The Human — A perfect machine?

Photo by Valery Sysoev on Unsplash

Humans are the most sophisticated machine loaded with adaptability, self-repair, and ever-expanding cognitive powers. We are still far from perfect. There are several design flaws at both the physical and psychological levels. Let’s audit the human body first.

Physical flaws:

1. Weak protective shield — The human body itself is quite weak. The outer cover is soft skin that can be easily pierced by a mere mosquito. Some animals have dense hair on their bodies which prevents some insects from reaching their skin, others have a thick outer shell that prevents predators from piercing and reaching the bloodstream; this also provides cushioning to the body. The human body is almost always damaged when it falls.
2. Teeth — Why are these supposed to have sensation? It’s absolutely of no use. The purpose of the teeth is to grind food, we don’t sense anything from our teeth. People who get dental implants would have no sensation in their false teeth which doesn’t bother them at all. The sensation creates unnecessary pain in certain cases.
3. Ears— The ears don’t necessarily need to be of that shape, protruding from the sides of the face. Some kind of small pores would have been sufficient.
4. Nose — The function of smell and breathing could have been delegated to the skin. Small invisible pores throughout the skin could have done this job so much better than the nose. Even if some pores are shut, others would work (so no nasal blocks.. Yay!). Also, probably we could have been provided the ability to control the opening and closing of pores. Imagine while swimming if your head is outside water, you could use that to breathe, if the hand is out you can use that. You would practically be able to stay in water for as long by just keep some portion of your body outside. Snorkeling would have been so much fun :)
5. Regeneration — We could have had better regeneration abilities. Imagine if a chopped hand could grow again, a lost eye could come back. Why do we lose our hair? I haven’t heard of any animal going bald.
6. Common passage for food and air — We have to cough when the food or water gets into the respiratory tract. This could have been prevented by keeping the pathways separate. Do we ever run an aircraft on the road? Or bikes on water?
7. Testicles — They have no function outside the body. The temperature requirement could have been adjusted and these should have been kept inside. This could have also protected them from any damage hence taking out one of the major vulnerabilities of the body.
8. Fingernails — Why do these keep growing? Shouldn’t they just remain the same size and repair themselves if damaged?
9. Kidneys — Two kidneys but only one is necessary to live. I understand that we need backup, then why not have two hearts?

Psychological flaws:

1. We are gifted with enormous capabilities but we aren’t taught how to use them all. Humans can’t use 100% of their brains, then what is the unused part for? If we are not mature enough to use the remaining part why bother providing it?
2. The social evolution of Humans has never been harmonious. Some live in palaces, while others live in the slums. Some sing songs for a living, while others are fighting at the borders.
3. We are the most intelligent yet the most stupid species. We get fooled by stupid advertisements. Even after centuries of existence and enormous advancements we haven’t learned how to stay happy and content.

Nature does a lot of experimentation. Just like softwares, creatures receive upgrades. We call it evolution, mutation, or adaptation. It was expected that these design flaws would be catered by upgrades, but apparently, since humans decided to fix the anatomy problems themselves with prosthetics and other implants, nature stopped intervening. So is it up to us to use devices as implants or wearables to counter the design flaws, or will nature finally take over after having fun watching us play stupid games with the complex machine?