Has the human race devolved?

Caporegime
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At one time we humans were fully self sufficient and responsible for our own lives and those of our families, cultivated/hunted our own food, made our own clothes, built our own houses etc and lived happily ever after.

Today, we like to think that we're much more evolved compared to our ancestors but many of us couldn't even cook a meal without the use of a microwave meal, let alone survive in the world without a paying job.

Technology aside in what way have we as a species evolved? if Darwin is correct about natural selection then shouldn't 99.9% of us be extinct already? we basically live our entire lives in serfdom (employment) with our masters (government) taking care of us, if governments collapsed tomorrow the majority of us would starve to death.
 
Soldato
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I don't necessarily think we've devolved, we've just changed. Having specific jobs makes us more dependent on each other - for example, you might rely on a butcher's for food, but the butcher's relies on you to keep the money flowing in. I have no doubt that many people couldn't hunt their own food, make their own clothes, but I think we have become more specialized in specific areas, rather than general survival skills.
 
Permabanned
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First thing, we have not devloved, we have specialised. Instead of having to do everything, people concentrate on one aspect and make that their niche. The hippy in me would like everyone to start growing their own vegetables, but I'm a complete hypocrite in that regard as I haven't yet!

Also for your average Brit it's not the governments taking care of us, it's the corporations and more specifically the supermarkets. Money is king, if the world financial market collapsed even more spectacularly than it did recently we could see the formations of localised markets and communities based on the old premise of bartering and exchange. There would certainly be anarchy at first, though I'd hope that communities would arise from this post industrial consumerist situation we currently have.

Grow your own and defend your home. ;)
 
Soldato
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idiot, devolving is impossible, we have evolved to be reliant on others and them to be reliant on us as its more productive that way.
If you don't like it go and find a third world country to live in.
 
Man of Honour
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There's no such thing as devolution!

Oi, don't say such things where us Jocks might hear you. ;)

More seriously I don't think we've devolved (I'm not even sure if such a thing is possible), humans continue to adapt to and shape their environment so there is no real purpose to being able to hunt or certain other survival skills that would have been essential for our distant ancestors.

//edit bah Stag made the joke while I was trying to compose something else to put in the post.
 
Permabanned
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Sometimes it seems like when we progress in certain things we regress instantly in others.

this to an extent.

There's a survival instinct in all of us and we will do what it takes (food, drink, shelter) thats all we need.

I would say as an individuals we have lost skills to hunt for example but we don't need to. Should the time come I'm sure 2 weeks of training it can be picked up. we know how to make the tools for it at the least. (a big stick at least)

but it is much more efficient for someone to make a career (for example a farmer) to grow live stock than an individual to hunt wild chicken. Surely you can see that.

The growth of community and unity means that we can use eachother to get what we want.
 
Soldato
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what about ants? They have highly specialised "careers" and not one could live by themselves...

Either way the human race fails. We consider ourselves "intelligent" yet we don't control birth rates, we kill off a load of species, we just grow our population to unsustainable levels, we make elderly people life off pills for the last years of their life with no dignity, we have no appreciation for the earth and we generally suck.
 
Soldato
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what about ants? They have highly specialised "careers" and not one could live by themselves...

Either way the human race fails. We consider ourselves "intelligent" yet we don't control birth rates, we kill off a load of species, we just grow our population to unsustainable levels, we make elderly people life off pills for the last years of their life with no dignity, we have no appreciation for the earth and we generally suck.

might as well just go slit your wrists eh.
 
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