Examples of bad "design" in humans

[Mr. Scott]

The testes situation is key evidence of evolution rather than design. It's described quite well in the book "Your Inner Fish" by Neil Shubin.

Below is a drawing of the path sperm has to take from the testes to the penis. Notice how it goes up in front of the pelvic bone, then back, over a urine line, then back down. This would be insane design, not intelligent design. It passes that way because in cold blooded animals the testes are way up in the chest cavity. In order to allow warm bloodedness, the testes has to descend, during embryonic development, from the upper torso down below the penis into a cooler, dangling sack. The obviously random descent causes a hole in the abdominal wall that often results in the inguinal hernias we frequently suffer from. Evolution favors traits that yield passable advantages, usually not excellent designs. The advantage of warm bloodedness simply outweighs the disadvantage of the hernias and whatever other problems this path produces.

 

[robinson]

The testes situation is key evidence of evolution rather than design. ...

Below is a drawing of the path sperm has to take from the testes to the penis. Notice how it goes up in front of the pelvic bone, then back, over a urine line, then back down. This would be insane design, not intelligent design. ... The obviously random descent causes a hole in the abdominal wall that often results in the inguinal hernias we frequently suffer from.

Mr. Scott wins the prize. That is the best example of really really bad design yet. Unless "God" is some sort of sadist there is no way anybody designed that system. It sucks, it sucks so bad one could say it sucks more than anything has sucked before.

Trust me. I speak from experience. Bad design. Bad design. Painful and expensive to repair as well.

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

Mr. Scott wins the prize. That is the best example of really really bad design yet. Unless "God" is some sort of sadist there is no way anybody designed that system. It sucks, it sucks so bad one could say it sucks more than anything has sucked before.

Trust me. I speak from experience. Bad design. Bad design. Painful and expensive to repair as well.

Am I the only one who got mildly aroused by the bolded sentence?

 

[robinson]

Clearly Beavis and Butthead were before your time.

 

[AWPrime]

I think humans are the top dog of evolution, simply because we've managed to transcend evolution.

Idiocracy anyone?

We have essentially "won" the evolution game. Evolution is meant to be advancement of species based on natural selection - that is the impact of the natural environment on the species.

Or you could say that we cheated and pay back is about to come.

 

[DC]

Humans behavior debunks Inteligent Design completly.....

 

[robinson]

Well, we are talking about humans who were redesigned before being thrown into the wilderness. The original design was perfect.

 

[DC]

Well, we are talking about humans who were redesigned before being thrown into the wilderness. The original design was perfect.

oh sorry, my fault.
are we a product of copyright violation? cheap copys?

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

<snip>

Or you could say that we cheated and pay back is about to come.

I call this the bungee cord theory, where a game appears as though it's not zero-sum, but at some point it becomes readily apparent it is.

 

[robinson]

I'm just thinking what a religious person would say. Since in the Garden all was perfect, all these flaws are just the result of God redesigning us to suffer and die, due to that apple/serpent tree of knowledge stuff.

Which now that I think of it, maybe there is a God. All these terrible design flaws couldn't have happened by chance, or evolution.

Oh noes!







































Just kidding, but you know they are going to counter with that.

 

[Ryan O'Dine]

Absolutely untrue.
I rember quite well that I once had working knees...

Ah, but how do you know you aren’t remembering someone else’s working knees?

I have problems with accepting the notion that we are the top dog of evolution. Orcas certainly have some claim to 'the crown of creation' title, using a somewhat human bias. Or termites.

Actually, in my humble (but-superior-to-everyone-else’s) opinion, a climax forest is the “crown of creation.”

But then, I’m freakishly florocentric.

I think humans are the top dog of evolution, simply because we've managed to transcend evolution. We have essentially "won" the evolution game. Evolution is meant to be advancement of species based on natural selection - that is the impact of the natural environment on the species.
...snip...

I agree with this to an extent. But I disagree if you’re claiming we’ve “escaped” evolution in any sense.

Until we have absolute, total control of our genome, we’ll always be evolving. And even then, I’m not so sure.

 

[gumboot]

I agree with this to an extent. But I disagree if you’re claiming we’ve “escaped” evolution in any sense.

Until we have absolute, total control of our genome, we’ll always be evolving. And even then, I’m not so sure.

I guess I'm distinguishing between Darwin's "natural selection" evolution, which is a change in animal genetics as a direct result of their environment, and "other" evolution which I suppose would be genetic change that came about for other reasons - say social or technological. I don't think humans will stop evolving per se, I just think the days of our natural environment driving our evolution are over (and have been for some time).

 

[gumboot]

Am I the only one who got mildly aroused by the bolded sentence?

No because Robinson's avatar has an old man smoking. If it had been one of the ladies with one of those sexy avatars, yes I think I could have been with you on this.

 

[Herzblut]

Our brains certainly manage our instability enough that we can deal with it, but we're still way behind other animals. And I can't think of what design advantage the two-feet thing gives us that can't be solved another superior way.

You're funny! Humans are the best endurance runners on this planet. With two free limbs to bung nasty stuff to prey and to cut and carry the prey's dead body.

 

[Ryan O'Dine]

I guess I'm distinguishing between Darwin's "natural selection" evolution, which is a change in animal genetics as a direct result of their environment, and "other" evolution which I suppose would be genetic change that came about for other reasons - say social or technological. I don't think humans will stop evolving per se, I just think the days of our natural environment driving our evolution are over (and have been for some time).

I’ll grant that the distinction between the “natural” environment, and what we’ve imposed on the environment isn’t always clear, but I still find room for disagreement here.

There are aspects of the environment that are as yet beyond our control, and which may well be contributing to genetic selection. Things such as parasites, disease causing microbes, naturally occurring radiation, and so on.

Our technology may be having an impact on these things, but I’d be surprised if they weren’t still influencing our evolution.

And, of course, there remain vast populations who have very limited exposure to the kind of technology that controls our every waking moment here in the developed countries.

 

[technoextreme]

Our brains certainly manage our instability enough that we can deal with it, but we're still way behind other animals. And I can't think of what design advantage the two-feet thing gives us that can't be solved another superior way.

The advantage is that we are average on all forms of terrain. Sure the dolphin can swim faster than a human but when have you heard of a dolphin that can walk on land. And contrary to your thinking humanities gait was actually proven to be the most efficient method of a bipedal gait compared to other forms that have been tried.

The entire bipedal design itself is seriously flawed because it is inherently unstable - almost certainly one of the key reasons humans take so long to become mobile. A much better design would to be a quadruped with a tall neck, or if God needed us to have free limbs so we could carve statues to his glory, six limbs.

So wait your not throwing in all birds because of why now????? They do use two legs to walk you know.
PS:
I think the most interesting usage of bipedal locomotion is to walk on water.

 

[robinson]

No because Robinson's avatar has an old man smoking. If it had been one of the ladies with one of those sexy avatars, yes I think I could have been with you on this.

Say no more, say no more.

 

[Herzblut]

The advantage is that we are average on all forms of terrain.

We are phantastic endurance runners, unbeatible on savannah terrain.

 

[Mark6]

There are two pipes. The connection between them allows speech. If it was hardwired so you couldn't choke, you also couldn't sing.

In cetaceans the breathing pipe and food pipe are separate. Cetaceans can not choke, and they can sing (some of them, anyway).

 

[Mark6]

Another example of bad design is the arrangement of our lower intestines. Yes, it needs to be long to enable nutrient absorption, but designed intestines would be a neat spiral coil instead of spaghetti mess they actually are.