How does the history of evolution predict the outcome of future evolution?
The history of evolution shows us that when there is a pressure change that threatened the survival of an organism, the organism evolves to continue living. That shows us that for future evolution, for example, homo sapiens might start to have more and more hair due to the recent climate change and issues of global warming, so they can continue to live and keep warm throughout the decades to come. If the world where to become flooded, leaving very little land but enough for people to migrate and find new sources for food and shelter etc., then we would have to find another alternative to the way we live now. If people had to swim from point A to B, I don’t think that we would necessarily grow gills, but I do think that our lungs would grow larger and bigger. If you were to look at a mammal that lives in the water, such as a dolphin, whale, or sea lion, they do not have gills. They need to resurface from time to time to get oxygen. So, if the world did start to flood you could only imagine that people would start to hold their breath longer and probably have webbed fingers and toes to help swim in the water.
I don’t think that evolution can be determined by looking at history and seeing what has happened. I believe to see the future in evolution you have to look to the present and see what is happening now in front of you. If there are no selection pressures maybe evolution will just start to get rid of what we don’t need, like the pinky toe or the male nipple. The problem with the theory of evolution is that there is nowhere near enough data to say this is how evolution works. The reason being for that, even though evolution is amazing on its own, it takes centuries for it to occur.