HUMAN ERROR: A PANORAMA OF OUR GLITCHES, FROM POINTLESS BONES TO BROKEN GENES / NATHAN H. LENTS

 

Promising topic, but uninspired treatment IMO. When I read non-fiction, I expect to be entertained in equal parts to becoming more informed on the topic. My brother and I have talked a lot in the past about evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, and problems in our understanding of both.

It is true that the Human body has its design flaws. Evolution works with what it has, and good enough is good enough. So, this is a rich topic to explore the vagaries concerning the historical contingencies involved in our evolutionary history.

The thesis of the book is that many of our design flaws come about because they were not selected out, because environmental factors, such as diet compensated for those flaws. Which is a good point. The prime example of this is that primates are unable to synthesize Vitamin C, unlike the rest of the animal kingdom. The fruit-eating diet of our ancestors supplied the Vitamin C that their bodies couldn't produce, so there was no evolutionary selective pressure to eliminate it from the gene pool.

What if fails to explain, however, is how such genetic change becomes universal within a species, without selective pressure to weed out any competing genes. Yes, I can see how a genetic change that is presumably maladaptive can persist if there is not environmental pressure to eliminate it from the gene pool. But again, I don't see how it can predominate without selective pressure in the environment enabling it to flourish.

On a stylistic level, I just found the writing to be too prosaic to engage my attention and imagination.

Grade: I give it a C+. It's my first grade I've given something that is below a B. Meh, is my best description for my reaction. I give it an extra plus for the one insight and example.