The History and Future of Human Well-Being

Mar 9
16:25

2013

Rod Matthews

Rod Matthews

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As humans have evolved, our lives have become more complex. Let's ask the question "Are we the most fortunate generation to have lived and will that increase in fortune continue?"

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The History and Future of Human Well-Being

By Rod Matthews

In the beginning of “The Rational Optimist – How Prosperity Evolves.” Matt Ridley makes the comparison between two of humanities tools that sit on his desk. One is a stone axe from the middle stone age and the other is his computer mouse.[1] He makes the distinction that the hand axe was probably the work of one man while the mouse contains parts and technologies that have evolved and been manufactured in different places at different times by many different people.

He suggests that it is the coming together of ideas,The History and Future of Human Well-Being Articles when ideas have sex, that has allowed humanity to improve the quality of life in many areas including:

  • Life expectancy
  • Child mortality
  • Access to a greater variety and quality of food
  • Standard of shelter
  • Education
  • Levels of income
  • And even access to entertainment

The concept that our ability to work collaboratively drives us toward a higher quality of life is not a new one. It was also explored when the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the word ‘meme’ (an idea, behaviour or concept that spreads from person to person or culture to culture) in his book “The Selfish Gene.”[2] 

Memes were then linked to Game Theory and the idea was further developed by the American Scholar and journalist Robert Wright in his book “Non Zero – The Logic of Human Destiny”[3]

To illustrate the theory: Imagine that you and I live in two different hunter gatherer tribes around 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. Let’s also suggest that my tribe lives on the coast and your tribe lives in the hills. Chances are that our day would be fairly similar. We would both be involved in activities that revolve around fishing, checking the traps, preparing food, repairing tools and turning by-products into useful items, for example turning fur pelts into clothing.

Because my tribe lives near the coast we have developed a wonderful method of catching fish. We have learned how to herd the fish into an inlet and then cast our nest. As a result we often have a surplus of fish. Our traps, however, aren’t as fruitful. The animals near the coast are small and our traps have not evolved. As a result, red meat is a delicacy and we are poorly clothed.

Meanwhile, up in the hills, there are a wide variety of animals to trap and your tribe have evolved trap technology and have also developed a way of using spears and hunting together to bring down large herbivores. As a result you have a surplus of red meat and your wardrobe of clothes is astonishing. The challenge for your tribe is to vary the diet with the limited number of fish you can find and the time it takes to catch them.

When we meet, we could either exchange fish for red meat and fur pelts or we could exchange fishing technology for trapping technology. Either way, through the exchange we are both better off and both tribes experience an increase in the quality of their lives through a varied diet and my tribe might become almost as well dressed as your tribe.

Robert Wright suggests that the direction of human destiny is toward a greater complexity. If you ask an archeologist what we find as we move higher and higher in soil samples, they will tell us you things:

  • As we move higher we find more recent artifacts
  • As we move higher the artifacts become more complex.

This is also the case chemically and biologically. As time moves forward, life becomes more complex and more evolved. This is the nature of evolution and we are subject to its laws.

The question for the week is “are we the most fortunate generation to have lived and will that increase in fortune continue?” I believe the word ‘fortune’ is misleading. Matt Ridley, does not talk of ‘fortune’ he talks more about the quality of life and human well-being.

There are many ways to slice and dice the question of human wellbeing. We can look at life expectancy, child mortality, access to human needs etc. On any of these measures there is no doubt that the average person alive today is better off in all these measures than the average person 10,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago or even 500 years ago. For comfirmation of this trend see any of the Swedish statistician, academic and medical doctor, Hans Rolsing’s uplifting and highly entertaining TED talks.[4]

As for whether we are better off than our ancestors when it comes to our quality of life in the social, moral, political, judicial, physical, emotional and spiritual areas of life … well it is very hard to collect objective data on many of these points, so we could all cherry pick examples to support our current bias. My call, for what it’s worth would be that the trend would hold for all areas of human existance because evolution has the knack of finding and spreading and keeping the good ideas. So before you start looking for single examples of how life was better when you were a kid and how the kids of today don’t even know how to (insert your particular hobby-horse here) you might want to broaden your scope a little to take in more history, more cultures and more people. 1850’s London would be a great place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there. 

As for whether this increase in well-being, quality of life or direction of fortune continue? Well … all we have to answer this question is history to date and that is both comforting and worrying. It is comforting because the trend is clear. Human destiny does deem to have a direction.

It is also worrying because while the direction is clear the end result is not clear. Life throws in events that we are unable to predict. Certain plant like bacteria was no match for the oxygenation of the atmosphere, the dinosaurs were no match for a meteor and the neanderthal was no match for homo sapien sapiens.

So perhaps we would do well to prepare for the worst and enjoy the best that life has to offer. 

[1] Ridley, Matt; 2010. “The Rational Optimist – How Prosperity Evolves” Harper Perinnial, New York.

[2] Dawkins, Richard; 1976 “The Selfish Gene” Oxford University Press.

[3] Wright, Robert; 2000 “Non Zero – The Logic of Human Destiny” Pantheon Books, New York.

[4] Hans Rosling’s TED talks.

  • http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html
  • http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html
  • http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_truth_about_hiv.html
  • http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_at_state.html
  • http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_asia_s_rise_how_and_when.html