HornedDiggitoe

HornedDiggitoe t1_j514owa wrote

Without food abundance none of that medicine would have helped much. All these medical marvels you brought up were invented after agriculture. Imagine what the life expectancy was for disabled/sick people prior to an abundance of food.

Also, 32 years old is old enough to have reproduced and pass on genes. Life expectancy was much lower prior to agriculture.

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HornedDiggitoe t1_j50xrqe wrote

Right, but that would’ve only been possible if the Neanderthals had enough extra food to feed themselves and the disabled Neanderthal. You don’t necessarily need agriculture to have an abundance of food, but it certainly helps a tonne to make food abundance widespread.

It still circles back to being about food in the end.

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HornedDiggitoe t1_j50sxod wrote

> Our knowledge of medicine significantly alters our fitness odds, and allows many genes to reproduce that may not have otherwise survived.

Knowledge of medicine can’t be credited for that. That was largely due to human knowledge of farming/agriculture, as well as human empathy to care for the weak. Humans not surviving long enough to reproduce was historically caused more by a lack of food than anything else. If you had a dead weight (disabled) human in your group and not enough food to go around, guess who isn’t going to get fed?

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