Basically everything you are saying is not true. Things have improved since the stone age, but not as much as you would think. If you made it past your 15th year in the stone age you had a better than average chance to make it to 65. Again, a much higher percentage of the population died very young in the stone age, but those that didn't generally lived into their 60s. Consider also that throughout recorded history men generally married at 18-20 and women at 13-15 and it isn't hard to understand that longstanding marriages have never been uncommon. http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/05/01/falsehood-if-this-was-the-ston/[/quote] I don't know when we began to define "infant mortality" at the age of 15, so I don't think I'm wrong. In addition, if you check out the chart of life expectancy provided after age 10 in that same article, you see it rise from 47.2 in 1850 to 71.3 in 2004. Basically since as far back as we have been documenting life expectancy it has risen steadily to present times. So this one man's theory is that somehow stone age man managed to "generally live into their sixties" while we in the United States couldn't reach 70.1 years until 1990. I'm not going to believe that theory, it doesn't make sense. I'm sure other esteemed people in this field of study have differing opinions, and I would guess his is in the minority.
Close. According to Kaplan, et al (2000). "A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: Diet, Intelligence and Longevity" Paleolithic people at birth had a life expectancy of 33. At age 15, life expectancy was 54. While we live much longer due to modern medicine, we have not evolved much since the stone age. Our teeth and our joints still wear out in our 50's because we haven't yet adapted to longevity. Because of modern dentistry, wisdom teeth are unnecessary and problematic. But to stone age people, most of whom had lost some teeth by age 18, wisdom teeth coming in and pushing the remaining teeth together was an evolutionary treat. If we continue to live longer and exist as a species long enough for evolutionary processes to continue, we may get a new set of teeth in our 50's like we did when we were six.
I don't know when we began to define "infant mortality" at the age of 15, so I don't think I'm wrong. In addition, if you check out the chart of life expectancy provided after age 10 in that same article, you see it rise from 47.2 in 1850 to 71.3 in 2004. Basically since as far back as we have been documenting life expectancy it has risen steadily to present times. So this one man's theory is that somehow stone age man managed to "generally live into their sixties" while we in the United States couldn't reach 70.1 years until 1990. I'm not going to believe that theory, it doesn't make sense. I'm sure other esteemed people in this field of study have differing opinions, and I would guess his is in the minority.[/quote] our terrible diets have countered our advancements in medicine. the shit the govt has told you is healthy is not. our jaws and bone structure has changed for the worse because of it. culture has changed evolution almost as much as genetics.
Genetics is what drives evolution. Culture is part of the natural environment that influences genetic changes. The big change is that we are no longer subject only to natural selection. Humans have made some very unnatural selections that will also drive genetic diversity. People with abnormalities that would have died in infancy 5,000 years ago are now enabled to live and reproduce. Why are American blacks so athletically advanced? Un-natural selection. Those black heavyweight champions are all Americans. African blacks do not share these qualities. Slavery essentially selected only the fittest subjects they could find. Then only the fittest among them survived the hardships of transport and hard labor. Then the owners began selective breeding among the biggest and strongest slaves. Weak and diseased slaves dropped out of the genetic pool. It's why there are so few blacks with Downs syndrome and other genetic problems.
Your first paragraph touched on a subject I have thought about every now and then. I have thought about modern science being able to keep children born with severe disabilities alive for longer and longer. But what happens to them when they outlive their parents and they are left with no one to care for them. Sad. I agree that logic would also suggest that in the present day we would be born with a higher percentage of genetic defects that are passed on through reproduction. As far as the second paragraph it would seem logical at first glance, certainly Jimmy the Greek thought so, but there are other factors to be considered as well. The majority of slaves brought to America were from Western Africa if memory serves. If you look at the map of Africa, that leaves out Ethiopia and Kenya on the eastern side (home of the long distance runners). The question to ponder though is why isn't South American athletes more advanced? By some estimates America only received about 5% of the slaves brought to North America. Brazil is thought to have gotten about 10 times as many as us. So why aren't South American athletes tearing it up. Was the voyage less difficult? Were they less selective with their slaves? Was it an easier life? I don't know. What I do want to know is what genetic wonder happened in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in track. Aside from the obvious steroids, maybe it is the fact that they are islands and the gene pool doesn't get diluted.
Didn't CBS fire Jimmy "The Greek" for saying the same damn thing? and how in the hell did a thread about my ex wife getting a large settlement from an accident turn into this?
Ha, I might be trying to re-marry her at this point if she were. This is a joke LSU_Sooner I have no plans or intention of getting back together with her.
[quote="shane0911, post: 1391652, member: 6753"]Didn't CBS fire Jimmy "The Greek" for saying the same damn thing? and how in the hell did a thread about my ex wife getting a large settlement from an accident turn into this? [/quote] Yep, Jimmy said pretty much the same thing in a less eloquent manner than Red and said it off the record. He added something about big thighs and buttocks from what I remember and said that the black athlete practiced harder. It sounded a little like something Charles Barkley would say today, but Jimmy had to go bye bye because it didn't pass the politically correct test. As far as an ex wife and a large settlement I'm sure we can find a way to work that into this discussion somehow in about 10 more pages.
