WEBVTT - Five-fingered Evolutionary Discount 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.960 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.840 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas and Julie. 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.880 I've I've always noticed when I'm watching these these cartoons, 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.840 especially things like Futurama and in the simpstance, um, and 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:27.440 even I think like Mickey Mouse, you'll you'll you'll look 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:33.840 at their hands and instead of five fingers, they'll have four. Yes, yeah, 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:37.960 it's odd, it's odd. I mean sometimes you'll see someone 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.000 add in that fifth finger, and you know it'll look 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:41.680 a little cramped. And I think that's the reason. Is 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.240 that is that if you're if you're drawing a cartoon character, 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:48.080 if you add all five appendages to the hand or 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.440 philanges right, um, then then it looks a little cramped. 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:53.200 So it's better just to knock one of those fingers 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.760 off and the viewer will get over it pretty fast. Yeah, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:57.720 I've heard that, and I've heard that especially in the 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:00.400 days of hand drawing, like with Mickey Mouse, if you 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:02.080 had to do an extra digit, then you had to 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.080 do that fifty thou times more. So you might as well, 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:10.000 like save some energy and I've also heard that um 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.560 that that the four finger or the three fingers and 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.800 a thumb are modeled more off of paw prints, which 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.840 is another interesting thing. Interesting, but it got us thinking 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:22.440 about why why do we have these five digits hanging 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:25.959 out on our hands? Anyway, Indeed, it's an interesting question. 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:28.680 And and initially I was just kind of taken by 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.800 the question of, hey, what is how did this develop? Why? 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.840 Five one up, six one four and uh? And it 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:36.679 turns out there's a lot there's a lot of interesting 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.600 uh meat to this one once you really start digging 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.640 into bones and bones and and I mean that's why 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:44.640 it basically comes down to the meat and the bones. 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.480 And and it turns out the five fingers, for the 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.720 most part, is deeply ingrained invertebrate and not an enemy 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:58.520 and in also in our embryonic development. And there's no 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.680 like easily identified adaptive or functional explanation, like you can't say, 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:05.240 I mean you just think of all the things you 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:07.240 use your your hands for. It's hard to make an 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.720 argument for for like something in the wild where you'd 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.840 be like, oh, well, you totally need five fingers to 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.160 pick up a rock, and and the bash in the 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:18.880 head of some sort of a you know, primeval grasslands 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.000 dwelling her before right, Yeah, I know, I mean they 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.919 don't necessarily need that, right. So it's the question again 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.040 is why why do we have this? Why why is 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:29.800 it the perfect design for us? Because because you also 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.560 see uh, you know, differences. You also see things like 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.639 hitting ways polydactyl cats where they have six toes. Yehody 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.799 goodbye is fine, they're thriving on that little island. Yeah, 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.200 And of course Honey would have a bunch of six 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.720 fingered cats. Totally makes sense. An ambulan, it was rumored, 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:49.640 had a six digit This is still a rumor, though 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:53.080 it is not terifiable. Well. Um, reggae artist Jimmy Cliff 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.440 had an extra finger in each hand. Hat have him removed? Um, 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.240 and he turned up great Liam Gallagher, lead vocalists of 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.800 O A. Uh, he has six toes on his left foot. 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.760 And of course the fictional Hannibal Elector had six fingers 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:08.639 on one of his hands. Yes, of course, yeah, so 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.200 we know it happens, and you know it's it's sort 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.160 of like a mutation. I guess you would say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.680 but um, but it also begs the question of like, 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.000 what can you imagine a world where we didn't have 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.240 five fingers on a regular basis, you know, on each 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.600 hand and um on each foot. I mean we have 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.040 really a like a five fingered economy if you think 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.960 about it. Yeah, Like right now, whatever you're doing, listener, 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.720 unless you're driving a vehicle, you know, by all means uh, 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.320 fold in one of your one finger on each hand 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:41.160 and just try to continue doing it. Notice how how 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.280 strange it may feel. It's awkward, right right, And think 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.400 about this too, Like our base number systems are in five, ten, 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.119 and twenty or one hand to hands and two hands 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:53.800 and two feet right right, that's how that that equates, 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.839 right in Our entire economic system is predicated on our 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.560 fingers on counting. Yeah, so I think it's often referred 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.320 to as a vertebrate vertebrate economy, Yes, a vertebrate economy. 