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I find humans to be pretty funny. Modern day humans no longer trust the instincts they have developed over millions of years and instead put their faith in shit

by 357467 11y ago

I find humans to be pretty funny. Modern day humans no longer trust the instincts they have developed over millions of years and instead put their faith in shitty science and corporate marketing. They no longer trust themselves to know how long to stay in the sun, how many steps to take, or what kind of foods to eat.

ceejayoz 11y ago
Those instincts were evolved to get you to reproduce and live long enough for your offspring to be self-sufficient. The world has changed enormously since the industrial revolution and there's hardly been enough time for new instincts to evolve to account for modern society.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  New instincts aren't necessarily needed for there to be a population that has some sort of advantage in the modern world, some certain bundle of existing instincts/habits can possibly provide it.
- 357467 11y ago
  I don't agree. The human body tells you when things are right or wrong. It is about the effects, not whether it is a new stimulus that caused those effects.
  - ceejayoz 11y ago
    > The human body tells you when things are right or wrong. The human body won't tell you to avoid lifelong tanning to avoid cancer in your 60s, because living to your 60s isn't all that evolutionarily important (and hell, likely made you a drain on your hunter-gatherer tribe). There's no selection pressure.
    - seren 11y ago
      > (and hell, likely made you a drain on your hunter-gatherer tribe) Apparently there are some arguments that having elders around was a boon for prehistoric tribes. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/jul/24/prehistoric-man-helped-as-elderly-survived http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/jul/24/prehistoric-m... I don't know how much this is validated, but thought it was interesting nonetheless because it seems counter intuitive at first.
      - ceejayoz 11y ago
        Definitely interesting, but they're talking about "elder" being living past 30. I'm not sure that holds in the realm of cancer and knee replacements, though.
  - 357467 11y ago
    I used the sun example because a few years ago scientist had everyone avoiding the sun and now they have realised that sun exposure is important. Scientists literally have no idea what they are doing. Tans look good and the sun feels good. That is what guides me and it is a much more reliable source of knowledge than science.
    - Kristine1975 11y ago
      >a few years ago scientist had everyone avoiding the sun I'm somewhat doubtful of this claim. If anything scientists would have everyone avoid sunburn since skin cancer and cataracts. Tans looking good are a recent phenomenon: A couple hundred years ago light skin was a sign of high status since you could afford to stay indoors instead of having to work in the fields, so light skin was deemed to be more beautiful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color#Social_status.2C_colorism_and_racism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color#Social_status...
    - 357463 11y ago
      Err no. There were specific campaigns that said tans were unhealthy. You still seem to believe this and think that tanned skin only seems attractive due to cultural factors. Are you also going to say that big boobs are only attractive because of cultural factors?
    - scoreponok 11y ago
      So your personal, cultural instilled, biased intuitions is what drives you? And you think this is more reliably than science? A methodology designed to control for such things, that has brought us antibiotics, vaccines, pretty much all of modern medicine. You know what else feels good? Cocaine, but that doesn't mean it's good for me. The dangers of tanning isn't something invented by colluding scientists and Hawaiian tropic made up to push more sun tan lotion. It's testable and repeatable scientific fact that the sun emits harmful UV radiation that can cause premature aging, cancer etc etc.
JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Humans have been proved to be pretty bad at deciding things. We've used voodoo, superstition, trust in authority for thousands of years. I welcome some order in the process, in the form of science.
scoreponok 11y ago
>Modern day humans no longer trust the instincts they have developed over millions of years ... or what kind of foods to eat. Really? This is a naturalistic fallacy. It's out precisely our instincts that cause us to overeat. As has been pointed out our instincts haven't adapted to the abundance and availability of food seen today. In an environment where food is scarce it is evolutionary advantageous to ensure your body had enough calories to make it until the next available meal. And this didn't mean picking the most nutritious food sources, we didn't have that luxury, it meant picking the most available. Only as directed by science do we now know what foods provide the most benefit or determent to our health.
- 357463 11y ago
  Yet humans have eyes and can see they are fat. They have the instinct to know what type of body looks healthy or unhealthy. Also every human knows that eating less food will reduce their weight. Whether we have the ability to change our habits is another question but is unrelated to my proposition.
  - plonh 11y ago
    The notion that fat people are unhealthy is a modern notion. Look at the paintings in the Louvre.

