,
04:00we could all end up looking more like each other.
04:03Another interesting point,
04:05human life expectancy,
04:07is called to increase,
04:08far beyond what we know today.
04:11Throughout our evolution,
04:13our lifespan has been influenced by various external factors.
04:16In the Stone Age and other primitive periods,
04:19we were confronted with dangerous predators
04:21and clashes with other tribes,
04:24which drastically reduced our life expectancy.
04:27When we were young,
04:28the chances of developing significant mutations were limited.
04:32However,
04:33when mortality rates decrease,
04:35the opposite happens.
04:36Over the last two centuries,
04:38life expectancy has increased to about 70 years worldwide.
04:43Continuous scientific progress
04:45suggests that humans could naturally evolve
04:48to reach a lifespan of 100 years,
04:50or even more.
04:51Our sedentary lifestyles
04:53also affect our spine.
04:55We could develop fewer vertebrae
04:58and shorter, more flexible spines,
05:01which would reduce back pain
05:03and better adapt to our office jobs.
05:05Future humans could be more aggressive,
05:08and a straight posture could become a rarity.
05:11To be honest,
05:12this speech makes me want to get up and walk a little.
05:15Since we are talking about lifestyles,
05:17let's also talk about our diet.
05:19The transformed and soft foods we eat
05:22change our way of chewing.
05:24At a time when our bodies were shaped,
05:27we ate raw meat and plants.
05:30A study shows that the structure of the lower jaw
05:33indicated whether a population was mainly
05:35a hunter-gatherer or a farmer.
05:38About 7 million years ago,
05:40our ancestors had long jaws
05:42and faces projected forward.
05:44What do our jaws tell us now
05:46that our diet is made up of soft foods?
05:49According to some predictions,
05:51in 100 years or more,
05:52humans could have smaller mouths,
05:54fewer teeth,
05:56and less robust jaws.
05:58This could also mean smaller faces,
06:01almost no chin,
06:02with slightly more retracted jaws.
06:05Pollution does not only harm the planet,
06:07it also transforms us.
06:09Future generations could develop
06:11enlarged nostrils
06:12and more efficient lungs
06:14to better withstand bad air quality.
06:17Imagine humans
06:18with ultra-efficient respiratory systems,
06:21able to thrive in polluted environments.
06:24Breathing in the future
06:26could well become a whole new challenge.
06:28These predictions may seem extravagant,
06:31but they are based on scientific theories.
06:34As our environment and lifestyle evolve,
06:38our bodies will follow,
06:40in a fascinating and disturbing way.
06:42The next time you look in the mirror,
06:45remember that you are looking at
06:47the human body as it is today,
06:49but who knows what it will become?
06:51Let's appreciate the mystery
06:52of our ongoing evolution.
06:54Humans could also lose
06:56the long, palmar muscle,
06:57this little tendon in the wrist
06:58that many people do not know exists.
07:00It is a bit like the appendix of muscles,
07:02totally superfluous.
07:04With evolution,
07:05we could say goodbye to this tendon,
07:07since we no longer swing on trees
07:09or do intense prehensile exercises.
07:12Our hands are now busy
07:14sending messages,
07:16tapping,
07:17and sliding on screens.
07:19In a few generations,
07:20we could look at our wrists without a tendon
07:22and say,
07:23evolution has really sorted our muscles.
07:26Do you hold your toes?
07:27Well,
07:28you might have to say goodbye to one of them.
07:31Our toes play a key role
07:32in our balance while walking.
07:34Research shows
07:35that our center of gravity
07:36moves inward.
07:38If our ancestors leaned
07:40on all their toes to stabilize,
07:42we, on the other hand,
07:44no longer use each of them as much.
07:46This could mean
07:47that we will need
07:48our little toes less and less.
07:50And if this trend continues,
07:52we could soon have to say goodbye to them.
07:55There is a notion called
07:57directed evolution.
07:59In other words,
08:00science replaces nature.
08:02Rather than leaving our future
08:04in the hands of chance,
08:06why not determine it ourselves?
08:08We already do,
08:09in a certain way,
08:10when we choose a partner
08:12for his appearance
08:13or his personality traits.
08:15For thousands of years,
08:16hunter-gatherers
08:18arranged marriages for their daughters
08:20in search of good hunters.
08:22But we are talking here
08:23about things done in laboratories.
08:25Now we have the power
08:26to control the genes of our descendants.
08:28Science can detect
08:30genetic mutations,
08:31choose an embryo
08:32with a particular color,
08:34and many other things.
08:36Yes,
08:37DNA control
08:38could well be waiting for us.
08:40If you think
08:41that this cannot become stranger,
08:43wait a little.
08:44Someone asked
08:45an artificial intelligence
08:46to generate images
08:47of what humans would look like
08:49in a thousand years.
08:50According to this software,
08:52our faces would be covered
08:53by a network of motors and cables.
08:55A cross between
08:56Frankenstein and Terminator.
08:58Maybe this will be
08:59the beauty standard of our future?
09:01What a horror vision!
09:03And here is Graham.
09:05Graham is a descendant
09:06far from humanity
09:07whose body evolved
09:08to survive a car accident.
09:10It is not a model
09:11in a synthesis image,
09:13but a statue of great nature
09:15in silicone
09:16with real human hair.
09:18Graham is a modern work of art.
09:20It represents a speculation
09:22about the appearance
09:23of human bodies
09:24in the years to come.
09:25Graham was created
09:26for a road safety campaign,
09:28but this artist
09:29depicts hyper-realistic humanoids
09:31in many forms,
09:32including possible hybrids
09:34between humans and other species.
09:36It seems strange at first,
09:38but at this rate,
09:39everything seems possible
09:41for our common future.
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