Of Cave dwellers, Carbohydrates, and Knowing Yourself

What habits do modern people adapt that go against our evolutionary toolkit? How can we better make use of human nature to work with, not against, our biological heritage?

Let's go on a journey

While archaeologists, biologists, and other researchers continue to discover new things about the "pre-historic" human, there is a good deal we can reasonably assume with some unoffensive assumptions and a pinch of common sense.

For instance, we can assume that for most of human history, humans did not have MacBooks. Likewise, we could assume that there were no motor vehicles or bicycles and therefore humans had to find other ways to go long distances. Supposing you found yourself in your geographic place of origin, subtracting the infrastructure, technology, and all those goodies, what would you be left with? Imagine yourself in some place without too many gadgets and life-transforming tools. You can have some things—fire, manual tools for agriculture if you come from that sort of background... Choose your destination in the way back machine.

...now, gaze into a crystal ball and see Future You.

Who are these ppl?

Reclining on what appears to be a miniature model of a horse with its head chopped off (a chair), Future You stares at a glowing slab (computer). Future You reaches into a colorful bag to retrieve an orange wood-chip looking token (Cheez-its).

We could go on and on describing ourselves from the perspective of a hypothetical anthropologists from a different time and place—I'll leave this as an exercise for the reader.

The point of taking a step back and considering our day-to-day activities is simple: to look anew at what we consider normal and identify places where normal is stupid. 

Of Cavemen and carbohydrates

Recently, diets like the Paleo diet have become quite popular. Some people don't go full caveman, but seek to minimize carbohydrate intake. There is universal disdain among those interested in dietary matters for the food pyramid.

Compared to a cave dweller past, high carbohydrate diets represent a radical change from a time where hunting and gathering were the main sources of food.

Or, compare carbohydrate diets now to agrarian societies when most of us were farmers. On good days, you got bread. But you had to wake up early and work hard to get it. On bad days, you didn't get bread. In the summer, it would be hot and in the winter it would be cold. No hot lattes in air conditioned coffee shops.

More strange stuff

How else is Future You strange? Some things off the top of my head:

- The distances we focus our eyes on (lots more near sighted people now then in the past, I imagine)
- Posture ("sitting is the new smoking"?)
- Frequency of eating/drinking (-> why many people explore (intermittent) fasting)
- Stress levels (debt, many types of work, and other stuff makes a dark cloud that follows people, unlike a lion or a bear that will eventually go away)
- Family structure (the norm is for people to live far away from relatives where I'm from)
- Demographics (population is getting hyyyuuuuuuuge; multiculturalism is a big social 'experiment'; mass migration and other policies speed up the process of putting dissimilar people in the same places)
- Distances and speed at which we travel (jet lag is a relatively new phenomena)
- Photographs, video, and other ways to examine the past through something other than memory
- Religion (the foundation of morality for most people, now thrown out the window by many)

Who are these people?!

Into the future

Considering how the human animal came to be does not mean being anti-technology and choosing to live like a caveman. You decide your path.

What I am suggesting, however, is that we factor in what it means to be human in a biological sense into how we structure our day to day lives.

For example, recognizing that humans naturally have strong capabilities for spatial thinking and remember places well allows us, with some practice, to remember tons of stuff using the memory palace technique. Trying to brute-force memorize digits of Pi won't get you very far. With some clever "hacking" of our minds, however, we are capable of excelling at even the most arbitrary and otherwise boring things that formal education and other powers throw at us. 

Positive thoughts!

In thinking about what it means to be a human, biologically, I think there is a trend towards cynicism and/or negativity. If only if only we could consume cheesecakes for eons, laments the fatman. I'm going to be the annoying sunshine vomiting positivity coach here for a second—

Sure, we can explore how our genes from a past of non-added sugar, not-too-many-carbohydrates works against us to make us unhealthy (e.g. by making us gain weight and the problems that come with that). But we can also focus our attention on how we can best use the traits we have inherited to live better.

For example, discovering we can get by with eating a lot less can be a very liberating things: grocery bills will get cheaper for many of us, for one thing. A slow metabolism doesn't mean you have to be boring and never eat pizza. It means you get more bang for your buck on pizza as fuel.

When we find out information that seems negative—for example, suppose you find out your ancestors were not-so-smart people—we can also think about how those traits may have been advantageous and capitalize on that. Perhaps these same ancestors were especially happy and care-free people that also had very strong immune systems. Many smarter people in the world might spend thousands and thousands of dollars to chase those mental states.

Likewise, the ability to "get fat easily from eating rice" might be a super power called "I don't starve during famines and I can do a better job planting next year".

Know thyself 

Contemplating our biology and finding what works for us is one way to "know thyself".

The twenty first century is a time of rapid change, as was the twentieth century. Stated in a hopefully not handwavy manner, technology and cultural inventions (such as free markets, forms of governance) have transformed human societies. Many of the things we are doing now have never been tried before in human history. For example, people from diverse backgrounds (e.g. ethnicities, religions, etc.) often are presented with "one size fits all" solutions, such as the food pyramid for diet or chairs & desks as the places where people think and work. 

Looking anew at the activities of modern humans, we can identify practices which may not only be sub-optimal, but also be downright harmful. The past is a rich repository of data of human trial and error. To navigate this confusing place, knowing as much as we can about ourselves as possible may be advantageous. Did my ancestors come from a warm climate or a cool climate? Am I the first person in my family tree to eat spicy food? To run long distances? 

Each human being alive today is a special snowflake. We are all "equally evolved" in the sense that lots of people before us had to do that thing people do to reproduce for century after century. Now, it is up to each of us to discover what our powers are. It almost sounds like anime.

Thanks for your feedback & support!

@benihasu wired me some Minds shekels, so this piece is based on a topic she wrote about: "Eating Less Carbohydrates".

Readers, feel free to send me requests for topics to cover—

As a (quite) small channel, I am able to respond quickly and tailor content towards what you are interested in.