Survival of the fittest

[yads]

firebug hit it on the head, the life expectancy stats in the past were severely skewed by infant/child mortality rates, as well as women dying from child birth.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by yads

firebug hit it on the head, the life expectancy stats in the past were severely skewed by infant/child mortality rates, as well as women dying from child birth.

That's not really skewed... that's part of what life expectancy is.

[Huntingwhale]

Marijuana cures all ailes.

That is all.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Thor

Yes, we no longer have to run 1000m to kill our meal, does that make us weak or smarter?

It's just an interesting read. Our lifespans are probably 3-4 times longer than any of those people in that article despite whatever feats of strength or speed ancient man was able to pull off.

What I take from it is that it makes you think about what the sedentry life of modern man has done to our physical abilities and physical fitness. We live longer but it's because our lives are easier, less dangerous, we have plentiful food, modern medicines, etc.

In the medieval era, there were horses bred as warhorses that were absolutely humongous and much stronger than most modern day breeds, they carried heavy metal armor, armored knights, equipment, supplies, etc. That sort of horse doesn't exist anymore.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Marijuana cures all ailes.

That is all.

And relieves you from the tyranny of spelling!

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Meanwhile, we have a scientist trying to tell us that in an era where life expectancy was in the 20-30 year range, these average aboriginals were so amazing they could outrun a champion sprinter of today. That doesn't add up.

Cowperson

I think you might be overstating physical fitness. Being in good shape and able to run a long distance is not the only factor in having a long life expectancy. Like you said modern medicine is one key factor. If you are running and break your leg it could have killed you back then, but it's very unlikely now a days to die from something like that. And this is something simple. Someone physically very fit could still die from something easily treated today and if they get something serious, well they wouldn't have a hope.

Hygiene is something else that will ensure a long life. Something as simple as keeping clean teeth will keep you alive. Rotten and infected teeth can kill you. No to mention keeping food clean as well.

A large portion of the world isn't as effected by the weather for food supply as well. A harsh winter or dry summer won't have the impact that it would have back in the day.

[Puppet Guy]

Medicines are fine to a degree (overmedication is a problem), but to add a new wrinkle to the thread, I think the fact that we're too clean as a culture is an issue: the overdependance on anitiseptics and disinfectants has just made the bugs stronger, and we're seeing the effects of things like MRSA and flu strains killing thousands. I think sometimes you've gotta exercise your immune system to strengthen it, like your muscles.

[Bagor]

I believe yes, they have made us weaker and don't buy into the argument that increased lifespan = increased fitness.

Modern medicine IMO allows a greater likelihood of genes that would leave an individual more predisposed to disease to be passed on than being naturally selected against through Darwinian evolution.

In cases it allows the unfittest to survive.

[yads]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

That's not really skewed... that's part of what life expectancy is.

Well it's skewed in the sense that it's not a normal distribution. The median used to be much higher than the average life expectancy. Which means that looking at average life expectancy for previous generations is really misleading. People weren't just dropping like flies once they hit 30 years of age.

[Burninator]

In the evolutionary point of view, we are the children of ancestors who fought off disease and lived to procreate; those who surrender to a viruses imaginary right to live, if such imaginary beings ever existed, didn't make much of a contribution to the current gene pool.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

[driveway]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

In the medieval era, there were horses bred as warhorses that were absolutely humongous and much stronger than most modern day breeds, they carried heavy metal armor, armored knights, equipment, supplies, etc. That sort of horse doesn't exist anymore.

That's totally not true. Modern draught horses are significantly larger and stronger than any medieval warhorse would have been.

Research undertaken at the Museum of London, using literary, pictorial and archeological sources, supports military horses of 14-15 hands (56 to 60 inches (140 to 150 cm))[46] ... This average does not seem to vary greatly across the medieval period. ... by the eleventh century the average warhorse was probably 14.2 to 15 hh (58 to 60 inches (150 to 150 cm)), ... Three centuries later, warhorses were not significantly bigger; the Royal Armouries used a 15.2 hand (62 inches (160 cm)) Lithuanian Heavy Draught mare as a model for the statues displaying various fifteenth-sixteenth century horse armours, as her body shape was an excellent fit.[50]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_the_Middle_Ages

Modern draught horses are 16-19 hands high and weigh as much as 2,000 ibs.