The Sydney Harbour Bridge and You, What You Have In Common, and Consequently, What You Do Not
Created | Updated Mar 30, 2002
Why you are the way you are.
Rules of Evolution:
1. Every accidental change (mutation) leads to advantages and disadvantages.
2. A mutation remains only if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, but the disadvantages remain.
3. Every time a mutation happens, the new animal is only an adaptation of the old one.
4. Disadvantages that occur after you have passed on your genes to the next generation have no bearing on evolution.
Quadruped or Biped?
What happened to humans to make us walk on back legs?
Our front feet changed into grasping limbs to swing from trees, and then we learned to use those front feet for fine manipulation, like bashing rocks together, making sharp things, throwing them at each other and, later, operating digital watches and TV remote controls.
This was an advantage. We could excite our potential mates with our manual dexterity, kill our competitors from a distance with our spears, and still make sure we get home in time to watch Bagpuss.
Of course because of Rule 1 it came with its own built in disadvantage. We couldn’t use our front legs for running around on anymore because we had sacrificed their strength for mobility. So we did not choose to stand erect, we forced ourselves to, because we couldn’t support our weight any other way but balancing it on our hind legs.
Rule 2 says that if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, we keep the change. Digital dexterity, tool making, tying shoe laces against forcing ourselves to stand up was no contest. We kept the change.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge and You.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is based on good engineering principles: An arch that is supported at both ends. It is a design copied from nature- all quadrupeds have an arched spine and support it with a pair of legs front and rear. This is what we evolved from, so this is the design upon which the human bipedal form is based.
That’s Rule number 3.
If you were an architect and went to a city council with a design for a tower that was based on a bridge standing on only one set of supports and bent upright to keep its balance, do you think that the design would be accepted? NO. Because although an arch is an excellent design for dispersing weight to the ends of a structure, the mechanics break down when you compromise the structure, bend the arch, and stand it upright. It’s all wrong. This is the human skeletal structure: A tower that has been adapted from a bridge.
Of course, we have somethings that the bridge does not: Muscles, tendons and ligaments. These take up the strain of the skeleton’s poor mechanics and compensate for them. They do a pretty good job, and the advantage we get for sacrificing good mechanics is well worth it. After all, mostly the mechanical disadvantage doesn’t become a problem until your mid-thirties or later if you’re lucky, some people never have a problem.
Your mid-thirties is too late for a problem to be selected out by evolution, you’ve already passed on your genes to the next generation. That’s Rule 4. This means that the way everyone has evolved means they will probably need an osteopath at some time.
Rules of Evolution:
1. Every accidental change (mutation) leads to advantages and disadvantages.
2. A mutation remains only if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, but the disadvantages remain.
3. Every time a mutation happens, the new animal is only an adaptation of the old one.
4. Disadvantages that occur after you have passed on your genes to the next generation have no bearing on evolution.
Quadruped or Biped?
What happened to humans to make us walk on back legs?
Our front feet changed into grasping limbs to swing from trees, and then we learned to use those front feet for fine manipulation, like bashing rocks together, making sharp things, throwing them at each other and, later, operating digital watches and TV remote controls.
This was an advantage. We could excite our potential mates with our manual dexterity, kill our competitors from a distance with our spears, and still make sure we get home in time to watch Bagpuss.
Of course because of Rule 1 it came with its own built in disadvantage. We couldn’t use our front legs for running around on anymore because we had sacrificed their strength for mobility. So we did not choose to stand erect, we forced ourselves to, because we couldn’t support our weight any other way but balancing it on our hind legs.
Rule 2 says that if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, we keep the change. Digital dexterity, tool making, tying shoe laces against forcing ourselves to stand up was no contest. We kept the change.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge and You.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is based on good engineering principles: An arch that is supported at both ends. It is a design copied from nature- all quadrupeds have an arched spine and support it with a pair of legs front and rear. This is what we evolved from, so this is the design upon which the human bipedal form is based.
That’s Rule number 3.
If you were an architect and went to a city council with a design for a tower that was based on a bridge standing on only one set of supports and bent upright to keep its balance, do you think that the design would be accepted? NO. Because although an arch is an excellent design for dispersing weight to the ends of a structure, the mechanics break down when you compromise the structure, bend the arch, and stand it upright. It’s all wrong. This is the human skeletal structure: A tower that has been adapted from a bridge.
Of course, we have somethings that the bridge does not: Muscles, tendons and ligaments. These take up the strain of the skeleton’s poor mechanics and compensate for them. They do a pretty good job, and the advantage we get for sacrificing good mechanics is well worth it. After all, mostly the mechanical disadvantage doesn’t become a problem until your mid-thirties or later if you’re lucky, some people never have a problem.
Your mid-thirties is too late for a problem to be selected out by evolution, you’ve already passed on your genes to the next generation. That’s Rule 4. This means that the way everyone has evolved means they will probably need an osteopath at some time.
