Human evolution – It was the cows wot done it!
As hunter/gatherers our diets were varied but dependent on the success of the hunt. We needed the protein from the meat but hunting was precarious and difficult. Life was hard and lived on the edge. There were times of famine.
Then we had the brainwave of farming. ‘Why go off hunting the buggers when we can capture a couple and breed ‘em up so that they’re easy to get and always available’, and ‘Why go out gathering the stuff when it’s hard to find and spread out? Why not sow some seeds and get it all to come up in one place and there’s lots of it?’
Intelligence is wonderful.
But even that did not solve our problems. The crops grew in season. There were gluts and shortages. Storage was hard. The pests took their share. There were still periods of starvation.
We had evolved to digest milk as babies but lost the ability in adulthood.
Natural selection weeded out the starving.
But now there was milk available and you could make butter, cheese and yoghourt if only it didn’t make you sick and you could digest it.
There was a mutation in a gene for lactose tolerance. It enabled adults to digest milk. The ones with the mutated gene had added nutrition through winter and their survival rates rocketed.
They were selected.
Nowadays we can see the prevalence of this gene. It is throughout populations in Europe and Asia.
It is an example of human evolution.
The Sci-fi novels assume the big evolutionary changes will be in intelligence. There is no reason why it should. It will only be beneficial if it gives a clear advantage. The most likely evolution in humans will be a mutation that affords resistance to a disease. Intelligence will count for nothing.
We owe our present success in temperate regions to cows and milk. It is the cows wot done it!
Sorry Opher
Your blog is so complicated I can’t now find the page or post on Religion (recent) that I commented on just now.
(It was offered to me by WordPress- another story). I was trying to correct the link I gave into which an errant space had crept. I’ll do it in the webpage box below!
See you’re busy!
Cheers Trevor – good to hear from you.
I’m sorry it gets so complicated.
I think this is the link to the post you were referring to: https://ophersworld.com/2018/10/02/the-story-of-religion-2/
No sign of a copy from you though. Or a link.
I mistyped a password so you got the wrong webpage.
Meant to be https://nontheist-quakers.org.uk
OK – that’s great. I will check that out. I was just talking to my Quaker friend last night. He recently lost his wife. I will follow up!
Hope you are both well??
No the comment seems to have got lost and WordPress not now keeping me logged in.
Never mind. It was about the bit missing from your name but in reference to something WordPress had put up in relation to your post. (You know, this ‘related’ stuff).
Right – my it is so easy to wander through the tributaries isn’t it?
I got the link though. I think you’ve given it to me before.
Oh Georgina ‘s in Marple today (new home). I’m in Spain (in bed because I’ve got stuck on this WordPress nonsense for an hour). Breakfast (at 10.30).
Such is the way of life Trevor!
We didn’t get to meet up this summer. Shame. I was looking forward to that.