Homo Sapien in reality, an incredibly maladaptive species?

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I was just thinking about how it seems like so many people are maladaptive in their behavior although it is considered acceptable by society. In reality, just seems to be against survival of the species. Humans are considered to be good at adapting but is it really true? I've been thinking about it and it seems like their adaptations only appear to be beneficial but are often sabotaging in the long run. So are we just a lesson in maladaption?

For instance, it could be argued, all this reliance on machinery is weakening us physically and what it really does, on a profound level, is cause the majority of us to lose touch with our basic survival skills like gathering food and creating an adequate shelter. So even though it looks like we are adapting with this machinery, it is robbing us of our basic, instinctual skill set and causing us to become dependent on something that might not always be reliable.

Many people have behaviour that is maladaptive for their own quality of life and/or for the good of their community, but that's not the same thing as being maladaptive for the continuation of the species. As a species we have managed to live pretty much anywhere on the planet. Individuals suffered and died along the way and many didn't reproduce but the species went on.

Reliance on machinery could surely be maladaptive for the individual if situations suddenly changed. There are an enormous number of post-apocalyptic novels, movies and TV shows with just that theme. If you watch/read a couple of them, you notice the same thing emerges: that many die in the post-apocalyptic world that they can't adapt to but enough survive and adapt that the species continues. That's not just a fiction trope. It's how things work in real populations. If enough individuals reproduce to continue the species then that is enough.

We only seem to be adaptive since we rely so much on machinery and our bodies become weaker since we aren't using our muscles as much. Even exercising at the gym for hours isn't the same as what is required in a world with limited machines or none at all. All that work, as much as it's hated, actually conditions the muscles and enhances the kinetic memory. We miss out on that and doctors see the results, increased cases of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

So even if we are going to all parts of the world, once all those places rely heavily on machines like we do here they will see the same results we are seeing. Yes, we can live in these places but at the same time, we aren't doing what is necessary to keep ourselves healthy and to promote our survival. I admit I want to run long distances but I hate it. I run short distances, then want to walk.
As a trade off, when humans began walking on two legs instead of four, we lost that natural speed.

As compared to most animals, we are pretty "maladaptive." We have short arms and legs, we run slow, we're not flexible, we are physically relatively weak, and we can't give birth in a smooth manner.

Perhaps, that's why we had to use our BRAINS.

Hence, through evolution, we developed the "human" traits which we possess.

As applied to individuals -what Jannissey said.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

As applied to the species as a whole- thats another question.
More of the biomass of the earth is tied up in the one species (homo sapiens) than any other species.

Only ten thousand years ago there were only maybe three million of us on the planet. Now there are seven billion.

So by Darwinian standards we are an outstanding reproductive success.

But that rapid success could be our downfall: through pollution,or rescource exhaustion, or nuclear war, or new diseases, or some other self inflicted catastrophe (or a combination-when the four horsemen of the apocalypse ride-then tend to ride together- famines and wars and pestilence tend to exacerbate each other) we might cause our own extinction. So in the long run its possible that our very success could prove maladaptive.

But this stuff about manual labor you're talking about sounds like Lamarkian evolution (inheritence of aquired characteristics). Being a peasant laborer may build up your muscles, but it doesnt cause your DNA to change in a way that you will pass the trait on to your descendants. And if the son of the peasant moves to the city and becomes a desk clerk the sedentary job doesnt cause the son to pass on the lack of musculature to his descendants. Being a couch potato may cause you to die sooner of heart disease and obesity. But it does cause your descendants to genetically inherit the trait of couch potatoness.

I suppose you could argue that mechanization causes people to survive and reproduce who would not have in a premechanized society. But that doesnt sound like what you're talking about.

Think of tribes in the jungle who do not have much to do with the outside world and must find their own food and build their own dwellings with very little technology and the Native Americans before mass European settlement. The Native Americans were described as incredibly strong and Europeans back then didn't have half the ease we have today. Even with just horses, oxen, carriages, and wagons they lost some of the physical strength the Native Americans still had. It might not seem like a big deal. When thinking in terms of survival, that's what's really important. It's not just muscle mass, it's also skill and agility. Right now it seems like our American culture has lost that element and if suddenly we could not be as automated as we are at the present time, how would we cope? It might not be that important to my generation or the next or the next but it some point, it might matter.

If the machines all stopped, many would die. This is the premise of a rather fun post-apocalyptic book series.

Emberverse series



But you aren't distinguishing between the death of individuals and the extinction of a species. Even if 6.5 out of the 7 billion of us suddenly die because we can't cope in the new, non-machine world, the human race continues. Yes, we are very reliant on machines. Yes, many of us couldn't cope- sometimes fatally so- if the machines suddenly weren't there (especially considering how many people are alive because of machines in hospitals). But many, many people dying doesn't end the human race so long as there are enough survivors left to sustain a small population without inbreeding.

