> This was relevant in the pre-agriculture era. We already live in densities several orders of magnitude higher than evolution optimized us for.
I mean, keep in mind that we're living in a snapshot of time that's very much not stable or sustainable. It's like we're all embers born in a massive forest fire that started a few days ago. Everything seems normal and stable for us in this situation because our frame of reference is effectively a few seconds. However, this forest fire will eventually consume all the available fuel and things will return to baseline, no matter how hard we fantasize that we're going to somehow spread the forest fire to other planets.
Any temporary victories we've made over evolution are just that. We've already seen how absolutely vicious pathogens can be toward monoculture biomasses. Just ask the Gros Michel banana.
Yeah, of course tomorrow a global plague may eradicate us all, or "all except Sentinelese people".
Nevertheless, looking at our prehistory, the worst bottleneck of the human race was probably some 900 thousand years ago, way, way before we had anything resembling civilization.
So, at least for me, the question of whether we are more resilient as civilization vs. as primitive people in their pristine state, is very much open. Too many people seem to be sure that going with the natural flow is long-term better. But it feels a bit like the Noble Savage myth reiterated for current sensibilities.
I mean, keep in mind that we're living in a snapshot of time that's very much not stable or sustainable. It's like we're all embers born in a massive forest fire that started a few days ago. Everything seems normal and stable for us in this situation because our frame of reference is effectively a few seconds. However, this forest fire will eventually consume all the available fuel and things will return to baseline, no matter how hard we fantasize that we're going to somehow spread the forest fire to other planets.
Any temporary victories we've made over evolution are just that. We've already seen how absolutely vicious pathogens can be toward monoculture biomasses. Just ask the Gros Michel banana.