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.200 And just in case you think we're mad in Greenland, 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:11.080 the word for seven translates a second hand too, so 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.080 it's assumed the first hand is already up right, so 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:17.560 second hand to two digits, I will seven. I was 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:19.520 really fascinated, you know what you're talking about, how it's 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.119 like all of our number systems are based on five 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:25.839 tens or twenties, but it's greenland right where it's based 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.080 on a twenty system, like one place where I can 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.240 never imagine someone taking off their boots to do a 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.960 little mathematics, like so what if someone knows I'd love 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:37.839 to hear an explanation on on that. I guess you 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.560 you can still count. It's hard. I'm trying to count 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.279 with my toes through my shoes, and I really don't 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:47.359 have a lot of control over like piggish three through four. 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:50.679 You know, maybe it's a way to stave off frost bite, 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.080 you know, like you keep your toes warm by moving 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.240 them and counting them. Do you do your outer tables. 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:58.760 I'm not a math person. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm not either. 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.040 I am not an athlete. But this was something when 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.000 we were Another thing that speaking of math and fingers, 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.000 the other thing that comes to mind instantly, which you 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.280 said you had you had not heard of, this was 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.000 the on your multiplication tables, your nines, where you can 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.279 say you want to do what's three times nine? You 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:17.520 hold your fingers up and you put down your third 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.360 finger for three, and then you have two on one 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:22.440 side of the folded finger and then seven fingers on 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.719 the other to take it seven and you can go 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:26.520 across the board with it like you want to see 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:28.200 eight by eight times nine. You put down your eight 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.400 finger and you have seven on one side and two 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.120 on the other, which I think is brilliant. I wish 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.919 I hadn't known about this growing up, right, Yeah, I mean, 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.440 because it almost feels like cheating. Well it does. And 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.120 the curious thing is, over the weekend, I was talking 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:42.159 with one of my sisters about it, and and she 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.040 reminded me that it was the janitor at our school 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.400 that taught everybody that he would come up to you, 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:49.920 like while you're in the cafeteria line. He'd be like, hey, kids, 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.640 come here, I'm gonna I'm gonna clue you in. You're 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:55.120 gonna get ahead in life. Um, which is the you know, 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:57.480 the kind of stuff you get from the janitor and uh. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.359 And he showed us the trick with the fingers for 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:02.160 the for the the nine center multiplication table. And it 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.200 was I mean, granted, I learned this and went on 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.160 to learn very little else about mathematics, So I don't 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:09.839 know if it works. Maybe it was a handicap that 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.239 actually held me back, but or maybe you completely rocked 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.359 like grade school mathematics, you know, thanks to the janitor. 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.680 But it but it does underline just how integrated it 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.159 is in our inter mathematical systems, right, right. It's something 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.200 we take for granted, right, the fact that we've got 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:26.919 all these fingers. So the question is again why just 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:31.400 five um? And you talked about the limb development and 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:36.320 it's governed by the hots gene expressions, right, which divide 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.719 the embryonical limb but into five sectors of the anterior 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:44.560 posterior access and essentially mapping where the digits will land, right, 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:48.159 so automatically. I mean the reason why we we normally 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.080 have five and we don't have an commutation of six 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.039 or seven is because it's it's it's those coordinates have 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.760 already been plotted for us. Yeah, it is. It is 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.320 really hardwired into our system. It's a and it basically 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:05.360 comes down to evolutionary laziness or or evolutionary contingency at 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:07.240 some point the ancient past. And we're going to get 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.360 into some of the details on that in a second. 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.520 You uh, this stuff five digit system would rolled out 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:16.640 and natural selection has never changed the underlying floor plant. Yeah, 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:18.920 it's been like the gold standard. Yeah, it never tinkered 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:21.000 with that. It's kind of like the neighborhood that I 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:24.120 live in. You have all these bungalow houses, and it's 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.920 clear that when they first built these, uh you know, 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.520 several decades ago, they were all basically the same house. Now, 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.640 over time, individual owners have changed them. So you have 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.400 some some very nice editions that are made onto some 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.840 some very crappy editions that are made onto others. Um, 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.960 you know, and and all sorts of alter alterations have 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.600 have happened. But if you walk into any one of 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.440 those houses, you'd instantly be able to tell, oh, this 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.360 is the same house. I can see the same floor plant. 