How does it come that nobody (me included) seems to make any small missteps bringing certain death or injury?
I mean its just one small step to fall before a car, a train, down a bridge, out of a window, …
Its just one wrong grip and you gulp acid, poison, wrong medicine.
Sure it happens sometimes (when?). But it doesn’t seem to happen for me or most persons.
And the answer: There are lots of safety measures and control feedback cycles in the human brain for reducing the chance of exactly this to almost zero.
Obviously selected massively for by evolution. But the exact meachnism is nonetheless somewhat elusive.
Not stepping in front of a car, train, down a bridge or out of a window isn’t directly selected for by evolution. The fact that this works for pretty novel situations is amazing.
Not stepping in front of a car, train, down a bridge or out of a window isn’t directly selected for by evolution. The fact that this works for pretty novel situations is amazing.
I agree, it is not selected directly. It is highly selected indirectly.
First off, manmade systems that we cannot adapt to get redesigned until we can operate around them safely. SO bridges all have fences (if they are for walking). Windows are installed at a height that it is hard to fall out of them.
Second, Adults are evolved to protect children from natural dangers. It isn’t a big step to piggy back on that evolved tendency to select, to allow only human designed systems which allow for adults to protect children. Roadways with slow cars have boundary areas. Roadways with fast cars are fenced off. Sumps, mechanically or chemically unsafe things, are fenced off, walled off, locked away.
In some sense, all of these amazing things are somewhat less amazing when you consider that we have built ridiculously dangerous things which have killed lots of people, but we have simply selected not to allow them to continue, selecting instead safer and safer modifications, or selecting instead to band them if they could not be made safe.
A related observation I have made as a youth was:
How does it come that nobody (me included) seems to make any small missteps bringing certain death or injury?
I mean its just one small step to fall before a car, a train, down a bridge, out of a window, … Its just one wrong grip and you gulp acid, poison, wrong medicine.
Sure it happens sometimes (when?). But it doesn’t seem to happen for me or most persons.
And the answer: There are lots of safety measures and control feedback cycles in the human brain for reducing the chance of exactly this to almost zero.
Obviously selected massively for by evolution. But the exact meachnism is nonetheless somewhat elusive.
Not stepping in front of a car, train, down a bridge or out of a window isn’t directly selected for by evolution. The fact that this works for pretty novel situations is amazing.
Not stepping in front of a car, train, down a bridge or out of a window isn’t directly selected for by evolution. The fact that this works for pretty novel situations is amazing.
I agree, it is not selected directly. It is highly selected indirectly.
First off, manmade systems that we cannot adapt to get redesigned until we can operate around them safely. SO bridges all have fences (if they are for walking). Windows are installed at a height that it is hard to fall out of them.
Second, Adults are evolved to protect children from natural dangers. It isn’t a big step to piggy back on that evolved tendency to select, to allow only human designed systems which allow for adults to protect children. Roadways with slow cars have boundary areas. Roadways with fast cars are fenced off. Sumps, mechanically or chemically unsafe things, are fenced off, walled off, locked away.
In some sense, all of these amazing things are somewhat less amazing when you consider that we have built ridiculously dangerous things which have killed lots of people, but we have simply selected not to allow them to continue, selecting instead safer and safer modifications, or selecting instead to band them if they could not be made safe.