From Apes to Cyborgs by Claudio Tuniz & Patrizia Tiberi Vipraio

Author:Claudio Tuniz & Patrizia Tiberi Vipraio
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030365226
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

8.2 Diseases of the Present: A Possible Mismatch

A brief recap is perhaps useful at this point. Indeed, a cost-benefit analysis of our evolutionary traits in response to environmental changes does not always turn out positive, especially for contemporary humans. The negative effects accelerated when we became a complex social organism and started living in an increasingly protective cultural niche, poorly suited for our biology. We entered into a self-reinforcing cycle where cultural adaptation increased the mismatch between our body features and the environment, which in turn increased the need for cultural adaptation.

In assuming the upright position, for example, we are exposed to hernias, haemorrhoids and varicose veins, and we put our spines under stress. Such effects might be negligible in youth but increase with aging. By resorting to running, we also put our joints under pressure. In order to talk, we lowered the trachea and then lost the ability to swallow and breathe at the same time, risking suffocation during meals. By reducing the variety of our diet, we are exposed to many diseases, lowering our immune barriers. By increasing the consumption of sugars and cereals, we are vulnerable to tooth decay, diabetes and obesity. In becoming sedentary, we concentrate in large urban areas where we are more susceptible to epidemics, infections and allergies. By spending long hours reading and watching screens at close range, we become increasingly short-sighted. By eating unbalanced diets and doing little exercise, we accumulate excess fats and clog our arteries. We also suffer from sleep disorders, which damage our physical well-being and our mental abilities.

In a nutshell, although average life expectancy has lengthened, health has not always improved. Certainly, modern medicine provides all sorts of drugs to help us cope with the deterioration of our health and our increased weaknesses in an ever-protected environment. Numerous diseases have been eradicated, but others have emerged. Contemporary humans are capable of adapting to the urban and technological environment of our day and endure pollution, but then we pay a price with an increase in anxiety and depression and a deterioration in the quality of life. Often, people cope by abusing drugs.

It has also been shown that we are becoming resistant to many treatments for infection due to a reckless use of antibiotics in ourselves and in the animals we breed for food. Furthermore, starting from correct hygiene concerns, we end up being obsessed with the sterilization of what we ingest, and so we also eliminate many species of friendly bacteria that help us survive. It is proven that the good functioning of our biome is not only connected to our physical well-being but also to our mental health. By eating food in which other forms of life remain (and therefore food that is not sterilized during various industrial processes), we are also more serene and balanced.

In short, we could be victims of an evolutionary mismatch that leads us to regress, holding back genes that limit our physical and psychic efficiency. Our cultural evolution is faster than our biological evolution and the progress of medicine and implant technologies try to fill the gap.

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