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Oh yeah when I'm talking about evolutionary pressure in that direction I'm referring to the time before agriculture, and probably before language. Definitely no

Oh yeah when I'm talking about evolutionary pressure in that direction I'm referring to the time before agriculture, and probably before language. Definitely not modern civilization -- as a general rule, if you don't see massive differences between human populations in varying regions on a particular metric, you can assume that there hasn't been any strong evolutionary pressure on that attribute in the last few hundred generations (e.g. height varies quite a bit, as does melanin concentration, implying fairly recent selection for those traits, while lifespan is pretty constant given similar access to healthcare, implying that there hasn't been a significant difference in evolutionary pressure from region to region on lifespan). Additionally, humans have a much longer lifespan than other mammals of similar size, implying that at there was strong evolutionary pressure for increased lifespan around the time humans diverged from other primates, and even a bit before that as other primates also live longer than most mammals their size.

ksaj 6y ago
For the most part, yes, then. Humans have the skill of extrapolation and invention that other animals completely lack, or only barely approach to our level. Our ability to communicate instantly to other humans on the other side of the world (or even not on this world) is testament to the ways we have overcome certain barriers in natural selection. We literally chirp louder than any bird ever could. Lots of diseases simply wouldn't exist today if we didn't learn how to medicate and operate, because those diseases would have killed off those humans prone to them, and only "immune" humans would survive. Etc. So in the early days when Homo Sapiens were not the only beings headed towards our modern (evolved) form, there probably were vastly different mortality rates depending almost solely on that scaling equation. There probably still is today, but more or less nature forcibly trying to maintain that 3/4 ratio. I'm only speaking in re evolution since you mentioned that, because otherwise you're spot on.

ksaj 6y ago

For the most part, yes, then. Humans have the skill of extrapolation and invention that other animals completely lack, or only barely approach to our level. Our ability to communicate instantly to other humans on the other side of the world (or even not on this world) is testament to the ways we have overcome certain barriers in natural selection. We literally chirp louder than any bird ever could. Lots of diseases simply wouldn't exist today if we didn't learn how to medicate and operate, because those diseases would have killed off those humans prone to them, and only "immune" humans would survive. Etc. So in the early days when Homo Sapiens were not the only beings headed towards our modern (evolved) form, there probably were vastly different mortality rates depending almost solely on that scaling equation. There probably still is today, but more or less nature forcibly trying to maintain that 3/4 ratio. I'm only speaking in re evolution since you mentioned that, because otherwise you're spot on.