Evolution tampering

[imjoelsavage]

i am doing a university research project on world building and my main research question at this point is

"How can digital 3d media help to create an authentic and believable world, where the human evolution is drastically altered by the progression of another life form?"

what are your thoughts as to which life form you would like to see brought forward to become dominant to the human race and why?

any replies would be really helpfull.

[Admiral Squish]

I gotta say, this is a very strange way to ask the question you seem to be asking.

I'm assuming a real-world, non-magic and scientifically plausible alteration?

Now, as to other life-forms that would alter human evolution.

I see a three, possibly four types of creatures that have a potential to dramatically alter the evolution of humans over the long term.

First, micro-scale. Some bacterium, virus, or parasitic organism of a microscopic scale. There are any number of ways such creatures could alter the path of humanity, and they don't even necessarily need to come in contact with humans. An ocean-going bacteria could alter the makeup of the atmosphere which alters the climate of the region humans develop in which starts a cascade of change all through the development of the species. A parasite could infect humans or a species in close proximity to them, causing them to respond in different ways. What if such an infection makes humans prioritize their behaviors differently, like making us more docile and inclined toward intimacy, or makes it so humans are less-aggressive toward other humans carrying the parasite and more aggressive toward those who don't? What if the parasite infected canines and made them unsuitable for domestication? And viruses can affect the population by creating a selection pressure. Say, large animals carry a virus that's lethal to humans but only spread by consuming blood, marrow, or flesh. Societies of early humans heavily dependent on meat die out, gatherers rise to prominence, agriculture arises sooner, human behavior changes to reject hunting and violence, and encourage nurturing.

Next, human-scale. It's well known that there were a variety of different hominids on the planet. Slightly different pressures could have led to such other groups eventually growing much larger. Then there's two way they would affect human evolution. Either by out-competing the Homo Sapiens and rising to prominence in their stead, or by interbreeding with the homo sapiens population until the 'modern human' genome is dramatically altered. Imagine a world where all these different hominids can be found in different parts. Neanderthals still dominating Europe, some of the smaller hominids elsewhere, and so on. Or imagine one where one of them one out and supplanted homo sapiens. What would architecture and technology look like if the average human was four feet tall? Or how that would change our relationship with other animals, like wolves? And as to the intermixing idea, well, who knows how the addition of some distinct species' DNA into our own would alter the modern face of the world?

Next is mega-scale. Now this gets more into the realm of fiction than I would imagine you desire to go. Let's say some megafauna species survived one or more of the mass extinctions. Now, some of them likely wouldn't change the game all that much, but there's plenty of possibilities for new pressures on early humans. This could be in the form of selection pressures from a large and very dangerous species, it could be an environment pressure with the megafauna making the environment different in a sort of trophic cascade, it could be a tactical pressure as early humans have to develop radically different techniques in hunting, settling, or gathering to compete with or survive these megafauna. How would mankind be different if they were shaped by selection pressure from extremely large predators? More alert, more evasive, more focus on hiding/sneaking, or would they go the other way, the successful groups being the ones aggressive and unified enough to successfully fend off or kill the megapredator? How would humans be different if a massive grazer kept the savannah grass short? Or if one's presence made the trees reclaim the grasslands? How about some huge but aggressive herbivore that makes endurance hunting implausible?

The fourth possibility is animal-scale, largely relating to changing the kinds of animals that early humans dealt with. What if there were no wolves to domesticate, or the herbivores were too aggressive to herd, or there existed animals that out-competed humans as endurance hunters or as gatherers?

[imjoelsavage]

yea i realize the questions a bit strangely worded, im trying to reword it but drawing a bit of a blank.

i am currently leaning towards something either mega-scale or another animal which could realistically have the potential to become alot more than they are. i have been doing some research into evolutionary traits for a few different species and its been quite interesting.
i have heard some interesting things about crows like this one.

Crows have learnt to use pedestrian crossing to crush [sea?] snail shells that are too tough for them normally. The Crows drop them on the white stripes of paint, wait for cars [etc.] to drive over and then use the common red lights to swoop down and retrieve their newly gotten gains...
"Why the white stripes?" I hear you say - that way it is easier to see if the shells have be cracked open from a safe vantage point...
Intelligence is important but adaptability and co-operability I think come up close behind.

i like the idea of it starting sometime early in our evolution but also looking to the future is quite interesting, overpopulation and a now toxic the atmosphere being the key factors for the change.

[sktarq]

i am doing a university research project on world building and my main research question at this point is ... any replies would be really helpfull.

Why 3D media involvement anyway? Seems like it would hinder instead of help.
As for various animals that show interesting promise would have to include Corvids, Baboons, Ursines, Octopi, Cuttlefish, termites/other colony insects, naked mole rats, and Swine