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Beyond Physiological Experience

October 20, 2005 07:28 PM

There are many substances and experiences today that are outside the physiological limits of our evolutionary-based genetics and ancestral experience.

One of them may be boredom. I don't know, but I think it is possible to more bored today than ever before and certainly far beyond what a human may have felt 100,000 years ago (my baseline for relevance). A long winter in a cave at a Northern Latitude was probably hard. Depression may have been a coping mechanism that kept our ancestors from killing one another.

There are substances in our world that our ancestors never experienced and that exceed the coping or stress mechanisms that protected our ancestors. We are likely equally adept at handling snake venom as our ancestors, adjusting for our diets and disfunctional physiology and body composition. Give us that one.

But what about addictive substances like rock cocaine? Not a chance that we have any protective mechanisms against that completely novel substance in all of human experience.

What about dense sugar coupled with chocolate? Not a chance that we have mechanisms protective of semi-addiction to brownies or donuts.

These are beyond physiological limits because they were never experienced 100K ago, when our minds and bodies formed.

· Evolutionary Fitness

Comments

Interesting opinion :)

Best regards, Serg

Posted by: Serg [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 5, 2006 5:01 AM

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