Before you read this, do me a favor. Stand up. Lift your arms above your head if there’s nothing stopping you. Squeeze your butt cheeks together. Now throw your computer out the window.

I was recently reading this article. The author says “evolution doesn’t proceed toward anything”. This statement set off a light in my already dense brain. It’s not like there is an end goal in mind for the evolution of humans, right? Evolution is an amorphous process in which the fittest survive (or so 32% of Americans believe). Unfortunately for our slowly evolving bodies that have taken millions and millions of years to get to where they are, our society and technology are evolving at light-speed, leaving our bodies in shambles. Today, it’s not uncommon to sit for 6-8 hours at your desk at work, 2 hours in the car, and 3 hours in front of a television. That is a huge chunk of time (about 10 hours) sitting. Compare this to only about 30 minutes of exercising on average (50% of which is probably mindlessly spent on cadiovascular equipment).

Now, if evolution intended us to be on our asses that long, or even if you believe in intelligent design/creationism, don’t you think that we as humans would have either a tail that could act as a chair, or a really soft pad to always be sitting on; NOT pointy ischial tuberosities (seriously, it’s like sitting on two rocks all day)! Our ancestors, like homo-erectus and beyond, would spend a lot of time hunting, gathering, building, and moving. If you charted their time you’d probably see a reversal of their work and leisure times (not to mention that their leisure time would be spent trying to not get eaten by sabertooth tigers). This probably holds true until the industrial revolution. All of these feats are ones that require movement. Hence, you have joints.

Our progression through evolution has given us hips, knees, shoulders, and spines, of which we use to bend and twist, lift and push; but, there is no rule set in stone that says these joints need to remain. If it is more efficient for the body to have  a fused spine in a slight curve to make it easier to sit all day then by all means there is nothing stopping humans from evolving into this. Maybe the only thing that will actually stop this from happening is further “progression” of our society into something we cannot even imagine right now. Hopefully it will require lots of walking, standing, lifting, bounding, and overall movement, and not just hammering away at desks leading to an overall evolvement back into quadruped animals.

Always evolve (enough said),

Mike