Manthropology book and ancient athletes

[redwolf64]

Salon has an interesting short interview with the author of a book called "Manthropology", which aims to look at the current state of masculinity in America. It sounds like some of what I've heard before.

However, a few things caught my attention. The author notes that researchers have found that men of ancient Greece or other ancient peoples were normally capable of feats that only Olympic-level athletes can accomplish now.

Ice Age aboriginal tribesmen, he discovers, were able to run long distances at approximately the same speed as modern-day Olympic sprinters. Classic Grecian rowers could attain speeds of 7.5 miles an hour, which today's rowers can only attain for short bursts of time."

The author is an archeologist and discusses how the pressures of ancient life - or even the more recent Industrial Revolution - produced people who were stronger and faster than they are today.

link to interview

[mewletter]

I like these types of 'micro-evolutions' within the Homo Sapiens' era. It seemed that the recent Industrial Revolution and the automation of robots had change the way we are; less active, having access to lots of food (heavily processed that is...) and more intoxicated whether by pollution, drugs or alcohol. (Alcohol seemed to be much more easily obtainable than in the past)

Kind of remind me of Wall-E... I shiver every time what our descendants might become like that...

But then, I don't want our civilization to fall back to Bronze Age... Still we have sports and workouts to keep us sensibly active.

[bRobertson]

I personally look forward to the day when we have robots to give us sufficient leisure time to recreate such harsh conditions and the uber-athletes that lived within them.

The downside, of course, is the incredibly harsh conditions, the chances of dying from a stray piece of moldy bread or a scratch, and being eaten by a handy-dandy apex predator.

I suppose it's one of those high-risk high-reward things.

[mewletter]

That would be the 'Terminator' or 'Battlestar Galatica' future, bRobertson. Bad idea...

I highly recommend the Marvel X-men's Danger Room though. Such high risks could be manipulated and monitored easily. If anything goes wrong, just force shut down the whole simulation. Of course, assuming we will be reaching such technology in the near future.