We’re evolving too slowly for the world we’ve built. As industrialization accelerates, human biology is struggling to keep pace. Many of the chronic stress-related health issues we face today may be the predictable result of forcing Stone Age physiology into a world it was never built for.
https://newatlas.com/biology/evolution-modern-life-anthropocene/
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**We’re evolving too slowly for the world we’ve built, according to science**
**As our evolution slows and industrialization and technology accelerates, a growing body of research suggests that human biology is struggling to keep pace. Many of the chronic stress-related health issues we face today aren’t personal failings or modern inconveniences – they’re the predictable result of forcing Stone Age physiology into a world it was never built for.**
new study from University of Zurich researchers has investigated whether the rapid and extensive environmental shifts of the current Anthropocene have compromised the fitness of Homo sapiens. In less-evolutionary speak: if the world most of us experience daily is having a profound impact on mental and physical health as a species.
Synthesizing data concerning industrialization and urbanization and health, the researchers argue that there are many signs that humans haven’t had time to adapt to the rapid changes in the world over the last century. They cite declining global fertility rates, rising chronic inflammatory conditions and other chronic health trends as signs that we’ve been struggling on Earth since the Industrial Revolution.
One example they give is our rapid change from hunter-gatherer societies, where humans encountered occasional stressors in the wild, to urban environments where daily challenges have us in a sustained high-alert mode. City noise, air and light pollution, microplastics, pesticides, artificial light, processed foods, sedentary lifestyles and sensory overload are all relatively new experiences for H. sapiens.
While it’s still debated, the researchers also cite studies into an ongoing global sperm count and motility decline, which has been linked to a range of factors – from obesity to environmental hazards like pesticides and microplastics.
For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/brv.70094
We aren’t evolving at all though? Widespread health care, civilisation as a whole really, trumps natural selection and halts any evolutionary process.
Haven’t read the paper, so maybe they phrase this in a better way, but I can confidently say whoever wrote the article is dumb.
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Maybe we’re building the wrong world?
We could build a better world but we’re just greedy.
Can’t understand if this headline is suggesting we are supposed to actively evolve against microplastics and such, things that have been around for what, two generations? Light pollution as a stressor causing inflammation…okay? How does a species evolve against that?
My point is what we build should “evolve”, adapt, become, be built to suit us. Not the other way around…
So we’re going to evolve ourselves to be able to be sedentary and eat as much as we want without getting fat.
We’re going to be Wall-E humans in no time
We’re taller and longer-lived than in the Stone Age. We have medicine which can kill infections and we’ve eradicated some diseases. Far fewer women and children die during childbirth or soon after. We can compensate for poor eyesight and hearing. Let’s not hear any more of these implicit Stone Age Golden Age fantasies.
That title is making a lot of wrong assumptions. You could also say the modern world we are building is poison and we are making ourselves sick seeking short term indulgences instead of creating long term prosperity.
OR how about there is nothing wrong with our biology, but it is the world that needs to change?
I’ve been saying this for a long time. I also believe that narcissism, psychopathy and things like ADHD are actually evolutionary adaptations for this new world, and this is why these traits are statistically on the rise.
Yeah. Let’s shut down the internet, turn off electricity, toss our smartphones into the trash bin and live closely with nature like the good old days.
/s
This is rather inevitable. A random species suddenly gaining tons of evolutionary advantages in what is basically an instant in biological time scale. Humans literally cheated their way out of the game. As long as innovation still happens at the current pace, this problem is likely to persist.
Reading this while it’s cold and rainy outside, feeling my body want to shut down, which is a perfectly natural response. But nope. Gotta make money. So I can give the money to other people and then repeat the cycle over and over and over until I’m dead.
No I’m not going to agree with bioengineering stop pushing the agenda
We can correct genetic defects but modifications for optimisation sake is inhuman
I asked my wife all the time who exactly are we building these more and more complicated systems for. People have a hard time figuring out the Bluetooth on their phone no less figuring out two and three Factor authentication just to log in for work. Hell 30% of the world is illiterate. Human evolution isn’t making us any smarter, systems should be getting easier to use not more complex.
Who would of thought? Forcing humans to sell half their waking life, to preserve the other half, would have negative consequences? I’m not kidding either. Let’s do the math.
Let’s assume your average person has a 5 day work week. 5 days X 24 hours a day is 120 hours. If we make the assumption the person gets just 8 hours sleep? 8 hours a day X 5 days = 40 hours. 120-40=80 waking hours. Your average shift being 8 hours. Again 8 hours a day X 5 days=40 hours a week. 80 waking hours – a 40 work week = 40 hours in 5 days for you to decide what you’re gonna do with.
Now let’s divide the days back out. 40 hours ÷ 5 days = 8 hours day. You’re expected to be ok with having 8 hours a day, for a 5 day span to: commute to and from work. Shower. Brush your teeth. Make a nutritious dinner for you and possibly your family. Run any errands that can’t wait till Saturday. Do any house chores that can’t wait till Saturday. Spend time with your friends and family. Go to therapy. Etc.
“Can’t believe I can’t plug this usb cable into my ear. Stupid ear! Evolve better!”
E.O Wilson quote, “The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology”.
The conclusion that we’re evolving too slow is the most horrid capitalist idea I’ve ever heard, on par with the “over population” junk we saw the other day.
Change the system that’s causing the stress and withholding the food… Obviously.
We are having too few children, which also contributes to the problem, as less variability is introduced. Never thought about it until now.
I mean kinda. But a lot of it is way more about greed and capitalism. We could live in a world where work allows on the hour stretching breaks and built in body and mind maintenence that supports our biology. It just cost money that a buisness doesnt want to spend because they set the rules for their org and want it as profitable as humanly possible. So disregarding and abusing the human element is a way to squeeze more profit out of that person. I dont think its right but I also see that it is the reality.
Today was brought you by: no fucking shit
Back to you, Tom.
Everyone’s psyche is fried from social media and all the disinformation/misinformation. Social life is deteriorating rapidly. Our social structures reward sociopathy/psychopathy. Our planet is literally burning. This is deeply fucked.
So given these facts, and if we reliably had the ability to do so, would it be ethical to begin deliberately and intentionally geneticly modifying ourselves to be more adapted to the world we have built?
If not, why not?
>We’re evolving too slowly for the world we’ve built, according to science.
>As our evolution slows and industrialization and technology accelerates, a growing body of research suggests that human biology is struggling to keep pace. Many of the chronic stress-related health issues we face today aren’t personal failings or modern inconveniences – they’re the predictable result of forcing Stone Age physiology into a world it was never built for.
It seems like this line of reason inevitably leads to a need for tranhumanist solutions?