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Old 07-01-2007, 05:10 AM
NoahSD NoahSD is offline
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Default *Official* Evolution is Stupid Thread

This isn't a thread about evolution not being a correct theory (sorry stupid people). This is a thread about how evolution's screwed us and various other organisms over. Post examples of various things that evolution's done that you think are stupid, and maybe some other people can clarify why things turned out the way they did.

Here are mine:

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.

1) Inability to sleep at will: I've always thought this really sucked. It seems to me that people would be more productive if they could choose when to sleep. You'd still get tired if you didn't do it often enough, and pass out if you chose to stay up for way longer than you should, but you wouldn't have to lie in bed staring at the ceiling before a big day. It'd be more like going to the bathroom and less like breathing.

3) Like/Dislike for Certain Foods: It seems like we'd be much healthier if we just craved whatever foods had whatever nutrients we need most, and I guess to some extent this is true. However, it's clearly not completely true. Some people have really weird tastes in food that seem to be biological and seem incredibly unhealthy. I guess the classic example is the kid who won't eat his broccoli, but there are a ton more.

Obviously some of this has to do with the difference between what was necessary to survive during the time when we did most of our evolving and what's necessary to survive now--So, for example we crave lots more fat than we actually need since we're just way less active and able to eat way more often than our ancestors. But, that can't be the whole story.


Anyway, please post yours. And if any of you can explain these things, please do.
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  #2  
Old 07-01-2007, 05:12 AM
by?k by?k is offline
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Default Re: *Official* Evolution is Stupid Thread

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Old 07-01-2007, 05:19 AM
Sciolist Sciolist is offline
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Default Re: *Official* Evolution is Stupid Thread

1) Sleep at all. Wouldn't it be an advantage to not have to?

1) Losing muscle if you don't use it. Though I suppose this is just something that's inconvenient now, as we don't need it to survive.

3) This may get me in trouble. Porn. Why is it we like it? It's just because that part of us can't differentiate between a real person and a picture of person. It doesn't realise it isn't the same as the real thing. Surely this is bad?

Also:

[ QUOTE ]
3) Like/Dislike for Certain Foods: It seems like we'd be much healthier if we just craved whatever foods had whatever nutrients we need most, and I guess to some extent this is true. However, it's clearly not completely true. Some people have really weird tastes in food that seem to be biological and seem incredibly unhealthy. I guess the classic example is the kid who won't eat his broccoli, but there are a ton more

[/ QUOTE ]
I think this might have sound reasons. For example, if someone only likes meat, they'll get a lot better at finding it than anyone else, which will probably benefit their genes (i.e, they'll [censored] more). Or, what if there's a weird disease that's spread by broccoli? People who don't eat it will survive, so there's more likelyhood their genes will spread. Obviously there'd be a critical number that's important here (i.e, chances of this happening vs. problems of not eating your greens), but I imagine that a small percentage is sustainable in that way, particularly these days.
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Old 07-01-2007, 05:21 AM
superadvisor superadvisor is offline
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Default Re: *Official* Evolution is Stupid Thread

1) The ear: Just like your car stereo speakers, what happens when it blows out or gets a hole in it? Permanent Deafaments?
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Old 07-01-2007, 05:22 AM
adrockuk adrockuk is offline
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Default Re: *Official* Evolution is Stupid Thread

[ QUOTE ]
I guess the classic example is the kid who won't eat his broccoli

[/ QUOTE ]

Just a quick note on this one, I heard from UK panel show QI that the reason that children start off disliking vegetables is because to a young pallet these can taste very bitter. This has evolved as it stops kids munching on potentially poisonous plants. (This was not said by god-like Stephen Fry so it may not be 100% accurate)

Edited to add: Also with the food thing, obviously from an evolutionary point of view the most important thing is survival, at times when food could be scarce we should obviously shovel down as many calories as possible. Now that society's changes have suddenly (on an evolutionary scale) altered our environment we've been left with the archaic desire of high sugar/fat foods.
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Old 07-01-2007, 05:23 AM
Sciolist Sciolist is offline
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Default Re: *Official* Evolution is Stupid Thread

[ QUOTE ]
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

[/ QUOTE ]
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.
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Old 07-01-2007, 05:23 AM
superadvisor superadvisor is offline
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Default Re: *Official* Evolution is Stupid Thread

Hey Sciolist, I'm not too sure what it's like to be a virgin or a hermit but my mind understands pretty damn well the difference between porn a real naked woman in my bedroom.
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Old 07-01-2007, 05:25 AM
Sciolist Sciolist is offline
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Default Re: *Official* Evolution is Stupid Thread

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Sciolist, I'm not too sure what it's like to be a virgin or a hermit but my mind understands pretty damn well the difference between porn a real naked woman in my bedroom.

[/ QUOTE ]
Your conscious mind, yeh. I bet you get turned on by porn though. Why? What evolutionary purpose does that serve?
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  #9  
Old 07-01-2007, 05:27 AM
NoahSD NoahSD is offline
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Default Re: *Official* Evolution is Stupid Thread

Good points, sciolost.

I forgot to ask why we have to sleep in the first place. That one really confuses me.

I think the reason we lose muscle if we don't use it is so that our body's not wasting food/oxygen/energy for pumping blood to keep alive a part of the body we're not using.
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Old 07-01-2007, 05:31 AM
Sciolist Sciolist is offline
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Default Re: *Official* Evolution is Stupid Thread

[ QUOTE ]
I forgot to ask why we have to sleep in the first place. That one really confuses me.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm pretty sure it's down to how our brain works, I have a feeling that animals past a certain point of complexity sleep, whilst ones below don't. This seems a pretty good example of something that could've been designed better if we had the chance... Could be that it's something fundamental, I'm not exactly an expert on this.

On that note: free radicals, or any of those things that make us age and die due to cumulative errors. They only exist because they start affecting you after you can no longer breed, so evolution doesn't cut them out. Aging is another good argument in favour of evolution, not that this is what the thread is about.

[ QUOTE ]
I think the reason we lose muscle if we don't use it is so that our body's not wasting food/oxygen/energy for pumping blood to keep alive a part of the body we're not using.

[/ QUOTE ]
Makes sense. Probably something we could do with un-evolving now though, if we assume we'll spend the next few hundred thousand years without having to spend too much of it worrying about where our food comes from.
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