by 357467 11y ago

ceejayoz 11y ago

Those instincts were evolved to get you to reproduce and live long enough for your offspring to be self-sufficient. The world has changed enormously since the industrial revolution and there's hardly been enough time for new instincts to evolve to account for modern society.

maxerickson 11y ago
New instincts aren't necessarily needed for there to be a population that has some sort of advantage in the modern world, some certain bundle of existing instincts/habits can possibly provide it.
357467 11y ago
I don't agree. The human body tells you when things are right or wrong. It is about the effects, not whether it is a new stimulus that caused those effects.
- ceejayoz 11y ago
  > The human body tells you when things are right or wrong. The human body won't tell you to avoid lifelong tanning to avoid cancer in your 60s, because living to your 60s isn't all that evolutionarily important (and hell, likely made you a drain on your hunter-gatherer tribe). There's no selection pressure.
  - seren 11y ago
    > (and hell, likely made you a drain on your hunter-gatherer tribe) Apparently there are some arguments that having elders around was a boon for prehistoric tribes. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/jul/24/prehistoric-man-helped-as-elderly-survived http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/jul/24/prehistoric-m... I don't know how much this is validated, but thought it was interesting nonetheless because it seems counter intuitive at first.
    - ceejayoz 11y ago
      Definitely interesting, but they're talking about "elder" being living past 30. I'm not sure that holds in the realm of cancer and knee replacements, though.
- 357467 11y ago
  I used the sun example because a few years ago scientist had everyone avoiding the sun and now they have realised that sun exposure is important. Scientists literally have no idea what they are doing. Tans look good and the sun feels good. That is what guides me and it is a much more reliable source of knowledge than science.
  - Kristine1975 11y ago
    >a few years ago scientist had everyone avoiding the sun I'm somewhat doubtful of this claim. If anything scientists would have everyone avoid sunburn since skin cancer and cataracts. Tans looking good are a recent phenomenon: A couple hundred years ago light skin was a sign of high status since you could afford to stay indoors instead of having to work in the fields, so light skin was deemed to be more beautiful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color#Social_status.2C_colorism_and_racism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color#Social_status...
  - 357463 11y ago
    Err no. There were specific campaigns that said tans were unhealthy. You still seem to believe this and think that tanned skin only seems attractive due to cultural factors. Are you also going to say that big boobs are only attractive because of cultural factors?
  - scoreponok 11y ago
    So your personal, cultural instilled, biased intuitions is what drives you? And you think this is more reliably than science? A methodology designed to control for such things, that has brought us antibiotics, vaccines, pretty much all of modern medicine. You know what else feels good? Cocaine, but that doesn't mean it's good for me. The dangers of tanning isn't something invented by colluding scientists and Hawaiian tropic made up to push more sun tan lotion. It's testable and repeatable scientific fact that the sun emits harmful UV radiation that can cause premature aging, cancer etc etc.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago

Humans have been proved to be pretty bad at deciding things. We've used voodoo, superstition, trust in authority for thousands of years. I welcome some order in the process, in the form of science.

scoreponok 11y ago

>Modern day humans no longer trust the instincts they have developed over millions of years ... or what kind of foods to eat. Really? This is a naturalistic fallacy. It's out precisely our instincts that cause us to overeat. As has been pointed out our instincts haven't adapted to the abundance and availability of food seen today. In an environment where food is scarce it is evolutionary advantageous to ensure your body had enough calories to make it until the next available meal. And this didn't mean picking the most nutritious food sources, we didn't have that luxury, it meant picking the most available. Only as directed by science do we now know what foods provide the most benefit or determent to our health.

357463 11y ago
Yet humans have eyes and can see they are fat. They have the instinct to know what type of body looks healthy or unhealthy. Also every human knows that eating less food will reduce their weight. Whether we have the ability to change our habits is another question but is unrelated to my proposition.
- plonh 11y ago
  The notion that fat people are unhealthy is a modern notion. Look at the paintings in the Louvre.