It is estimated that Homo sapiens began to evolve into what we would recognise as ‘early man’ around 300,000 years ago. In the intervening period – a mere blink in the Earth’s history – humankind has changed in numerous and substantial ways.

We have got taller, we stand more upright, we have less pronounced brows and generally sport a little less body hair. But such is the transformation our species has undergone in this time, that we are bound to ask the question of what we will look like in the distant future.

Well, Washington University has used computational genomics to predict just that. The results, which you can see below, are somewhat bizarre.

While there is going to be little change over the next 20,000 years, by the time we reach the year 102014 there are going to be some odd alterations. Most prominently our eyes are going to be far larger, almost resembling something out of a Japanese Manga comic. This is supposed to accommodate are growing use of technology, particularly wearable teams like Google Glasses.

Nickolay Lamm, who led the study, also predicted that our skin is going to become far darker to help protect us from harmful UV rays. Furthermore, denser hair is predicted to insulate our larger heads while nostrils will also increase in size to make breathing in potentially less suitable environments easier.

In reality, this can only ever be speculation, one possible outcome should human life continue down a particular path. Nevertheless, it is intriguing to imagine the subtle ways in which we will continue to adapt to the modern world we have created for ourselves; assuming we don’t all blow each other to pieces long before then.

Human evolution – today, 20,000 years’ time, 60,000 years’ time and 100,000 year’s time