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:53.560 You drive down the street and you can see the 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:57.120 same house after the same house, even though evolved over 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:58.840 the decades. Yeah, you're right. It's like, hey, there's that 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.360 nineteen twenties blue print from Sears and Robots. To get 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:06.280 rid of the basic system there, you'd have to doze 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:08.559 the whole thing. Likewise, to get rid of the five 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.880 fingered um evolutionary discount, you would have to just go 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:15.440 you'd have to go back to a very ancient point 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:19.160 in our development and and just rewrite all vertebra history 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.520 from there on, right, and you'd have to have good 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.280 reason to do so. Yes, I'm you know, I mean 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:27.520 you use your time machine responsibly. That's hard to argue 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:31.520 that that's a good use of the technology. But but yeah, 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.800 let's let's go back in time then, um. Scientists think 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:39.160 that the five fingered system emerged sometime before modern amphibians 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:43.559 split from birds, mammals and reptiles. And this is approximately 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:47.120 three forty million years ago. Is this is the this 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:53.120 is the Devonian period, right, Devonian days, and based on 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:57.040 tetrapod fossils from roughly six three sixty million years ago, 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:01.720 Scientists that believe digits first evolved uh in principally aquatic animals, 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:03.960 and we merely took them with us when we made 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.960 the transition from finn to limb. In fact, there's a 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.320 there's a particular species we look at, uh. Yeah, that's 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:15.240 called the Acinstega canstega a can tostega. Let just see 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:17.200 if I coul say it three times, um, which is 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:21.000 like a fish like salamander um. Again from the Devonian period, 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:23.880 and it was actually a game changer, and how we've 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.560 come to understand the evolution of our own digits. Um. 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:29.520 But this little sucker is probably one of the most 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:33.679 primitive examples of a tetrapod that you could find, and uh, 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.160 it revealed that it had a believe eight fingers is 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.000 this correct? Yeah? And so it kind of first of 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.959 all that that startled everybody and thinking, what it's not five? 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.720 What's going on here? That eight fingers? Yeah, So that 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.800 that was sort of a world rocking thing um for 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.840 anthropologists at the time. And then the other realization that 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.160 they have when they looked closer, in close, for at 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:01.199 the fossils, is that it didn't exactly develop this these 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.560 uh eight digits to crawl out of the water and 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:08.959 onto land. Yeah, there's this there's this common mistake we make, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:10.760 and I think a lot of it comes back to 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:13.360 the whole um. You know, you're you're in grade school 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:15.400 and you you're learning about evolution, and you have this chart. 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:17.200 Of course, you have the one where it's the eighth 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.480 the ascent of man, where the eighth is slowly becoming 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.280 the man in sequence, and then you also have the 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.720 one showing the fish crawling up on the ground under 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.120 the shore, sprouting legs and then turning into something like 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:33.400 a large prehistoric skunk. Uh, and and it it's very 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:37.240 useful in understanding how evolution works. But it also it 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.680 also has this this subtle um message to that that 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.480 this is the goal. That this fish was was was 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.760 old and busted and the skunk creature is the new hot. Yeah. 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.800 It's like this this manifest destiny idea of becoming bipedal. Right, 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.360 like we just assume that all creatures just you know, 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:58.679 they all they sprouted these limbs and then like you say, 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.440 they just they called out became skunks. Yeah, what are 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.160 you doing. Get out of the water, come on land 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.160 where it's happening with some legs, developed some hands, and 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.080 start building cities and beating yourself with stones. Yeah. But 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:11.040 they started that should started to look at the fossils 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:13.319 in the context of their environments, and they figured out 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:15.400 that they were monkeying around the bottom of lagoons with 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.920 their eight fingers. Um, and that these eight fingers came 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.920 off a poorly designed wrist and paleontologist Dr Jenny Clark 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.720 so the design was quote like using a table knife 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:28.720 as a pillar with the blade on the ground. Ut. 