Challenge #02431-F241: Elements of Bad Design
The tailbone is virtually useless, a big target near our ass, not to mention the design of our spine is structurally fucked, AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE FOUR WISDOM TEETHS THAT I NEED TO BE SHATTERED AND EXTRACTED. -- Anon Guest
[AN: Don't get me started on my wisdom teeth. That was a horrorshow.]
If there was ever an argument against intelligent design, it is simply found in vestigial portions of anatomy and the troubles they cause. Just for example: The appendix, tailbone, wisdom teeth, and possibly the tonsils. Much that some doctors adore whipping out the gall bladder, it is still a necessary organ. At least, it is for the portions of the population who still consume animal-sourced foods.
Consider also the Human leg. For a majority of evolution, creatures did not roam around the scenery on two legs. The hip joint itself is a prime example of concatenating disaster chains working together to create a nominally functional joint. Just about every joint in a Human leg was initially for a different purpose and therefore, when applied to bipedal motion, are doomed to fail through lengthy use. See also: dislocated shoulders.
The ball joint is the worst of disaster joints to stick inside of a living being, yet most life on Earth has four of them. Humans, once evolved to brachiate, needed that flexibility, and now that flexibility becomes a literal pain in the anatomy. Then there's the entire mess that is the Human digestive system.
Primates are mostly vegetarian, with rare supplements of meat and proteins from non-plant sources. Humans, on the other hand, are omnivores with a preference for meat[1]. So the vestigial organ of the appendix lies mostly unused and un-usable, until something goes wrong and the organ itself gets an infection. This causes extreme pain in the afflicted Human and, if left ignored, their death.
Something is very obviously wrong with the design of the Human body. This is an intelligent species whose ability to obtain foodstuffs has outpaced evolution. Thusly, a preference for soft, easily digested foods has lead to a shrinkage in the Human jawbone, but not the Human teeth. There are still teeth that evolved to replace those lost to natural attrition in the ages of gather-hunting. Those teeth most often no longer emerge, and become the source of dental woes later in life.
Humans have invented surgeries to correct most of these, and seem to be waiting for evolution to catch up. This does not seem likely to happen as surgical correction has no effect on evolutionary elimination of vestigial portions of anatomy, or what becomes vestigial later in evolution.
That said, the palmaris longus tendon is gradually fading from Human anatomy and may eliminate Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Many Humans can barely wait for the day, despite the fact that evolution takes literal millennia.
[1] This is at an evolutionary perspective. Your choice of veganism or vegetarianism matters not to the evolutionary scale.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / YuriV]
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Given how panicky people get when they realise our brains are constantly rewiring to deal with new technologies and things I'm surprised there isn't a similar level of panic and lots of "do these exercises to strengthen these things" for the rest of the body parts that are changing with excruciating (sometimes literally excruciating for some people) slowness XD
Our brains evolve faster than our bodies and that is a definite thing of weird right there.
My wisdom teeth were a nightmare, too. I know how you feel.