# Are there any technologies dependent on the theory of evolution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 10, 2017, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842 "2017-03-10T06:00:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/1 "2017-03-10T06:00:50Z")
Computers are dependent on quantum physics being true, GPS depends on the theory of relativity, the moonshot was dependent on the theory of gravitation, vaccines depend on the germ theory of disease, etc. What observable effects depend on the theory of evolution? Are there any technologies that depend on it? Thanks, Rob ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/2 "2017-03-10T06:17:54Z")
Not coming up with anything. One thing to keep in mind is that evolution takes place over long periods of time, so any technology that depended on it would have to be something where results in a timely matter was not important. ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/3 "2017-03-10T06:26:56Z")
I am sure that there are testable predictions, correct? ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/4 "2017-03-10T06:28:07Z")
Anti-biotic resistance and strategies to counter it. ---
**Author:** ![krinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@krinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krinh)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/5 "2017-03-10T06:29:51Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Not coming up with anything. One thing to keep in mind is that evolution takes place over long periods of time, so any technology that depended on it would have to be something where results in a timely matter was not important. yeah normally anything technology based runs on precision, calculation, accurate variables, and exact figures… evolution… is kinda like a million year long trial and error plan. hmm just had a thought… its a sleep deprived thought so bear with me. would stem cells? or… idk that thing people can do where parents basically select traits and…donated…“dna” from parents with desired features. basically creating a made to order baby. evolution would be the supplier as well as cause of those more desirable/beneficial traits being passed on. and the technological process would depend on having the right genes, that would stay strong through the whole process as well as be passed onto their offspring… idk if that made sense but its all i got ---
**Author:** ![sear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sear)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/6 "2017-03-10T06:34:36Z")
> [@](#): > > “Go to first new post Are there any technologies dependent on the theory of evolution?” Define “dependent”. > [@](#): > > “GPS depends on the theory of relativity” In what way? I thought it was simple Newtonian triangulation. > [@](#): > > “What observable effects depend on the theory of evolution?” Evolution is a process of change in successive generations. For that reason we would not observe that change process, within any single generation, even though we witness the consequence. My 2016 Honda Civic is different from my grandfather’s Dusenberg. His car didn’t have: - front & side airbags - anti-lock brakes and traction control - catalytic converter - 60,000 mile radial tires - PS & A/C - power windows - GPS - etc. And his car didn’t get 40 MPG. But however magnificent my 2016 is, one can’t just stand there and watch it evolve. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/7 "2017-03-10T06:56:32Z")
There are some software techniques that use evolution as a mechanism for dynamically generating solutions to a problem. It’s not common, but it has been done. Here’s a more visual example of an attempt to find a race car that performs reasonably well: [http://boxcar2d.com/](http://boxcar2d.com/) ---
**Author:** ![sear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sear)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/8 "2017-03-10T06:58:56Z")
SR #7 Yes. A.I. Good example. It’s designed to learn. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/9 "2017-03-10T07:27:14Z")
Are you looking for real world applications of evolutionary theory? > **[Evolutionary principles and their practical application](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3352551/)** > > Evolutionary principles are now routinely incorporated into medicine and agriculture. Examples include the design of treatments that slow the evolution of resistance by weeds, pests, and pathogens, and the design of breeding programs that maximize... ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/10 "2017-03-10T07:44:02Z")
Agriculture. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/11 "2017-03-10T08:08:32Z")
How about CRISPR-Cas9? It’s not dependent on evolution per se, but if the only alternative “model” to evolution is Creationism (complete with “no increase in information”), then it would probably have taken a lot longer to figure out this mechanism because, on its face, it seems to go against such principles. Naturally, I’ve no doubt such believers will find a way to retrospectively explain it, though. (actually now I think about it, generally the immune system is a problem for creationists) ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/12 "2017-03-10T08:15:59Z")
Also I should push back against the OP somewhat. If you look across all of science, particularly biology, stuff with no obvious practical benefit will outnumber the stuff that lets humans build widgets. And that’s fine: just understanding can be an end in itself (plus many things may _eventually_ bring practical benefits, after we enhance and/or link our models). The theory of evolution is accepted because it makes good predictions: about fossils that we subsequently found, about genomes that we later sequenced, etc. Whether it allows us to make gubbins is a misleading and irrelevant point. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/13 "2017-03-10T08:35:39Z")
