Some extras need to be trashed

In my last speech (Eureka), in which I concluded that neither writers, politicians, businessmen nor scientists are wrong who are working to benefit others nor the theory of Kin Selection which advocates that organisms, help their siblings to propagate their genes even at their own cost. Then I said that “Eureka” !!!, I found that I am wrong. It was a way to prepare your mind for what I am going to say,

Theory of Kin Selection fits eusocial organisms like, bees, wasps, ants and some aphids but it can’t explain human behaviors. Though social organisms share all basic behaviors that humans have, like foraging, aggression, learning and even culture, but human posses these behaviors in extra. When I say “extra”, I don’t mean that human have adapted them through evolutionary processes but they have created those behaviors. It may seem a big claim but it is true. We can easily identify enormous amounts of behaviors that neither increases our fitness nor have a genetic basis.

Let me give you some examples,

Suppose that I have a smart phone that has all applications that any other smart phone have, but it doesn’t have a touch screen, so I go to buy another one with touch screen. I will go to buy it though I have an ipod with a touch screen. Does my shopping for next cell phone has any genetic basis or it increases my fitness? Some may argue that I bought it because I was influenced by advertisements or other people around me had cell phones with touch screens. Both of these influences come under cultural transmissions. OK! Let’s suppose that cultural transmissions increase the fitness but how much cultural transmission?

Let’s examine it biologically,

Organisms with higher parental investments produce less offspring but their offspring have higher rate of survival. As Primates are most close to human so it is suitable if we compare both to know the differences of parental investments. In primates, it is the responsibility of mother to take care of her children. It is rare that male take part in parental care. The time of parental care usually do not exceeds than a decade. The children who are close to their mothers have higher fitness as they learn more skills to survive, get warmth, food and protection. Comparing to them the highest investment that human parents make in their children is education. Education is cultural transmissions that only schooling is counted part of it as parental education can’t be certificated. It takes more than two decades for a human child to graduate. Graduation is just a start and it doesn’t mean higher fitness as fitness comes by specialization in the particular fields which give some sort of surety for success.

When I was teaching in school and was observing parents’ behaviors towards education of their children, I was feeling sorry for the students. From morning to afternoon in school, then to tuition centers, then to computer centers, then to language centers and still some were going for religious studies. There was no time for playing to these kids. It was unbearable. Yes! Human parental care shouldn’t be compared to Primates as human need some extras to fit in human society. But some goes too much extras in order to ensure the fitness and success of their kids.

This behavior of parents has neither genetic basis nor it increases the fitness of their children because it is harming the mental and physical health of those children.

It is not only buying too much extra technological gadgets or too much extra-parental care but in fact, the too much extras rule our lives,

Open your closet and see if the cloths that you have shopped were actually fulfilling your needs. Some of them may not really fit you well and need to be trashed. You may say, no I am really choosy and all my selections are perfect. OK! Mr. Perfectionist, let’s do not accept my judgment but let’s take the judgment of our bodies. Science of nutrition is very old but let’s takes a modern formula. Take a nutrition chart, according to your body mass and height index and take the meal according to it. You will still find that your body trash out some part of those food as extra. Even the healthiest food has some extras that need to be trashed.

It is not only basic needs of life that we have too much extras but sometimes we have too much extras in important aspects of life like education. Look around you and you will find some people are doing master twice and thrice in different subjects. What for? Do really they need these masters in order to add something in human knowledge or do these extra masters degrees increase their job opportunity? You will find most of these are overdone. Just because of wrong concept of success. Some people look to degree completions as success and they do not take them as knowledge.

If you think, you will find some extra behaviors and extra-magazines, extra communication and even some extra friends that need to be trashed………..

I would say, carrying too much extras are the waste of resources, time and energy and needed to be trashed. So I suggest you look at what are the extras that you need to be trashed…………