June 1, 2007

This is an easy no… no matter what you read about how great our bodies are for us, we have an incredibly list of deficits with our only saving grace being our collective intellect.

Humans have severely under-developed and limited perceptual senses

Sure, we have our five (some would argue six) senses but compared to other animals, they are nowhere near optimal. Sharks can “smell” blood in the water at great distance while we simply cannot smell in this medium and dogs can smell things we probably are happy not to have the ability to do so. Our vision is very poor in the darkness compared to nocturnal animals nor are we able to see full spectrum rays (UV etc.), our hearing has much to be desired and our sense of taste is actually quite limited.

Our bodies are incredibly fragile and weak

Our bodies are very fragile compared to other animals, we break bones rather easily, not as easily as birds but pretty darn close in my opinion, we are not very strong and our muscles take forever to build up. We suffer from a multitude of diseases that further hamper our abilities and we have a rather weak immune system. Scavengers live off eating putrid meat that would kill us in a heartbeat if we could scoff it down. The layout of our bodies is rather extended and lanky, leading us to be even more prone to survival based damage. Compare our bodies to that of a Black Bear and you see right away our vast array of physical limitations, these beasts never spend a day in the gym but have more power then a whole team of professional power-lifters. They can easily out-run us in any race and have agility to match. Same goes for tigers, walruses and just about any animal out there weighing the equivalent or more then your average human. Even our closest genetic cousins can easily tear our bodies limb from limb without even breaking a sweat.

Modern life has killed our survival skills

You cannot take modern life out of the equation, when it fails a lot of people are really going to be counting down their lives in days. If you look at past human civilizations there is a cycle of boom and bust, we are all lucky to have lived a few generations in a relatively stable boom but the bust will happen, we just don’t know when or the circumstances leading to its emergence. We have grown so accustom to grocery stores feeding us that the majority of us have forgotten how to hunt, farm and gather our own food. We go to Walmart to buy our clothing and supplies, without a clue of how to make them for ourselves. We spend way too much time patting ourselves on the back for things that really are not important yet ignore the fact that we live in a very small planet and without all these modern advances, basically screwed to square one in a little over a month.

So if our bodies are so inferior, why are we thriving?

There are two answers to this. First, we are inferior except for one area that matters, our brains. Our brains differentiate us from all other organisms out there, sure, we can’t run as fast as a cheetah but we can build cars that break the sound barrier. We cannot fly like a bird but we can build planes that are capable of inter-stellar travel. We cannot take body damage all that well but we have incredibly medical advances that can cure just about anything nature can throw at us. You see, we are thriving because of our brain, it more then makes up for any and all inferiorities that our bodies have. This is why I consider our brain and body to be two separate organisms living in a mutually beneficial relationship. Without one, the other simply cannot function. The other reason why our species is thriving on this planet is due to our modern civilization, if you look at the worldwide population patterns of the human species through time, it remains relatively stable for hundreds of thousands of years… we EXPLODE once we create modern agriculture, trade and medicines… but that my friends, is another story.

The Bottom Line

We must NEVER forget collectively our humble beginnings as we will return to them one day, preparation is the only way to ease the transition.