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| Professor, forgive me for my crudeness, but I felt this was the most accurate image I found that expresses my feelings. |
Alright, so, I was at my boyfriends house a few weekends ago. My boyfriend and his father were watching some football game that was going on (GO, BLAH BLAH! WOOT WOOT! SCORE!) and I, of course, was bored out of my mind (sorry if you ever read this, love) so I began to read the first chapter of this course (Module 1.1 The Biological Approach to Behavior). It's fairly towards the beginning of the chapter so you might think "Oh, yeah, she found this SUPER interesting...it was only interesting 'cause she didn't have to read much after that." Sorry, "friend" but no, this is not why I felt this was the most interesting of topics at hand. I came across the four types of Explanation: Physiological Explanation, Ontogenetic Explanation, Evolutionary Explanation and Functional Explanation and I had an idea about evolution.
For as long as I can remember I've been under the impression that the term "evolution" was always, and I mean ALWAYS connected with natural selection. It didn't occur to me it would just be an act (or idea) on its own without the stigma of dying weak members of a given species relentlessly dragging their useless bodies to some sort of life force. In the link I posted, it explains the term evolution simply means change. Funny how my idea of evolution evolved after watching it, huh?
Anyways, I was most keen on Evolutionary Explanation if it isn't obvious already. According to the book, Evolutionary Explanation is the, "Reconstruct[ion] [of] evolutionary history of a structure or behavior. The characteristic features of an animal are almost always modifications of something found in ancestral species (Shubin, Tabin, & Carroll, 2009). Here is what I want to talk about: "Evolutionary Explanation also call attention to features left over from ancestors that serve little or no function in the descendants."
Click the link for examples of Vestigial Traits humans possess. (Sorry, guys, you just don't need 'em!)
http://io9.com/5829687/10-vestigial-traits-you-didnt-know-you-had
Click the link for examples of Vestigial Traits humans possess. (Sorry, guys, you just don't need 'em!)
http://io9.com/5829687/10-vestigial-traits-you-didnt-know-you-had
My question is: Are (Physical) Evolutionary Vestigial Traits the only traits we have acquired through time/change? Has society inadvertently bonded behaviors such as watching TV(this includes ads), drinking, using drugs (that are not grown from the ground i.e., LSD, Heroin) using cell phones, lack of human contact due to technology being more easily accessible into what it is to be "human"? If it hasn't, can it?
I find this so
interesting because I notice, even with my own family that the quality of
relationships has become quite lackluster and I question if it’s because of
what society has molded us into. We have all of these techy devices enabling
CONSTANT communication, but when did our thumbs become our voices? When did
having a few drinks become the only way to be honest or drugs give us outer
body experiences? Have we relied so much on outside sources to make us “feel
alive” that we forgot to? We’ve done something to ruin the meaning of humanity…can
we fix our “evolution”?
The link that you posted about Vestigial traits was really interested and helpful. In case if in the future I need something removed, now I know which ones my body does not need in order to function. In response to the question you asked about the physical Vestigial traits being the only thing that has changed through time. I believe the methods our minds process information has also been changing throughout the years. Especially with the persuasion of advertisements, I feel that sometimes we do not have our own control to make a decision.
ReplyDeleteHi Ana,
ReplyDeleteI found the link you posted about vestigial traits really interesting! My favorite was the Plica Semilunaris. I never knew we had features in common with reptiles. About the question you posed, I don’t believe that human behavior has been actually been changed to fit technology into our lives. Of course kids now grow up with iPads and cell phones and texting, but I don’t think it has become an intrinsic behavior. Children aren’t going to grow up, reflexively knowing how to work a computer, like the palmer grasp reflex. However, I do feel like it may be affecting other things that might be heritable such as attention span and linguistic skills.
Your post is something that I think about too (not often, but it does come up from time to time when I see people whose cell phone is permanently attached to their hand and they freak out if they lose it), because I also think we've become incredibly technology dependent (I’m gonna stop myself before I go into a rant on your blog) but I see what you're saying. I liked reading that article about vestigial traits, it definitely gave me new information that I certainly didn't know, but it was great to read.
ReplyDelete