Give Mother Nature Some Laws Of Physics And Some Stardust, And You Get A Poorly Designed Human
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| Mother Nature Dressed For Work |
Both secular and religious people generally believe everything is made of stardust. (e.g., Christians cite Genesis 3:19 and Ecclesiastes 3:20). As far back in time as we can probe, we find mostly hydrogen and helium being manipulated by the laws of physics. Today hydrogen and helium make up 99% of the matter in the universe. As the universe aged and cooled, subatomic particles coalesced into the elements displayed in the periodic table. Gravity lumped various elements together forming the dust that in turn evolved into our cosmos. In other words, everything in our universe is made of stardust.
Every day more than 50 tons of new stardust falls to earth. This stardust, and that which previously rained on the earth, replenishes the cells in our body throughout our lives. For example, the outer layer of our skin is replaced every month or so, and our entire skin is replaced about once a year. Most cells in the body have their own life span and are replaced by the elements of stardust as we grow new cells; an exception being the neurons in the cerebral cortex which are not replaced as they die.
The process of manipulating stardust to keep us, the most influential species on earth, alive and functioning for up to a century, is incomprehensibly complex. Yet this same process produced one of the most poorly designed mammals in existence; apparently we humans are still a work in progress. Here are a few examples of our present design flaws.
1) Most mammals give birth pushing their young directly through a reasonably straight birth canal. Because humans gained a survival advantage by freeing up our forelimbs to carry and use tools and otherwise manipulate the world “at hand” we began to walk upright creating a sharp bend in the birth canal. To make the birth process even more difficult, the large brain we required to employ our tools and outsmart our predators (many of whom carried their tools in their strong jaws) we need to force babies out through a narrow bend in the pelvis. Thankfully Mother Nature assigned this task to women whom, she decided, are more capable of suffering than are men.
2) Mother Nature took a few evolutionary shortcuts. For example, she decided to make use of the tube that empties men’s bladders to also expel semen rather than go to the trouble of creating a second single purpose tube. She tried to compensate by making urine sterile but botched that as well -- modern-day scientific experiments have dispelled that myth.
3) Our heat regulators are not well thought out. Most mammals have some protection against the elements but we need to walk upright carrying our tools around to kill unfortunate mammals for their fur. In addition, we evacuate heat by sweating much more than other mammals making water a more critical resource than the food we hunt.
4) Many animals have two or three sets of eyelids, one to shut the light out and another protective transparent set of eyelids to keep dust and water out. An owl has three eyelids: one for blinking, one for sleeping, and one to clear and moisten the eye to keep it healthy. We have one eyelid and suffer more eye problems and poorer vision as a result.
5) We and other vertebrates share some disadvantages such as a blind spot in our sight. This requires a more advanced brain to fill in visual blanks than, say an octopus, which has no blind spot. And Mother Nature gave other four-legged vertebrates the advantage of fewer back problems but deprived us the same advantage by forcing us to walk upright and decades of compressing cartilage in our spines. I give her credit for equipping back surgeons with the brains and talent to fix the problem in a few of us.
If you are listening, Mother Nature, please fix these things in my next incarnation; or are you going to deprive me of that too?
The process of manipulating stardust to keep us, the most influential species on earth, alive and functioning for up to a century, is incomprehensibly complex. Yet this same process produced one of the most poorly designed mammals in existence; apparently we humans are still a work in progress. Here are a few examples of our present design flaws.
1) Most mammals give birth pushing their young directly through a reasonably straight birth canal. Because humans gained a survival advantage by freeing up our forelimbs to carry and use tools and otherwise manipulate the world “at hand” we began to walk upright creating a sharp bend in the birth canal. To make the birth process even more difficult, the large brain we required to employ our tools and outsmart our predators (many of whom carried their tools in their strong jaws) we need to force babies out through a narrow bend in the pelvis. Thankfully Mother Nature assigned this task to women whom, she decided, are more capable of suffering than are men. 2) Mother Nature took a few evolutionary shortcuts. For example, she decided to make use of the tube that empties men’s bladders to also expel semen rather than go to the trouble of creating a second single purpose tube. She tried to compensate by making urine sterile but botched that as well -- modern-day scientific experiments have dispelled that myth.
3) Our heat regulators are not well thought out. Most mammals have some protection against the elements but we need to walk upright carrying our tools around to kill unfortunate mammals for their fur. In addition, we evacuate heat by sweating much more than other mammals making water a more critical resource than the food we hunt.
4) Many animals have two or three sets of eyelids, one to shut the light out and another protective transparent set of eyelids to keep dust and water out. An owl has three eyelids: one for blinking, one for sleeping, and one to clear and moisten the eye to keep it healthy. We have one eyelid and suffer more eye problems and poorer vision as a result.5) We and other vertebrates share some disadvantages such as a blind spot in our sight. This requires a more advanced brain to fill in visual blanks than, say an octopus, which has no blind spot. And Mother Nature gave other four-legged vertebrates the advantage of fewer back problems but deprived us the same advantage by forcing us to walk upright and decades of compressing cartilage in our spines. I give her credit for equipping back surgeons with the brains and talent to fix the problem in a few of us.
If you are listening, Mother Nature, please fix these things in my next incarnation; or are you going to deprive me of that too?
But imagine the blunders Father Nature could have made!He might have done a reversal,giving dogs and cats upright abilities and the big brains...this could have had us humanoids demanding chicken (no kibbles please!) and catching Frisbees!
ReplyDeleteThoughtful blog, thanks for sharing
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