Natural Cull
by
, 06-09-2015 at 03:41 PM (1258 Views)
There seems to be an innate urge for young adults to do stupid things, and that may be an evolutionary tool. The urge to drive fast, drink in excess, etc. traditionally eliminated some of the most violent and stupidest people, and they enjoyed it. That may be a cold hearted way of looking at youthful folly, but evolution is cold-hearted. Over the long run, the fittest will survive more than the less fit, but there is a legitimate question as to whether human consciousness is messing with that through various artificial methods of keeping people alive. Helmets, airbags, and other safety equipment make riding motorcycles and driving cars safer, but are those same things keeping alive people who would have been killed by their rash actions in earlier times? Medical advances are keeping people alive now with diseases that would have killed them in their youth a century ago.
It appears that earlier time the Norse encouraged their young to go Viking partly to keep the population from becoming too large for the land. Even before Viking voyages had become common the Goths sent a third (or half sources disagree) of their population out of Gautar. The Goths proceeded to make themselves felt in various parts of Europe. I don’t know of any other nations that sent away a large part of their population to relieve population pressure, but there might have been others, and wars certainly eased population pressure in some times and places. Then there were the many Crusades, in which younger sons of nobles went off to foreign lands. In many cases they were permanent moves with the nobles ruling the conquered lands, while foot soldiers settled in as farmers, stock raiser, etc. That behavior was common in the Levant, and the German knights who invaded pagan Prussia eliminated a large part of the Prussian population, which they replaced from their followings. Of course the knights and soldiers frequently died from wounds or disease, but they were replaced from the large families they had left.
More recently wars became more organized and larger, but the medical science has also become more organized and larger, and the medical industry tries to undo what the armies have started. Infection and disease stopped being the main killers in war after WW I, and in the last few decades efforts have been made to evacuate the wounded faster, so they could be treated more quickly. That has led to deaths from wounds to become less common, at least in the armies; the civilian casualties are still quite high. So wars are doing their parts but not to as large a degree as in earlier time.
Here in the U.S. and in some other countries, criminals get a long term place to live long lives in prisons, which is better than having some of them among the general population, but it still costs a lot to keep them. In a few more years we may start sending them to Venus without protective clothing, but for now they are protected and cared for at the public expense.
It is ironic that during the same period when antibiotics were being introduced recreational drugs were being restricted and criminalized. There were two trends that tended to saved lives going on at the same time. We can hope that the push to legalize marijuana won't stop there, and there will be more and better drugs on the market; although there are many deaths from the illegal drugs, so keeping the prohibition along with the wars among criminal gangs might actually be more effective at eliminating excessive population.
I am wondering whether driverless cars will be hazards on the highway, or not. Either could happen. But what we need in the automobile industry are fewer regulations. The safety features just encourage people to drive poorly and to do so with impunity.
Another industry that could use less regulation to the advantage of the human species is the food industry. Just imagine all those absurd foods that might be introduced, if the producers didn't have to tell potential consumers that they were made with things like soy and nightshade.
We haven't gotten to the point of putting rounded and padded corners on everything or forbidding humans from doing anything that might be hazardous (as in With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson), but there are people who would ban many common things in attempts to save lives. Children no longer play outside due to fear that they would be kidnapped and/or murdered, a crime that is extremely rare; although it creates headlines when it does happen. How else can we make the world safe for those who are too foolish to save themselves?
One way or another there will be a cull, as deer populations crash after they reach a certain density.