Opinion: Constructive Exposure to Adversity is Necessary!

I used to think was the invention that let humans outpace the other creatures in the energy burring department of .

It turns out, you don’t just need McDonalds, but a reason for your brain to even burn that much fuel!

The piece of information that made me want to write this (Link full of on page ads: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jez.b.23105):

domestic-vs-wild-brain-sizeDownload

A core idea here to me, I tried to pay attention in school. One of the lectures I remember at Bloomsburg university in 2017:

It was “world history” or some gen ed. The lesson was about early man, how once man learned to use fire and to cook. The calories he could get from food was so much more than the rivals, humans were able to dominate. Our brains grew with an abundance of fuel and we gained “critical thinking” the ability to break away from purely reactive animalistic nature. Our bodies were not the most important but our brains, our abilities to reason and plan, create localized order in the environment.

That is where it gets interesting. Up until now I had kind of gone with the mental model of “more calories to animal = smarter animal over time”. Well that’s where that article shakes my entire understanding of evolution.

Say what you want about the information presented, I do not remember any specific sources for the information about the “fire = good food = smart” theory . BUT I DID PAY LIKE $3K USD TO HAVE IT BEAT INTO MY HEAD AND BE TESTED ON IT. It was one of the only classes I did well in before I failed out… There is your full disclosure I guess.

MY CONCLUSION

Well, it certainly means we must not “domesticate” ourselves but instead give ourselves constructive adversity! Because we have domesticated ourselves already, at least in the developed world.

The scientific paper is physical evidence that animals, if exposed to lack of adversity, (as is the definition of “domesticated”). Their freaking brains shrink!

This makes sense doesn’t it? The 2nd law of thermodynamics, energy and systems always seek more efferent energy conserving states/ orders. If the burden of survival is removed than the body will naturally remove its facilities for dealing with it, as they are energy expensive often to keep for no reason. The brain, it the by far the most expensive for an organism to maintain. It costs 5-10x the calories by mass vs the other tissues, everyone knows etc.

ANYWAY…

So if that’s true, if organisms we observe scientifically loose brain mass when environmental stress is removed. Must then we conclude if we wish to preserve our own LITTERAL BRAIN MASS, we perhaps not remove all of the environmental stress…

We can instead, plan the stress. We can self impose it. Actually I would argue as a 2026 Wall-E world enjoyer the only way to experience adversity is often to self impose!

There is no bears in your apartment complex. You don’t need to hunt. You don’t need to do anything really. We could all get along just fine on some crackers and 12 hours of TV per day. The people who choose more at this point in human evolution are doing so ON PURPOSE. For the need to go out and forage at least for is simply gone.

Selectively self-imposing adverse conditions.

I often had the idea when i was training for . How does one actually train for a stressful situation. Like I can turn up the music and put on Die Hard as loud as it goes but it will only evoke the adrenalin rush I would get when someone cuts me in line at the ice cream stand…

The point is, self imposing conditions is hard. It often costs a lot of resources and then still it cannot make up for the “real thing”

So what is the “real thing”. The Carpenter in me says “its when you need to cut a $400 piece of material and you are already $1000 over budget”. Its results. Its when the world just pushes some crap onto your shoulders and says “here, fight or die”.

I guess I am starting to ramble now. The point is the data is real and its in the PDF, I guess, The data is so dramatic and even the paper itself only seeks to “refine the data” instead of prove it one way or another.

Maybe I’m a Dunce.

Oh well, what difference does it make. You have people out here believing in and crap.

Get out there and lift some weights and solve some problems, your kids brain might literally be smaller if you don’t. .