Natural selection hasn’t really applied to humans for thousands of years. We beat nature when we created civilizations. Which is partly why some of these less than ideal genetic traits go unchecked now in the population.
And even those self-imposed selective forces are ever-changing and vary quite wildly from context to context across the globe and across the socioeconomic spectrum. Modern human evolution is really fascinating.
That’s only true if people that work in offices reproduce at a higher rate than the general population, and I’m not entirely sure that’s the case. If anything, societal trends have shown that in more developed countries where office work would be more common people are having fewer kids and populations are starting to decline.
I know how you mean it, but I would still consider civilisation part of nature. Like an anthill is part of nature even if it was “invented” by ants, etc
It doesn’t have to do with civilisation, but with group compassion.
In fact, civilizations tend to care less if somebody starves to death on the streets because their eyes are not performing well enough to earn money…
That’s really not true at all though. Look up “Food Pantries in my area” and see how many places offer food in your area. The blind man would qualify for lifetime disability checks. Food stamps are a thing, charities and churches do this kind of work as well. My city has an emergency rent program and there are, of course, homeless shelters and soup kitchens as well. It’s really that society’s mechanism for meeting the needs of the hungry are part voluntary (charity) and part automatic with entitlements (not a bad word!) and sometimes people fall through the cracks.
This is why getting people connected to resources is such a big deal.
Natural selection hasn’t really applied to humans for thousands of years. We beat nature when we created civilizations. Which is partly why some of these less than ideal genetic traits go unchecked now in the population.
Evolution and natural selection never stops, we’ve only changed what the selective pressures are.
True. I was thinking of the selective pressures of nature, but there are absolutely still self imposed selective forces acting on our species.
And even those self-imposed selective forces are ever-changing and vary quite wildly from context to context across the globe and across the socioeconomic spectrum. Modern human evolution is really fascinating.
Fascinating but terrifying to think that natural selection is probably now pushing humans to be good little office drones rather than survivors
That’s only true if people that work in offices reproduce at a higher rate than the general population, and I’m not entirely sure that’s the case. If anything, societal trends have shown that in more developed countries where office work would be more common people are having fewer kids and populations are starting to decline.
I know how you mean it, but I would still consider civilisation part of nature. Like an anthill is part of nature even if it was “invented” by ants, etc
It doesn’t have to do with civilisation, but with group compassion. In fact, civilizations tend to care less if somebody starves to death on the streets because their eyes are not performing well enough to earn money…
That’s really not true at all though. Look up “Food Pantries in my area” and see how many places offer food in your area. The blind man would qualify for lifetime disability checks. Food stamps are a thing, charities and churches do this kind of work as well. My city has an emergency rent program and there are, of course, homeless shelters and soup kitchens as well. It’s really that society’s mechanism for meeting the needs of the hungry are part voluntary (charity) and part automatic with entitlements (not a bad word!) and sometimes people fall through the cracks.
This is why getting people connected to resources is such a big deal.