Design flaws

[bhsup]

No, I don't mean in things mechanical. I mean flesh and bone design flaws. Blame God, evolution, or Shirley MacLaine for all I care, but something should be held responsible. Let's hear them. What bugs you about the way we are? Or about other forms of life?

I'll start. Itchy scabs. Talk about being counter-friggin-productive. You would think 4.5 billion years could produce scabs that excrete something to deaden the nerves or.. SOMETHING.

 

[warpus]

My g-spot is up my butt. How am I supposed to get to it in some sort of a manly fashion? Couldn't it have been A BIT more easily accessible?

 

[Harv]

Four engineers were sitting around one day trying to figure out what kind of Engineer God is.

The first engineer says "I think God is a Mechanical Engineer, because of joints and muscle and sense of balance." The other three nod there heads and say "Yeah, could be."

The second engineer says "I think God is an Electrical Engineer, because of the nervous system and neural network." The other three nod there heads and say "Yeah, could be."

The third engineer says "I think God is a Chemical Engineer, because of hormonal balances and metabolism." The other three nod there heads and say "Yeah, could be."

The fourth engineer snaps his fingers and shouts out "I know, God MUST be a Civil Engineer!"

The other three ask "Why?"

"Well" says the fourth engineer, "who else would put a waste water drainage right through a prime recreational area?"

A few more here

 

[El_Machinae]

Going from 'kinda need to poo' to REALLY NEED TO POO while you're just closing the bathroom door and before you start needing to undo your pants.

Really? I kinda needed to poo, so I got up off the couch and moseyed over to the bathroom and close the door and THEN it's omgI'vegottagetthesepantsoffrightnoworI'llcrapthem.

 

[Borachio]

Why don't we have blow holes on the top of our heads like dolphins do?

This would make a lot more sense to me than having it right next door to the oesphagus. Just swallow a lump of food a little bit awkwardly and bang! you've choked to death.

And it would make swimming a lot more pleasant. And easier.

Design flaw, imo. Which begs the question* whether any of this has been designed at all, of course.

*wrong usage of "begging the question", I know. But don't blame me, I've been corrupted by "unique" being wrongly used. Nowadays I think anything goes.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

This covers quite a lot.


Link to video.

 

[Phrossack]

Our upright posture is nice and all, as it lets us carry things with our hands, but at the same time it leads to back problems. Combined with our huge heads, it also makes childbirth dangerous and painful compared with other species.

 

[Borachio]

^^Oh. Right. That's where I remember it from.

 

[James Stuart]

Going from 'kinda need to poo' to REALLY NEED TO POO while you're just closing the bathroom door and before you start needing to undo your pants.

Really? I kinda needed to poo, so I got up off the couch and moseyed over to the bathroom and close the door and THEN it's omgI'vegottagetthesepantsoffrightnoworI'llcrapthem.

You want a design flaw? Reading this post and suddenly needing to poop, even though I didn't need to before.

I've always hated hot difficult it is to get water or impacted wax out of my ears. And how difficult it can be to pop them. On more than one occasion, usually in public, I've sneezed, only to discover that, completely unbeknownst to me, my ears had been partly blocked all day. Then they went back to normal. I felt like Jasper being struck by the laser in the cat burglar episode of The Simpsons. "My cataracts are gone. All the beauty of nature... I'm blind. Oh well, easy come, easy go."

 

[classical_hero]

To show there are design flaws you need to show how you would improve it.

 

[Darkflight]

To show there are design flaws you need to show how you would improve it.

We eat and breathe through the same opening, meaning a certain percentage of us will at some point get some food stuck in the tract that we breate through meaning we are at a high risk of dying due to a lack of oxygen. Why can't we have the same design as the cetaceans and have a blowhole?

 

[James Stuart]

To show there are design flaws you need to show how you would improve it.

I would give myself a poop metre in the corner of my eye, like a built-in heads-up display. This would enable me to see when I needed to poop, avoiding problems like the ones I and ElMach mention. Also, just make earwax easier to bloody clean.

 

[Kozmos]

Honestly the thing that bothers me most is how fragile we are. It's surprisingly easy to undo a human life if you know where to push and pull. Even basic environmental dangers can threaten us greatly. I'd also add the wear and tear over the lifespan, but can't really call that a design flaw since we weren't supposed to live much longer over 30.

 

[Borachio]

Who says we weren't supposed to live longer than 30? That makes no sense to me, however I look at it.

If clams can live to 500 years old, I don't see why we can't.

 

[Kozmos]

Who says we weren't supposed to live longer than 30? That makes no sense to me, however I look at it.

If clams can live to 500 years old, I don't see why we can't.

Isn't 35 the approximate lifespan of our oldest ancestors?

 

[Chukchi Husky]

There is one flaw that I know about, the retinas are attached to the optic nerve backwards.

 

[plarq]

I want embedded version of photoshop in my brain. Also I want a projector.

 

[Flying Pig]

Isn't 35 the approximate lifespan of our oldest ancestors?

That does take into account being eaten by various things, dying of various diseases, falling out of trees and so on. Nowadays we can avoid an awful lot of the things which have historically killed us.

 

[El_Machinae]

You want a design flaw? Reading this post and suddenly needing to poop, even though I didn't need to before.

Okay, how about the shift in the shrillness of a baby's cries after the first few weeks?

Early on, it's "wa[I'm terribly cute, and you love me, and I'm uncomfortable], wa, wa"

Later on, it's "WAAAA [Dance to my tune! There's NOTHING, NOTHING you can do to get me to stop] WAAAAA'

During that early stage, I'm totally happy to help Jr. out. He'll keep crying until I figure it out, but it ain't bad, I can deal. That later stage? OMG. Give him to Mom, and use all your willpower to not suggest locking him in the furthest room of the house until he cries himself to sleep.

 

[Borachio]

Isn't 35 the approximate lifespan of our oldest ancestors?

As far as I know the maximum human lifespan hasn't changed much in the last 15,000 years. Or so. Historically very few people attained that maximum, mainly due to infectious diseases. But I think they could.

But who do you mean by our oldest ancestors?

One of these?

Of one of these?

So, the answer to your question seems to be yes and no. At some stage in the evolution of human beings, the maximum life span might well have been more or less 35.