Yesterday I walked through an exhibit on evolution at a museum in Austin, and it got me thinking about human evolution. Over time, humans have evolved to have more useful characteristics due to natural selection. Our legs have become longer because those with longer legs could more easily catch food and escape predators, making them more likely to survive and reproduce. Our brains are larger than our ancestors because intelligence also made us more likely to survive and thrive.
Natural selection occurs in nature, but we don't live in nature any more. We live in a superficial world of our own creation where the likelihood of survival and reproduction isn't dependent on having superior genetic traits. People who might have died young due to disease or predisposition to illness live long lives thanks to our knowledge of health and medicine. Could this result in genetic predisposition to disease and illness being proliferated to the next generation? Isn't this the opposite of natural selection: devolution?
I frequently notice behavior in our society that leads me to believe that our culture is changing for the worse, not the better. The population seems to be getting more lazy. People don't appear to care about anything the way they used to. Even in my industry, it seems like innovation is pretty stagnant these days. What we consider innovative would have been considered incremental a generation ago.
Americans used to be idealistic and motivated to pursue their dreams, whatever those may have been. These days, it seems like most people are satisfied with the status quo, or their "dream" is to sit around watching reality television. For a long time now, I've assumed this shift is occurring for cultural reasons. Previous generations established traditions and policies with the intent of giving my generation a better life, but they really just enabled my generation to be lazy, to the detriment of us all.
After walking through that evolution exhibit, I started to wonder whether this shift toward laziness and apathy isn't a result of more than just cultural influences. What if we're actually devolving into dumber, more inept versions of our ancestors due to lack of natural selection? If this is true, we should be diligent to make sure we are progressing as a culture since nature isn't going to do us any favors.
If I could send a message to my generation, it would be this: I don't care what you do, but please do something to make the world a better place. Find something you care about, and take action to influence it for the better. We may be helpless against nature, but we can control the traditions and policies that we establish for the next generation. Let's make sure that the legacy we leave behind is one that makes our future, chimp-like descendants proud.
Natural selection occurs in nature, but we don't live in nature any more. We live in a superficial world of our own creation where the likelihood of survival and reproduction isn't dependent on having superior genetic traits. People who might have died young due to disease or predisposition to illness live long lives thanks to our knowledge of health and medicine. Could this result in genetic predisposition to disease and illness being proliferated to the next generation? Isn't this the opposite of natural selection: devolution?
I frequently notice behavior in our society that leads me to believe that our culture is changing for the worse, not the better. The population seems to be getting more lazy. People don't appear to care about anything the way they used to. Even in my industry, it seems like innovation is pretty stagnant these days. What we consider innovative would have been considered incremental a generation ago.
Americans used to be idealistic and motivated to pursue their dreams, whatever those may have been. These days, it seems like most people are satisfied with the status quo, or their "dream" is to sit around watching reality television. For a long time now, I've assumed this shift is occurring for cultural reasons. Previous generations established traditions and policies with the intent of giving my generation a better life, but they really just enabled my generation to be lazy, to the detriment of us all.
After walking through that evolution exhibit, I started to wonder whether this shift toward laziness and apathy isn't a result of more than just cultural influences. What if we're actually devolving into dumber, more inept versions of our ancestors due to lack of natural selection? If this is true, we should be diligent to make sure we are progressing as a culture since nature isn't going to do us any favors.
If I could send a message to my generation, it would be this: I don't care what you do, but please do something to make the world a better place. Find something you care about, and take action to influence it for the better. We may be helpless against nature, but we can control the traditions and policies that we establish for the next generation. Let's make sure that the legacy we leave behind is one that makes our future, chimp-like descendants proud.
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