haha.

Good question!
The Lion's problem is this: It's entire body is built to do one thing and one thing only, and that thing is kill. Even if the Lion had the mental capacity to learn how to make fire, or even make a pointy stick, how would it do it?

How about a turning point in human evolution that, I believe, is imminently pending.

First, let's consider one important historical development in human evolution. 

With the dawn of agriculture, sedentary society, 'civilization' or whatever you want to call it, humans ventured into a new phase of evolution.  They attained the unique ability to adapt their environment to suite themselves, rather than having to constantly adapt themselves to environmental or ecological changes that were always previously beyond their control.

In other words, humans alone now have the capability of manipulating their evolutionary course by manipulating the environment in which they are to evolve.  And they are currently adapting themselves to their own anthropogenic climatic or ecological change. 

In addition, humans are adapting themselves to increasingly complex anthropogenic constructs, such as cities, increasingly complex tools, and new technologies (ie. a human being's ability to use the internet will become and increasingly important factor on human survival).  In essence, humans are adapting to 'micro environments' of their own construction, and not only to the macro environment.

However, the completion of this evolutionary turning point is incomplete.  Humans have yet to develop the capability to INTENTIONALLY manipulate their environment to ensure their future survival.

Thus, what I see as the imminent future turning point in human evolution is their ability to intentionally alter and 'mutate' themselves for survival.  One way would be for humans to be selectively breed / genetically alter themselves to quickly become more suitable for space travel.

paul - I edited to make myself clearer

What i mean by environment is both on a macro and micro level.  For instance, one's ability to thrive in an urban 'environment', or this virtual 'environment' we have here called the internet.

i wrote a paper called "How We Lost Our Fur".  In the essay, my thesis focus's on the event of which the between ancient Australopithecus and his link to Homosapiens went through the physycal change to lose fur and grow hair.

while alot of morons just say "cuz after ice age, the planet warmed up" i think ppl that say that are ignorant. i ivestigated the question because homosapien existed(without fur) long before the ice age was over.  Now due to my current understanding of evolution, i know that thier are some conditions on which may cause mutation.  the one condition i blame for the mutation on which homosapiens lost thier fur is on sexual attraction.

scenerio:  A small genetic anomoly has occered in young steven's skin. Having less fur than the other primates in his species, he is surely different indeed, but instead of naturaly predudous, he is honor by great attraction from the opposite sex due to his genitals be more exposed. since he is now almost guaenteed a mate his genes will be passed on. now over the next few decades, all of his accendents will also face a great deal of sexual attraction, now that the anomoly is becoming more common, we can now assume that the mutation over time is based off of genetic survival.

now to compare this to xeno's explanation of our future.  questions: 
With the human population being so high, would any significant mutation be deluted?
can we assume our evolutionary pass is not going to happen based of of genetic dominance anymore? 
Could this macro and micro evolution be the only change left for us?

so if the world population keeps smoking tobacco for the next 5000 years, will we develop stronger lung tissue as a result of the damages we do to ourselves now?