One might look at what humans achieved and think that they have conquered nature, that they have tamed the powerful and hostile forces of nature to their advantage.
From the moment that humans have learned how to use tools and fire, they have begun to change their environment like no species before, and they appear to be unique in this sense. This has given them the power to decrease or evade selective pressure; The sick that would die of infection are vaccinated and cured, laboring mothers that would perish in the childbirth get cesarean delivery and bare many children... Such examples might persuade people to think that humans have actually succeeded in evading natural selection. The recent pandemic, however, would be compelling support for the opposite side of this argument. A virus that kills thousands of humans all across the world despite all the efforts and technologies available to humans now. It can be argued that this pandemic acts as a selective pressure for both physical and behavioral attributes; better survival chance for individuals with better suited immune systems and those who are better at adapting to the new behavioral restrains and lifestyle.
Now, this discussion is somewhat open to interpretation without further inquiry, but I would really like to collaborate with people more knowledgable than myself to investigate this question. To make a list of hostile forces that create selective pressure (and that used to create pressure in our ancestral environment) and study the existing body of empirical research on the effects of each force in order to see the extend which humans have been successful in lifting these pressures with their efforts.
One of the clearest ways humans have adapted to hostile environments is their ability to acquire food in such environments. For instance, in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs built artificial garden islands called chinampas on the lake to grow enough food to support their population. The people of Tiwanaku used a system of alternating canals and raised fields known as camellones to support their population. The fields were raised high enough to protect the crops from floods and the floodwaters that filled the canals supplied farmers with aquatic plants that could be used as fertilizer. The Calusa culture in Florida used watercourts to store live fish during the Little Ice Age when lower sea levels caused fish to become scarcer.
- Nicholas Landol very interesting examples of humans overcoming hostile forces of nature. But what do you think is the final answer? have we managed to completely evade natural selection or are we still subjectes to its laws?
- Saeed Rezvani Nejad I don't believe humans have completely mastered nature nor do I believe we ever will. The increasingly devastating natural disasters that have been occurring over the past several decades which are likely the result of climate change caused by humans demonstrate that nature is still quite capable of putting us back in line when we try to overthrow it.
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