Evolution works with duct tape and paper clips

We're not successful as a species because we were created perfect. In fact, if you couldn't tell, we're far from it.

Our understanding of evolution is never done, and, naturally, after I shared my thoughts on Ido Portal's training motivation, a friend shared a related article - Human Evolution: Gain Came With Pain by Ann Gibbons. In the article, Gibbons shares some notes from an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting on the haphazard nature of our evolution.

Like how anthropologist Jeremy DeSilva highlighted that 26 bones in the human foot is a bad design for pink monkeys not flying around in trees or grasping branches anymore. And anthropologist Jeremy DeSilva pointed out that our backs were meant to be stiff for climbing, but we transformed to this "S" shape with a big ol' head on top.

“‘This anatomy isn’t what you’d design from scratch,’ said anthropologist Jeremy DeSilva of Boston University. ‘Evolution works with duct tape and paper clips.’”

Gibbons concluded the article with this:

“The point of citing all these problems? Evolution doesn’t “design” anything, says anthropologist Matt Cartmill of Boston University, a discussant on the panel. It works slowly on the genes and traits it has at hand, to jerry-rig animals’ and humans body plans to changing habitats and demands. ‘Evolution doesn’t act to yield perfection,’ he says. ‘It acts to yield function.’”