[Sciolist]

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1) The ear: When I first learned about the ear in biology, I was amazed out how many steps there are between sound getting into your ear and it registering with your brain. There are these bones with a bunch of cute names and some hairs swaying in some liquid and stuff. It seems to me that we'd be better off with just a membrane thin enough to vibrate and a nerve hooked up to it

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I think this might be an efficiency thing. I imagine we STARTED with a thin membrane with a nerve hooked up to it (eardrum), but I imagine it doesn't work all that well. The other complicated bits are all improvements on the original. The extra problems from the complexity, like bits not working, like it being easier to damage, have to be outweighed by the advantages in improved hearing. This is probably particularly true with language, but the fact that many animals have better hearing than us suggests that it's important for survival in itself.