In the Emberverse series (recommended- good reading)- people die in the millions when the machines turn off because we have come to rely on machines not only for hospital life saving use but also to give us water and food. What happens when the water pumps turn off? However, the point is that even if lots die, some survive and reproduce and the species continues.

Species bottlenecks have happened before when the environment changed radically. BUt given that there are 7 billion of us, a remainder who can cope without machines doesn't seem purely fictional.

...10

I was thinking more in terms of what would happen if people had to grow their own food, tilling the ground themselves, rather than relying on commercial growers and how it would be difficult for anyone out of shape. Gardening, which I do, requires a degree of physical endurance and I don't even do all that would be required if that was my only option. I was thinking of everyone who would be lost without the produce at the grocery store and how difficult tilling the ground would be for them. Then I considered the ones who wouldn't be able to walk instead of riding in automobiles and what a shame that is. I try to walk at least a mile and a half whenever possible. I have seen articles in the newspaper where a journalist will walk the entire length of one busy city street, talking to owners of area businesses and talking about what they see along the way and I thought what a great idea! On a day off, go walk down a busy street and look around, walk as far as you can. It's a great adventure. Too bad we don't do stuff like that more often these days. Those are the ones I pictured when I posted this since every time I go out in public, I see an incredible amount of people who are seriously out of shape, many of them need electric wheelchairs to ferry them around and I thought it's too bad they aren't able to walk and it isn't because they are experiencing a medical condition affecting their legs, it's because they are simply out of shape.

I use to walk around a local lake, a total of over nine miles but my lazy streak got in the way and I haven't done that in a few years.

I'll look into the books you mentioned. They sound interesting. I take it you are a sci-fi fan?

I do appreciate machines and all they do but I wonder if we approach them in such a way we take them for granted when they are something we should use at times and others, rely on our own bodies to keep them in better condition. It's more than just exercising which can be so boring and mind numbing. It's more about keeping the brain in shape too by getting out and allowing it to be stimulated on foot rather than just driving by everything even though it takes an agile mind to drive a car. We just miss out on a more detailed view of our community.

Ten miles is a good goal

It's mine. I would like to run that distance at a fast pace but I have always been terrible at running. If I could run that far, it would be at a slower pace than I am happy with. I have ran a 5 k before but it wasn't as fast as I would have liked and I only won an award when it was the type of race everyone got a medal just for finishing.

The species, Homo Sapiens, is actually too good at competing for resources; reproducing and using up resources to the detriment of other species to extinction for almost too many species to count; as well as the earth itself for the future of sustaining organic life.

Problem with that for a common known metaphor is, we need bees to live. So while we have big numbers; the culture humans produce is like a virus eating away at the living planet .and other species of life, living in balance helping us.

50% percent of the population is on some kind of pain medication for chronic, often stress related vague somatic pains. Much of this is the result of a constant state of chronic stress, often rising to the level of fight or flight many times a day to the slow destruction of the bodily systems; as the body cannot efficiently burn off these stress chemicals, accumulating in the body without exercise to do it. Many folks deal with this sitting still most of the day and night long; with Panic Attacks as an eventual symptom of chronic stress too. And close to one-third of school age children are assessed with pre-type two diabetes; that can be another risk for a shorter life in eventual potential.

And there is the human suffering of general depression and anxiety for a mind and body out of balance in expressing the type of imaginative and creative physical intelligence that allows the emotions to flow in the body instead of getting turned in to chronic tension associated with stress. As well as bio-feedback to use human relative free will to regulate emotions and integrate senses. Psychoptropic drugs, overall, are marginally better than just a placebo effect, if they work at all.

And yes, greater mind and body balance associated with physical intelligence increases executive functioning through greater focus and short term working memory; where even Standard IQ points are measured around 10 points higher after 1 hour of exercise, in associated studies.

The sixth sense assessed in research today is proprioception where the only way to gain this ability to feel one's place of comfort in skin, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones in relationship to the external natural environment in mind and body balance, is impossible without the art of movement and increasing physical intelligence.

When humans sit still in ways of working or playing with electronic devices, the worst of ergonomic injuries can be caused by the static ways of sitting still that are still repetitive movement leading to injuries; that can eventually be functionally disabling to move efficiently in comfort, in everyday tasks of moving in one's environment, in mind and body balance.

And then there is a culture; a patriarchal one; supporting gender roles of opposites. where a balance of feminine and masculine traits in 'Yin and Yang' balance, for both love and strength in defense and socially cooperating survival, are lost out of balance.

The newest movie, 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes', shows the folly of modern humans against a hypothetical ape that gains intelligence in standards of language; but retains a much more advanced physical intelligence; with instead of against the elements of nature; that modern humans cannot possibly step up to compete with; once smart moving ape goes toe to toe with smart human ape, who loses their grip on physical intelligence.

The good news is science shows that humans who live according to the art of forager movement for survival still have the same bone densities as our distant homo-sapien ancestors, tens of thousands of years ago.

