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> It’s odd for there to be such an easily-removable design flaw in the human body; evolution tends to remove them. I wouldn't say so at all. Poor eyesight carr
by smitty1e 1y ago
> It’s odd for there to be such an easily-removable design flaw in the human body; evolution tends to remove them.
I wouldn't say so at all. Poor eyesight carries on smartly. Baldness. I enjoy both.
But an old story about the controller code for a surface-to-air missile comes to mind.
Someone looking at the memory allocator spots an obvious resource leak: "This code is going to crash."
The reply was that, while the point was theoretically valid, it was irrelevant, since the system itself would detonate long before resource exhaustion became an issue.
So too prostate cancer back in the day: war, famine and plague were keeping the lifespan well below the threshold of every man's time bomb.
- forinti 1y agoThere's also your back, your joints, your teeth, GERD. Everything starts getting flimsy in your late forties.
- Traubenfuchs 1y agoIt would probably take too long, but a human breeding program centered around the healthiest still fertile old men we can find and young women with spotless genetic heritage would uplift our whole species.
- lostlogin 1y agoOlder fathers increase the chance of autism, schizophrenia et al. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternal_age_effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternal_age_effect
- meindnoch 1y agoObviously you would use sperm harvested while they were still young, and kept frozen for 60 years.
- MyPasswordSucks 1y agoBut then you wouldn't necessarily know that their current sperm is valuable. A better method would be to confine the program to monozygotic twin pairs of young women with spotless genetic heritage, and inseminate one twin with frozen sperm and the other with current sperm. The "current sperm" child (CS) could be closely monitored, and the "frozen sperm" (FS) child fitted with an explosive chastity device which, in the event that CS is found to have developmental issues, are remotely-detonated to ensure the tainted line does not persist. Simple-as.
- toast0 1y agoI think you missed the idea. Your explosive device could still come in handy though. But you freeze the sperm at the peak of freshness. Then you wait and see how the donor does. If they live to a ripe old age without old age diseases, then go select their sperm. Otherwise, destroy it. You can probably do this with eggs too. When a child is desired, select an egg and a sperm off the shelf, and there you go. Easy peasy. Your device ensures only munitions experts can procreate outside the system, and I think we'll need a lot of munitions experts in the ensuing generations.
- MyPasswordSucks 1y agoI would think the end goal would be to remove the need for frozen sperm, which we can do once we verify that the 60+ year old donors are still producing healthy swimmers. No sense in going just halfway with the Brave New Worlding.
- genghisjahn 1y agoSounds like the end of Dr. Strangelove.
- subscribed 1y agoMs Atwood would like a word with you. Mr Trump has also expressed his interest, especially if the women are very young.
- Eliezer 1y agoPoor eyesight is evolutionarily recent (not enough sunlight exposure in childhood, rare to find in hunter-gatherer societies). Baldness won't kill you.
- cogman10 1y ago> not enough sunlight exposure in childhood Do you have any source for this? As someone born in the summer to a farming family with poor eyesight, I find it hard to believe that happened because I wasn't exposed to enough sun as an infant or child. I've worn glasses since I was 2.
- Traubenfuchs 1y agohttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6678505/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6678505/
- cogman10 1y agoInteresting study. Myopia can definitely be caused by focusing too much on nearby things. I just so happen to have Hyperopia with astigmatism, neither of which came from a lack of outdoor exposure. (If anything, I needed less time outside). That's a bit of the issue I have with such a broad generalization. It's true that for some, a lack of time outdoors damaged their eyesight, it's not universally true that all or perhaps even most poor eyesight is a result of staying indoors.
- wkat4242 1y agoDon't forget that hunter-gatherers rarely lived much beyond 30. Modern society isn't so bad :)
- abathur 1y agoThis is an incorrect generalization from average life expectancies that include incredibly high infant/childhood mortality. The life expectancy cited by Wikipedia for the paleolithic is around 39 additional years for those surviving to 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy
- gavinray 1y ago> It’s odd for there to be such an easily-removable design flaw in the human body; evolution tends to remove them. Your appendix and gallbladder would like a word with you ;^)
- lostlogin 1y agoWisdom teeth too.
- tazjin 1y agoAnd tonsils!
- gavinray 1y agoSpeaking of, I had my tonsils and adenoids removed as a child due to chronic ear infections. What's up with those things?!
- davidmurdoch 1y agoI once read that wisdom teeth don't fit anymore only because we use forks and knives now. Previously we would tear our food with our teeth, always widening our pallet. I couldn't find the source just now (in the 30 seconds I searched for it), but I always thought it was an interesting idea.
- Qem 1y agoAlso the intakes for trachea and esophagus being close to each other, causing chokes.
- subscribed 1y agoBoth appendix and gallbladder are important. Check the diet for people with gallbladder resection.
- Supermancho 1y agoI don't have a gallbladder. My diet is that I eat less fried foods and avoid certain dark syrups. The gallbladder is not important for humans in the aggregate. The aorta, yes.
- cogman10 1y agoEvolution selects for one thing and one thing only, reproduction. The answer to every "why hasn't evolution done x" question is selection pressure. An enlarged prostate is something that people get in their 60s and later. Most people are done with reproduction long before that event. There is simply very little and very low selection pressure. It's pretty much the reason why most humans have peak health into their 40s. Don't expect evolution to "fix" anything for humans that doesn't commonly impact 20yos.
- freddie_mercury 1y agoWeird that you pull the one quote but ignore the rest of that paragraph which is about how being the leading cause of infertility is exactly the kind of thing evolution normally fixes. "It’s odd for there to be such an easily-removable design flaw in the human body; evolution tends to remove them. Since it strikes at advanced ages, BPH doesn’t make a big impact on a man’s ability to pass on his genes. But being the leading cause of male infertility sure does. Their explanation is that evolution hasn’t had much time to work on the problem; in animals the spermatic vein is horizontal, and doesn’t have or need one-way valves. It’s our standing upright that yields the problem; in evolutionary terms that’s a recent development."
- smitty1e 1y agoNot only is it recent in terms of human history; back to my point, it is only in the last few centuries that men in gneral have reached ages that expose the posture shift as a flaw.
- jansan 1y ago> I wouldn't say so at all. Poor eyesight carries on smartly. Baldness. I enjoy both. What is the problem with baldness other than having a cheap excuse for not being successful in life? I actually enjoy looking a bit like Larry Fink.
- meindnoch 1y agoBaldness and grey hair are indicators of male maturity. In many primate species elder males look different than younger ones, which guides their social dynamics. Similar reason why our kids stay small for their first 12 years or so - it's hard to teach someone who can physically overpower you.
- ownlife 1y agohttps://www.jstor.org/stable/2408423 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2408423
- jasonthorsness 1y ago> surface-to-air missile The one link I have at hand: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20180228-00/?p=98125 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20180228-00/?p=98...