This has been a topic that's been eating at me for some time, but unfortunately, I've been able to properly research it myself. Likely because I've been looking in the wrong places, but nonetheless, it's something I'm curious about:

Is the world becoming too safe?

Now, this may seem like a strange question, but as many of you may know, I'm in the Culinary field, which means that I have to know at least a bit about how the body works. One interesting thing I've noticed in my studies is that evolution, despite requiring a deal of time to occur, there are certain "adjustments" (for lack of a better word) that occur in significantly less time. This is of course most noticeable in plants, which through cross pollination and their short growing period can develop traits that allow them to better survive and pass along their genetics. Looking at an example from the fauna side of things, we can look to insects, which we know develop immunities to pesticides if used continuously for a long enough period of time. A common example would be the cockroach, nature's hardiest survivor. Humans as well, adapt relatively quickly, as we can tell from several different physiological traits (as well as psychological ones) over the years. This is where my concerns lie.

As humans, we naturally go against nature. What I mean by this is, we bend nature as far as it can to discover that which would not naturally occur, but is possible. Just as cross pollination is a natural event, GMOs are not. Though arguably much healthier than normal food due to having added nutrients and such, there is a possibility that it in fact weakens us. Intolerances can develop from ingesting too much of something over a period of time, such as Lactose Intolerance, and even some allergies have been known to develop in this way. It is also a known fact that as our health has improved, as well as our food sources, water sources, and medical knowledge, things such as allergies and specific diseases (such as Celiac) have also risen in how well-spread they are. Even such allergies as being allergic to raw ingredients but not cooked ones have been on the rise.

So is it possible that, because we've made our world too safe, our bodies have developed in such a way that we fight off what is meant to help us? Could we destroy nutrients necessary for promoting the health we have been seeking to protect? If so, what would be a possible way to regain our previous strength without losing the benefits we've obtained from our advancements?

Here's a source speaking a bit about the rise in allergies.

Its possible that we're currently at a tipping point where we've become too smart for our own good. But that only means that natural selection will again kick in and over a period of several years, we will eventually regain our balance again. While it is true that technology and other developments have led to an overall deterioration of our bodies, the truth is that humans are now more varied than ever before. As you correctly pointed out, we are now more susceptible to allergies, but we are also quickly gaining ground in medical technology to combat those allergies. We need to accept the good with the bad. Because humans are so adept at improvising according to our needs, one might even argue that the greatest medical breakthroughs we have made are a result of the fact that we are becoming weaker and weaker.

I honestly don't see a way to revert back to our old caveman body strength while still retaining our dependence on technology, but that itself might be a mistake. The signs are pointing towards us breaking towards some kind of radical new plane of virtual existence (not soon, but somewhere down the line in humanity's existence) where questions of body and health might no longer be an issue.

Quote from Not_Nish

I honestly don't see a way to revert back to our old caveman body strength while still retaining our dependence on technology, but that itself might be a mistake. The signs are pointing towards us breaking towards some kind of radical new plane of virtual existence (not soon, but somewhere down the line in humanity's existence) where questions of body and health might no longer be an issue.

On this, would that be a good thing, or a bad thing? After all, once we've lost physical form, even if we have a (questionably) unlimited amount of space and resources can be preserved and flourish once more, could it not be said that we're giving up what makes us human in the first place? It brings to question the definition of what makes a human a human. It also somewhat binds us to the fate of the planet, as there will be no chance of propagating elsewhere in the universe when our sun inevitably dies and consumes over half the solar system with it.

Quote from Azure

On this, would that be a good thing, or a bad thing? After all, once we've lost physical form, even if we have a (questionably) unlimited amount of space and resources can be preserved and flourish once more, could it not be said that we're giving up what makes us human in the first place? It brings to question the definition of what makes a human a human. It also somewhat binds us to the fate of the planet, as there will be no chance of propagating elsewhere in the universe when our sun inevitably dies and consumes over half the solar system with it.

It being a good thing or a bad thing would be impossible to determine without knowing the circumstances surrounding it. Sure, we might be giving up what makes up human NOW. But that doesn't mean what we are experiencing right now is what being human is meant to be, as we are still an incredibly young species. To me, being human means having no boundaries, to break the laws of nature and seemingly bend the rules of reality. We are the only known organisms to have constantly overcome limitations imposed on us by nature. Flying in planes, skyping across continents and bringing animations to life are all things that humans were probably never meant to do. Its along the lines of Arthur C Clarke's law that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

As for the sun dying out and all that, we're still talking about a pretty far time away, we don't know what state of being we will be in then. Could we at some point transcend beyond the physical plane into some kind of cyberspace? Floating microchips in space that house the consciousness of a billion people? Will we all be living in some kind of open-world simulation where you can be whatever you want? Who knows?

This becomes more a topic of morals and philosophical principles. There is really no quantifiable way to measure it, and it's likely far enough in the future that none of us will have to deal with it. But we're straying a from the presented topic; we can make a thread speaking on this some time later.

But it is intrinsically linked to the topic, because if it was true, it would mean that the world becoming safer is not necessarily a bad thing. It is taking us in the right direction.

When I clicked on this thread I thought this was going to be a debate concerning how we have been essentially fighting against natural selection by creating environments where everyone thrives and making life as easy as possible to minimize losses in life. This is related I guess, but less interesting imo.

I see nothing wrong with altering the way we live and making life easier. The only arguments you seem to advance are: 1, doing so is unnatural and inhuman. 2, we're making ourselves weaker. Firstly, the only thing that makes us human is our DNA. Anything we do is "human" by definition because we have done it. "Human" means nothing beyond that and any additional definition suggested comes from a place of illogical sentiment and a desire to think of ourselves as more significant than we really are. Why exactly do you cling onto to your label of "human"? Does it really even matter? Second, do we really care about being weaker if the quality of our lives is going up? Why does it matter whether something is natural if everyone is benefiting? Sure we may be subject to allergies more often but this is clearly more favorable than living in caves and hunting for food like we had to when we weren't weak. Philosophical beliefs beliefs shouldn't be weighed as heavily as the objective effects.

Also I'm sure that if genomics keeps advancing far into the future we'll be able to understand the human genome extremely well, maybe even to the point where we're able to alter it in order to bring out desirable traits. This could possibly elevate us physically.

Also you guys sound really fucking high talking about this "losing physical form" stuff.