The issue moreover is a kind of epigenetic negative devolution in just one lifetime. Classical evolution is slow with human beings; and the human apes of the past who are strong and live in balance with nature can still be the apes of 'us' who adequately challenge ourselves in the art of invisibility of movement in escaping predator and capturing prey without turning a sound of leaf on ground.

The reason I leg press 930 LBS slowly and surely 14 times with my arms raised and 'perfectly' balanced with machine is not because I walk loud and carry a big stick. It is because I learn to walk in 'perfect' balance moving in all directions with torso, hips, legs, arms, hands, feet, in the same golden spiral PHI ratio seen throughout nature as all true martial artists do at core of Kung FU philosophy, of a perfection of practice of living life instead of concrete 'perfect' goal.

Truly humans are evolved to be art. And through the development of alphabets, written complex language, complex cultural byproducts as tools of extension of human body; including cars, guns, and even bikes; we become machine-like in movement when we move at all; and what is lost is the most important of human intelligences for simply animal homeostasis and the enjoyment of life; and that is most definitely physical intelligence that is both art and life for the only real heaven of now; that is free without the purchase of materialistic goods, or even clothes on an 18 degree day of snow; as I now never wear more than shorts on the coldest and snowiest of Winter Days; albeit in North Florida, it doesn't snow much and 18 degrees is about as low as it goes..

Sure 'we do it' like rabbits; multiply and develop complex tools; but the price of that is the human suffering and misery I for one can easily see in both the non-verbal language from head to toe, as well as soul broke; heart broke; and spirit broke human beings in the aisles of Super Walmart; while I dance with the joy in ballet and martial arts of a 'real life' Ninja that is common place for our ancestors of 'the rainforest' in 'invisible ways' of living IN MOVEMENT.

And, sure life can be short without the advantages of human sanitation that saves more lives that medicine ever will; but the FACT IS; for those who 'remember' what it fully means to be human; make the challenges; adapt to the challenges; CHANGE, and thrive in physical intelligence, emotional regulation, sensory integration, laser focus, and topnotch short term working memory in animal homeostasis; the best worlds of our ancestors and the amenities of modern culture can be enjoyed NOW; yes, NOW, like no other animal enjoys since the dawn of time on this EARTH.

It's a choice. Just DO IT; OR do not. And it's really not that hard, as a balance in a moving human body means a balance in mind AND BODY, including emotions, senses, focus, and short term working memory; all required to more fully enjoy now.

And truly these are all major factors associated with the more functionally disabling aspects of Autism; that are most definitely directly associated with deficits of emotional regulation, sensory integration, focus, and short term working memory, like a case-study of clinical autism spectrum disorder.

It should be no surprise to find the 'canaries in the coal mine' of this growing world-wide problem of overall deficits in physical intelligence on this very website, as great or greater than any meeting point, online anywhere in the world.

And truly what I assess of all the millions of words here, I read and write; both leads me to the cure of my own functional disabilities associated with non-verbal language and reciprocal social communication; and validates my own personal research that Autism is an environmental causal factored deficit, moreover, as a result of culture, instead of innate genetics, alone.

And yes, research shows now that both movement and art therapy is a growing successful way to treat Autism.

And the way I look at it now is; it's just common sense. I followed blindly along with spoon fed mechanical cognition
culture truly making me into a robot of a human being; having to go back and look within to all innate instinct and intuition to find THE ANSWERS AND my way back to even be a 'full human' again.

I am no longer a Canary in the Coal Mind of Culture.

I am a strong walking tall primate, who is just about as strong as a chimp; retaining all of the cultural advantages of tools as well, with the practice; everyday practice, of mind and body balance through greater and greater imaginative and creative physical ways of increasing Intelligence. Try it; it might just work; it dam sure can't harm anyone to move in balance and live in mind and body balance.

There are several paths to extinction.

One is what we are doing to the planet, over killing food supplies, and then leaving no room for them to recover.

We are doing things that can change the climate.

Another in Paleontology shows species becoming their most numerous just before they become extinct.

It could be disease, or self induced famine. What ever it was had a chain reaction where none of the species survived.

It could just be time, as we find species last about five million years, then the DNA breaks down.

We are so intelligent we face a tech bubble. Food production recently used most human and animal labor. Now less than 1% are involved, and a lot of machines and chemicals. For a while production increased when more energy was added. We have reached a point where there is little return on adding more energy. GMO crops is a last ditch effort.

The chemical energy becomes more expensive, and we cannot stop. Our methods have reduced the natural soil fertility. Trying to go organic, even with the machines and scale, might produce a third as much food.

People have always held reserves, a bad crop year, there would be something to make it up. We quit that about forty years ago, all surplus was exported. We are living hand to mouth, and in forty years the world population has more than doubled.

If it falls apart, a shovel will not produce the energy you need to run it. Lowest level of natural farming a mule would work, better a team. Horses, oxen, to put out the energy to produce food for a family. Natural fertility, leaving land fallow, pasture, and cropland in rotation, with the lower production of organic, 40 acres to feed five or eight people, and their animals.

Very few people know how to farm, learning on the job will be rough.