Humans as a species have been around for quite some time. Now sure, in the grand scheme of the universe it’s barely noticeable, but compared to how long our individual lives are, it’s a pretty long time. A quick glance at wikipedia suggests between fifty and a hundred thousand years ago (and former humanoid things much earlier).
Evolution for humans happens very slowly (relative to our current pace of life, not the universe’s).
Our lifestyle has changed quite a lot in recent times. Think about the difference over the last twenty years or so as computers (in the broad sense) changed from being something that might actually take off to something that is so ingrained into our culture we cannot imagine life without it. Think about the difference between now and the two world wars (or even the difference in technology in the warfare between the two). Think about the difference between now and two hundred years ago, before the industrial revolution.
You will probably have thought of different things depending on what you’re aware of, what your interests are, what you’ve learned, etc. At any rate, the differences are incredible. Life is very different in a huge variety of ways.
We evolve slowly, but in recent times lifestyle changes rapidly. Humans as a species haven’t changed much, while our lifestyle has changed drastically. The environment we evolved to suit (which I’m not sure what it is, but ideas of wandering around deserts and jungles fighting animals and trying to get food spring to mind) is not the one we live in now. We’re a square peg living in a circular hole. The best analogy I can think of at the moment is taking a road bike, designed for cycling around the concrete roads of the city, and putting it in the desert. The idea is the same – wheels turn and you are propelled forward – but it doesn’t work very well.
Now, I don’t think I’m saying anything particularly controversial. Sure, you can argue about the extent to which it is different, but denying the fundamental tension doesn’t seem plausible to me: it’s a fact.
And to be clear, I’m not saying that our change is bad. There are a huge number of positives in most aspects of our lives: we are safer, whether in food, shelter, from other animals, from diseases, or many other things. That’s great. But that doesn’t mean the tension doesn’t exist and nor that it doesn’t have any negative effects. The positives outweigh the negatives hugely, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t negative effects. I’m not saying we should throw away all of our development and go back to the stone age. It’s just something we ought be aware of and deal with; something I see as undeniable.
That’s almost all I want to say here, but I do want to give a few examples.
In terms of health, we used to be quite active (like most wild animals), but now we spend the majority of our time (in our society) sat still, whether at school or work or home, and this causes our bodies to be very different. We lose basic abilities to move and run, our joints stop working properly and we get fat.
The food we eat and the way we eat it is very different – we have food on tap, designed for taste, whereas previously we had to make do with what we could find, and that has effects on our health. We didn’t used to pump our bodies full of sugar like we now do (and didn’t have an obesity crisis either).
What we do with our time is different. I would hazard a guess that we have less social interaction now than we used to, but at any rate, social interaction is very different. Now that we’ve greatly reduced the risk of death from the environment, the stress mechanism that we used to have to help us better use our bodies is applied to things like exams, work and social interaction. I wonder if we have more mental health issues than we used to as a species as part of thhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb7GjomO7Ns&list=UUPCiBMarvDiTx-lknzt934g&feature=c4-overviewis change – though I don’t think they’re new or bad, the extent to which we have them both in severity and how prevalent they are may be different.
I wrote this post because it might feature as a foundation for some later posts about health, but also because I’m interested to see what other changes people have noticed, both positive or negative, as mine are limited to things I have experience with. So if you have any thoughts, please comment or something, I’d like to know.
For inspirations and thoughts, and for anyone who might want to read a bit further, I cite the following: a BOOK by Oliver Selway about healthy eating and exercise in modern times; a PODCAST by Dan Edwardes which touches upon fear mechanism and movement; and Ido Portal for his work on movement.
You've missed something key, the evolution of our brains! Our world may have changed unfathomably over the last few millenia but if our brains weren't up to the job we never would have created it.
The very fact that we have created computers etc. demonstrates that we ARE suited to this world, for we created it! Humans have never flourished in an evolutionary sense as much as we are now.
I think we are perfectly suited to this world and, as you say, our health is a lot better, as is our diet, despite the sugar etc. Nonetheless, good lessons can certainly be taken from nature and how we were before we started to shape our world. Just minus the assumptions 😉
You also assumed we are a square peg in a round hole….just because you say our new world is different to the one for which we are best adapted doesn't mean that we don't happen to fit this new world/hole. We could be a round peg in a square hole. Or, the colour of the hole could have changed but it's shape stayed the same: we fit it just as much but other aspects have changed – aspects that are noticeable upon inspection but don't affect our chances of survival, in fact they increase our chances.
You might be interested in the field of Evolutionary Psychology, which essentially posits that vast portions of our neural networks developed in times when people lived in very different conditions – in particular during the period when humans lived as members of nomadic tribes – and that many features of our thinking represent adaptations to this which we have yet to evolve beyond. A good guide to the field can be found at http://www.cep.ucsb.edu/primer.html
Thanks, yeah that does sound interesting, I'll check it out 🙂
Thanks for commenting to point out my mistakes. I agree looking back, square peg/round hole is a bad analogy that doesn't work here.
I was more focussing on change over a shorter period than "the last few millenia", and I don't think our brains have changed that much since then? I'm also not sure that just because we have created something it logically follows that we are suited to it, though I might be misunderstanding what you are saying. I'm also wasn't intending to say whether we are suited to the world or not, just that this tension exists and has some negative effects.
I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
Plz answer back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know
where u got this from. thanks
Hi 🙂 It’s made using wordpress, I picked a theme and tinkered a bit with colours and design