The human body is "full of evolutionary leftovers that no longer serve a purpose"

[CLamb]

Are the genes for making these leftovers into useful organs missing from humans or merely turned off?

[cntrfldr]

@Avery_Thorn

…it’s just the name for the process…Mutations that make it easier to pass on your genes get spread because animals with that mutation have more descendants.

Precisely.

Our vision is optimized in the spectrum which happens to coincide with the solar maxima. I recall being amazed by that initially. Then it sunk in that it was no coincidence and illustrated the point you make perfectly.

Recently an author (can’t recall who) proposed that our brains haven’t really evolved for thousands of years. His take was that evolution requires a stable environment over many generations for mutations to have positive or negative consequences. Civilization, and technology in particular, changes so quickly there is no stability for the brain to evolve.

[Pensketch]

@frauenfelder

Did you know the human body is full of evolutionary leftovers that no longer serve a purpose?

So is Congress.

[Tamsin_Bailey]