Emergence of modern man Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Emergence of modern man - Essay Example The purpose of this short paper is to explore the influences of evolution and natural selection on modern man and to analyse whether these are continuing to have an effect on our species. The reason that many scientists argue that evolution and natural selection does not continue to exert an effect on modern man is because there are so many protections from nature. Food availability is one of the most important things for a species’ survival (Bootle, 2011), but many humans living in the West do not have to worry about food availability because much of it is available very cheaply and nutrition is found all year round. Many food items can now also be preserved to last through the winter, and these developments have come from a high level of intelligence. This, however, may be one of the problems. Some argue that the effects of obesity on our population may be having an effect similar to that of natural selection in the wild (Bootle, 2011), and could be used as evidence against our collective intelligence. Disease is also another one of the biggest parts of natural selection in the wild (McKie, 2002). However, modern man has developed a number of ways to prevent disease. Even in prehistory, there is evidence that there may have been some attempt at preventative and curative medicine (Regal, 2004), which suggests that man’s high intelligence has a function of preventing parts of natural selection. In modern times, several diseases which would have killed people prior to reproduction (and thus have bred the trait out), such as asthma and diabetes, are present in the population because they can be treated (Regal, 2004). This could also be evidence that natural selection is not as powerful for man as for other species. Perhaps one of the most interesting elements of the human species is that it occupies a huge amount of space on the