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this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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Today I Learned (TIL)
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The appendix was/is a repository for gut biome when humans getting diarrhea was as regular as Tuesdays. An occasional death from a burst appendix was the lesser evil
It was really important back then. But then we developed safer food/water practices and it was basically useless. But still bursting on occasion.
So there was a very slow march towards people just not having them. Over a long enough timeline that would have spread and the appendix would have gone the way of the human tail.
But now that we can remove them, there's no negative evolutionary pressure, and we're probably going to stay around .001% of people born without an appendix.
It's a great example of how medicine and science actively stalls evolution.
Eyesight will get worse over time now, but people can see better than ever... it's a bizarre contradiction.
Until you consider medicine and technology to be part of the aggregate evolutionary progress. In which case, we're racing ahead!
I don't think we see a return to traditional evolutionary pressure unless we get truly isolated populations again, coupled with a major global disaster. That, or people living in space.
No, that stuff is memetic instead of genetic.
You can say it's human society evolving, but it's not humans evolving.
I can see the argument that it's part of the evolutionary advantage conferred by bigger brains, vocal chords, and opposable thumbs.