Only in recent years have scientists around the world begun to seriously doubt the omnipotence of the most intelligent inhabitant of the Earth. Take, for example, a virus invisible to the eye - a ridiculous creature consisting of a single nucleic acid enclosed in a protein shell.
And this booger is capable of threatening the entire 7 billion population of the planet with extinction. Plague, cholera, typhoid and even influenza epidemics at one time claimed millions of lives. And now, despite the omnipotent antibiotics, new misfortunes like SARS, bird flu or swine flu are taking human lives. The threat of AIDS does not disappear. All scientific centers of the world may be powerless in the face of viruses overnight.
In addition, a person with his developed brain and "deep understanding" of the arrangement of the Universe still often turns out to be a mere sliver in the hands of the forces of nature. Volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tsunamis destroy structures created by tens of thousands of professionals in a matter of minutes. After that, what kind of person is the king of nature?
Of course, one can object - one thing is the forces of inanimate nature or microbes, quite another - our smaller brothers. Among them, man has no equal! However, hundreds of arguments can be made in favor of the creatures of God, which have supernatural powers that Homo sapiens lost in the process of evolution.
“The positive and negative mutations of our species are long over,” said Steve Jones, professor at the University of London, in a recent speech at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. - The process of evolution is based on the properties of genes to cause changes in a living organism to adapt to the environment. And modern man has not only lost his dependence on nature, but also changes it himself, surrounding himself with maximum comfort. Therefore, we not only lost many useful skills, but also stopped developing.
WHAT HOMO SAPIENS IS NOT
* The coordination of movement of even a trained pilot or acrobat cannot be compared to that of a bird. Can you even imagine that a person could control the situation after all the numerous pirouettes and "dead loops" that swifts or swallows demonstrate when catching dragonflies and mosquitoes?
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* In fish, there are only "brain bubbles" in the head. However, whole flocks of salmon are able to stay on track thousands of kilometers long, finding their way to spawning grounds. Is it possible for a person not to get lost at least on an area a hundred times smaller?
* Such a human feeling as intuition, that is, the ability to anticipate in some incredible way a future event, is characteristic only of especially sensitive natures. But long before the shipwreck, the rats leave the doomed ship. Pets leave the house before the earthquake. People have never learned to foresee danger.
* As for extreme situations, a person is generally not adapted to anything. And, for example, the Australian neoceratod (lungfish) can wait out periods of drying up of the reservoir, breathing atmospheric oxygen for many months. A person is not able to hold out in water even with a supply of air in cylinders for a week.
* Similar situation with pressure drops. Microorganisms found at the bottom of the Kola well, without any "health problems" endure pressures of hundreds of atmospheres. Bottom sea animals are exposed to columns of dense salt water several kilometers high. Stingrays, dolphins, whales tolerate being at these depths completely painlessly. And a scuba diver with such gigantic overloads would burst his lungs.
* As for vigilance, any bird of prey, for example, a hawk or a falcon, is able to see a vole mouse from a height of several tens of meters. And albatross and seagull see fish in the dark sea waters. We sometimes do not see what is under our feet.
* We almost do not distinguish "aromas", which cannot be said about dogs, which are able to find something on the "odorous" traces of a person. And whales are able to sense the presence of congeners somewhere nearby by the “water footprints”, since the secretions dissolved in huge water layers in microscopic quantities reach the organ of smell of sea giants.
* A lizard that has a limb torn off is able to fully restore it in the shortest possible time. A person in a similar situation will, at best, apply a bandage to stop the bleeding.
WHERE IT LEADS
According to a number of scientists, our appearance will change dramatically in the next hundred years. Homo futuries will be born - a man of the future who will be relieved of all the ailments and shortcomings of today's people.
VERSION 1
Let's become big-eared dwarfs
American gerontologists Jay Olshansky, Bruce Cairns and Robert Butler of the International Center for Human Research in the scientific journal Scientific American discussed what changes should be made to the design of the human body in order to rid it of certain diseases.
“Many of our problems are connected with the fact that we walk on two legs,” the authors assure. - And the structure of the body has not changed enough in comparison with the distant ancestors who walked on all four. The spine is under too much stress. Thin cartilaginous discs between the vertebrae are deformed, pinching the nerves and the spinal cord, hence osteochondrosis, radiculitis. Therefore, the discs need to be thickened and the upper torso tilted towards the ground to reduce stress on the spine. That is, a person should walk slightly bent over. But so that the face continues to look forward, the neck will have to bend upward.
And also, say gerontologists, it is necessary to change the structure of the knee joint. You can remove the patella, a part of the skeleton that often suffers from falls or bumps. Then the knee will be able to bend not only forward but also backward. Increasing the cartilage lining will slow down the wear and tear on the joint and permanently eliminate arthritis.
And in order to preserve the hearing that weakens with age, it is necessary to enlarge the auricle and make it capable of turning to the sound source, like in animals.
American gerontologists argue that within 50 - 100 years, such changes in a person's structure can be easily made.
VERSION 2
Let's turn into a frog
A short, "meter with a cap", with a huge spherical head, short body, thin arm bones, a three-fingered hand - this is exactly how, according to the anatomists from the 1st Moscow Medical Institute Valery Vorobyov and Grigory Yasvoin, a man of the future may look.
First, according to their observations, the process of "brachycephalization" is now underway, that is, the number of round-headed people (brachycephalic) is increasing, and the number of egg-headed people (dolichocephalic) is decreasing.
Secondly, scientists believe: soon we will part with wisdom teeth and upper incisors. And then, completely abandoning rough food, we will lose the rest of our teeth. And, thirdly, the reduction of the spine will lead to the fact that the pelvis is so close to the skull that the shoulder blades almost lie on top of the hip joint. As a result, the figure of a person will resemble … a giant frog.
VERSION 3
Die out like dinosaurs
- Evolution contains a lot of examples when many animals and plants finally disappeared, although they seemed to be the pinnacle of biological creativity, - Oleg Vasiliev, Doctor of Philosophy, is convinced. - For every existing species, there are hundreds of extinct ones. Nature now and then threw out failed projects in the trash can, repeatedly repeating countless successful copies. And for us to become extinct like dinosaurs, today there are all the prerequisites: climate change and the mutation of pathogenic microbes. And we are still not protected from a possible collision with a giant celestial body.