Modern Medicine- a darwin discussion

[2kitties]

Lord only knows why this kind of crap pops into my head sometimes, but I was thinking....

How would Darwin's theory of Natural Selection apply to today's modern medical advances? Let's do an if/then.

If, one agrees with Darwin's idea of survival of the fittest. If it is true that the natural selection of the strongest members of a species survive and adapt while the weaker members fall is the catalyst for survival of the whole.

Then, does modern medicine and all it's wonders actually weaken the human race and comprimise it's future.

I've a friend who is just a naturally sick person. She's always coming down with something, breaking a bone, having gall bladder or heart issues. Never anything serious, but if this gal had been born 5,000 years ago, she'd have never made it out of infancy.

Many of the sicknesses which would've killed us as early as a decade ago, are now survivable. Therefore, keeping the weaker of the species alive, avoiding natural selection.

I'm not trying to debate the validity of Darwin's ideas in this thread, but just to say IF natural selection is valid, THEN is modern medicine the possible demise of human adaptation?

[Barbara]

I wouldn't have survived 5000 years ago. I am as shortsighted as a mole and the very first sabre tooth tiger would have had me for breakfast. (Because I would have thought he's my pussycat ;)) Not to talk about tarantulas and canyons.

But "weakness" is a relative term and I thought Darwin did not talk about "survival of the strongest" but "survival of the fittest" which means of people (human or animal) who adapt best to changing circumstances.

And the development of glasses and laser surgery was for sure a good adaptation to the circumstances of being shortsighted.

[Soledad]

Yes, "survival of the fittest" can mean anything, including being able to have access to good healthcare or having a hard working spouse to cover you when you're sick.

I like to think that society was created to help balance the rules of nature.

[Kater]

Originally posted by 2kitties
Lord only knows why this kind of crap pops into my head sometimes, but I was thinking....

How would Darwin's theory of Natural Selection apply to today's modern medical advances? Let's do an if/then.

If, one agrees with Darwin's idea of survival of the fittest. If it is true that the natural selection of the strongest members of a species survive and adapt while the weaker members fall is the catalyst for survival of the whole.

Then, does modern medicine and all it's wonders actually weaken the human race and comprimise it's future.
I've had this same thought many times! It's not just you!!!


Originally posted by Soledad
I like to think that society was created to help balance the rules of nature.
I have never looked at it this way! Very interesting!

[2kitties]

This is fun.

[jonza]

Originally posted by 2kitties
IF natural selection is valid, THEN is modern medicine the possible demise of human adaptation?

I don't think it's modern medicine as such that is the possible demise of human adaptation (I take it we mean evolution here, as in Darwin's "The Origin of Species" and the survival of the fittest), but it may be one of the precursors. I think the biggest problems are our natural human insecurities which leads to impatience, arrogance, greed and self centered thinking, making us the most aggressive animal on the planet. This will be our downfall, since we now have the tools that enable even individuals or very small groups of people to have a huge, negative impact on world society.

… or perhaps it will be precisely our remarkable ability to adapt that will be our downfall, we seem at this moment in history at least to be adapting to inferior conditions, both physically and mentally.

Modern medicine is just another technology which can be constructive or destructive. It is our technology in general which will ultimately be our undoing (or rather our misuse of it). I often speculate as to whether we would have a terrorist problem in the world today if it wasn't for the ease with which anybody nowadays can obtain extremely lethal weapons of destruction. Such people have always been around, but they have never before had the information or the tools to make any real impact.

The advances in modern medicine are driven by profit motives and not for the general good of the human race. That's the problem. I find it quite sick and disgusting that companies are falling over themselves in their rush to patent genes and DNA sequences for example, so that they can become rich at the expense of the rest of their kind. You shouldn't be allowed to patent nature!

Until we learn to work together towards one common goal, we are doomed to follow Darwin's logic, and I don't think that the "fittest" in his sense would be what I think would be fitting for an intelligent, sentient animal like humans beings.

Are we really "civilized"? We certainly don't seem to act that way. Any civilization we may have is a very, very thin veneer, and it doesn't take much before we revert to being mere animals again. This is easy to prove, just try reading a few international newspapers objectively and critically!

[2kitties]

Originally posted by jonza
Modern medicine is just another technology which can be constructive or destructive. It is our technology in general which will ultimately be our undoing (or rather our misuse of it). I often speculate as to whether we would have a terrorist problem in the world today if it wasn't for the ease with which anybody nowadays can obtain extremely lethal weapons of destruction. Such people have always been around, but they have never before had the information or the tools to make any real impact.


Good point. And some people have added that technology is, in and of itself, an adaptation of an advanced society. But wouldn't medical technology -or technology in general simply continue to work only as long as the technology remains uninterrupted. If for some reason (natural disaster, terrorist/artificial disaster, or economic collapse) the technology ceases then a huge portion of our population becomes, essentially, vulture bait.

One or more of these three is inevitable. Which will come first? My guess would be economic collapse, but artificial disaster seems a lot more iminent in recent years.