Relevant: two videos by a geneticist about how evolution has furthered his research on HIV. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtnz2QZRg-Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtnz2QZRg-Q) It encompasses nano-, micro-, and macroevolution, and shows how each contributed in a non-trivial manner to our understanding today and how we use them to treat HIV. Specifically, differences between HIV and SIV, and the knowledge (thanks to evolution) that the two are related led to a major breakthrough in treating HIV (this can be found around the 7-minute mark in the second video). To quote: > [@](#): > > 7:09So, evolution as a tool, as a model and a framework means that we understand this pathogen > 7:15better. We know where it came from, chimpanzee SIV, we know when it jumped to humans. More > 7:20than that, though, a comparison of the genomes of all the lentiviruses has led us to a major > 7:27breakthrough. One of the key differences between SIV and HIV is the type of accessory gene > 7:33products and particularly one called vpr, or viral protein R. The same sequence exists > 7:41in SIV and FIV and EIAV, but it’s far more mutable. We find more variation in it. In > 7:49HIV, it’s highly conserved. That led scientists to investigate it more closely. To early examination, > 7:56it was a minor, unimportant viral protein that was apparently too small to do much, > 8:01but the lack of sequence diversity and the alignment to viral genes in SIV and HIV-2 > 8:08led them to discover the truth about this protein: It has at least four distinctive > 8:14functions that make HIV so deadly. It does things like stopping the growth of immune > 8:20cells, transporting the virus into the nucleus of the cell, and it regulates viral expression. > 8:27The ancestor of HIV lacks some of these functions, so it’s likely the product of evolution. It’s > 8:35an amazing target for gene therapies, and it’s an understanding of how the lentiviruses > 8:41have evolved in response to their hosts that led us to identify that vpr even mattered > 8:46or played a role in the cell. ---
**Author:** ![Mogle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mogle/32/12021_2.png) [@Mogle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mogle)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/14 "2017-03-10T09:07:01Z")
> [@sear](#): > > In what way? > I thought it was simple Newtonian triangulation. If we lived in a Newtonian universe, yes, but we don’t. For the precision needed in a GPS system the [relativistic effects](http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit5/gps.html) of being in orbit are too large to ignore, and has to be accounted for if you want your navigation system to stay accurate for more than a couple of minutes. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Render](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/15 "2017-03-10T09:59:06Z")
Cavalry. Bit old as a technology, but I think it counts. Sniffer dogs and all the other things we use dogs for. Agriculture today is based on directed evolution of plants and meat animals. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/16 "2017-03-10T10:30:27Z")
> [@Grim\_Render](#): > > Cavalry. Bit old as a technology, but I think it counts. > > Sniffer dogs and all the other things we use dogs for. Agriculture today is based on directed evolution of plants and meat animals. Is the op talking about evolution here, or Darwin’s Theory of Evolution? Dogs were bred and crossbred for specific purposes long before Darwin’s Theory became established. It would be interesting to discover what previous generations thought were going on with regards to these matters. Certainly the opinion that your “genes” or something akin to your genes should be bred further have been around since the early modern period and probably a lot further back than that. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/17 "2017-03-10T11:08:50Z")
I’m thinking more GQ. Off we go. ---
**Author:** ![Anaglyph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anaglyph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaglyph)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/18 "2017-03-10T12:08:47Z")
Yes, in biochemistry/protein engineering, we use “directed evolution” or “in-vitro evolution”, e.g. to adapt microbial and eukaryotic cell lines to the large-scale production of biomolecules under laboratory conditions, and to improve the stability and binding affinity of proteins for research and as pharmacological compounds. These techniques all combine ways of increasing the mutation rates and generation of synthetic genes with sequence variability in defined regions with methods to select for those cells/bacteria/viruses that produce a variant of the desired gene with improved properties. Fo us, evolution is not a theory but a well-tested method. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/19 "2017-03-10T12:33:07Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Agriculture. How so? Agriculture has been around a heck of a lot longer than any formal theory of evolution has. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842/20 "2017-03-10T12:50:14Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > How so? Agriculture has been around a heck of a lot longer than any formal theory of evolution has. But it (specifically, the breeding of animals and crops for specific traits) depends on the truth of the theory of evolution, whether anyone has explicitly declared that truth or not. If species had been created by an intelligent designer and were forever after immutable - that is, if the theory of evolution were wrong - the development of specific breeds/varieties would not have been possible. Hand-in-hand with this is gene theory, which says that the gene is the unit of inheritance. GMOs and gene therapy would not be possible if gene theory, an important part of the theory of evolution, were incorrect. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-technologies-dependent-on-the-theory-of-evolution/781842.md?page=2)