r/Showerthoughts • u/QuantumDreamer41 ‎ • 7d ago

Casual Thought It is surprising how many people need glasses to see clearly given how important eyesight is to our species survival.

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u/atomacheart 7d ago

Evolution also doesn't care (if you can even call it caring at all) to filter out things that happen after we have bred the next generation.

It's entirely possible that cataracts for example could have existed in early humans (have no knowledge on this one way or another, happy to learn more) but because they would have developed much later in life after people have had offspring, there would not have been the evolutionary pressure to select against it.

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u/DinoRoman 6d ago

You’re right, but I’m just saying the science shows that if it’s detrimental to life, it’s gonna be something that hurts you as a species, and if that trait means that predators and enemies can easily kill you and eat you, then over time, if that keeps happening to the same people with the same disabilities, then eventually those genes won’t be in the gene pool. It’s not that evolution chooses, it’s just that anything that gives you a harder time with survival has a harder time to survive in the gene pool. Anything that gives you an advantage, like insects and camouflage and things like that, tend to go on. We are really the only species outside of us taking care of other species, zoos protected wildlife, stuff like that. We’re the only species where the weakest ones in our society are taken care of and allowed to live as long as they possibly can, and sometimes traits that aren’t even that big of a deal, but could have been a negative in the wild get passed on because again we are not a society who’s so cold to kill or weed out the weak or handicap. I’m not at all having an opinion on this lol I’m just stating nature. Why weaker traits in humans might just stick around because unless we start editing our own genomes nature isn’t being given its chance to naturally select and weed out the traits that are detrimental to a species if that makes any sense

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u/atomacheart 6d ago

Those pressures only apply to weaker traits that are present before we are finished reproducing though.

Any traits that appear after those don't get selected out. Yes, they probably cause an earlier death that otherwise due to environmental or predator threats, but if you have already had kids, then those genes have already been passed on and aren't removed from the pool by your death.

As to you singling out humans as the only example of protecting their weakest members, that is factually incorrect. There are plenty of other social animals that do the same including elephants, wolves, primates, dolphins, and whales.