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:31.439 So this is one of the many clues that they 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.160 that touch pods weren't necessarily evolving solely to crawl out 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.439 of the water, right, they needed to use these these 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.680 appendages more effectively in the water. Yeah, yeah, exactly, And 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:43.680 they figured out, well, they actually have been on the 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:47.240 water for a really long time evolving like these finally 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.400 tuned legs what would become finally tuned legs for us, 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:55.040 and using them there. Um. You know, we thought at 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.439 first that you know, they would they'd be using their 0:11:57.480 --> 0:11:59.840 elbows to prop themselves up and get out of the water, 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.640 but in fact, they would use their elbows to stick 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:04.600 their head out of the water, you know, for a 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.800 moment and breathe air. Um. And they would also use 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:12.280 their their limbs to grasp onto things that would help 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.880 them loyally propel out and like ambush a prey or something. Yeah, 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.480 we're basically talking about fish with hands, which which to 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:20.720 me instantly brings the mind of like a shark holding 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.920 a shotgun. But um, which would be which would be 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:26.920 kind of awesome, that would really watch this this year's 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.319 Shark Week for that. But but no, there are a 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.800 number of number of basically fish with hands species today. 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:35.520 There's a batfish, there's a hand fish, and there's a 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.560 frog fish, and again they use these these limb like 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.320 fins to sneak up on prey, to move around in 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.839 tight spaces and the ga and navigate rocks and an 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:49.640 anchor against strong currents. So hands can become very, very 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.720 useful in the water without even any dream of ever 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:55.160 getting out of out of the water and crawling around. 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.080 And so it's it's this kind of stuff that suggests 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.959 something called pre adaptation, which it's conditions in which there's 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:06.960 no predictable outcome of an evolutionary development. In other words, 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:11.600 Anna Cathstega, our little fish frint became a terrestrial creature 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.640 out of chance. That's that's the idea behind this discovery. 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:18.199 UH Discovery magazine's article Coming onto Land explains this by 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.360 using the example of bone, which they say could have 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:25.000 developed as a place where animals could store extra phosphorus, 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.880 and only later did it come to support bodies. So 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:31.480 it's not like that bone in the scenario developed simply 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:33.640 so that we we become vertebrates and we'd be able 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.400 to stand upright and support all of our muscles and 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:39.080 flesh and so on and so forth. It's that's that 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:43.320 it could have been an accident of our evolution, which 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.080 is really fascinating to think about. Yeah, there's a biologist 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.760 by the name of Michael Coates, um whose article was 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:54.679 my first introduction to this topic. And and he argues 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:58.080 that the reduction to five digits from you know eight 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:01.800 or so. Um it, it moves along the same lines 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.840 with the development of complex risks and ankle joints, because 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.600 in using these uh is it begin is an animal 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.920 against you use these digits in these stins to do 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.160 more more things underwater, it's putting weight on them, um 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.320 and and putting and that means increased weight on the 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.760 wrist and ankles. So it goes back to the whole 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.920 idea of the knife being used as a pillar with 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:26.480 a blade down and the limb has to adapt to 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:28.880 to be able to stabilize vetteran and to have pressure 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.360 on the wrist and ankle areas. Yeah, and so there's 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.560 there's this idea of preadaptation, of all this tinkering going on, 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.600 so to speak. And it just happened that that it 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.600 all developed in a way of course, over you know, 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.680 hundreds of millions of years hunting, you know, in this case, 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:45.880 what we're talking about through hundred fifty million years ago 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:51.280 um to eventually support what would become us, right, which 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.480 is really simplistic way of talking about evolution, but it's 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:58.760 it's an interesting again paradigm shift away from saying, here's 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.080 this fish and it had to become man, and so 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:04.000 it develops some fingers. No, it's more like the serious 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.800 is fish and it develops some fingers for an entirely 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:09.760 different project and then at some point realized, hey, actually 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.240 I can crawl up on land with these. Yeah, we're 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.240 simplifying things a good bit, but that's basically yeah, that's 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:19.600 that's just spare you like a ninety minute talk on 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:27.480 on that one point. This presentation is brought to you 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:36.120 by Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow. Now, we have some species 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:38.920 that have have also developed a false thumb, which is 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:43.800 pretty interesting. Moles and panda's amazingly because a panda isn't 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:45.880 an animal that I generally don't respect all that much, 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:49.080 because there it is at the zoo, taken up valuable space, 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:51.600 costing all this money, and it's just setting there on it. Oh, 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.520 you think it's coddled. Yes, I know it's coddled. The 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.160 worst was and I love the zoo here in Atlanta. 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.400 But they had a you know, your forced to market 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:02.760 with it, like the panda becomes this huge marketing instrument. 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.240 And they actually had this campaign where they showed various 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:09.520 very interesting animals of the zoo, various zoo animals, and 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.760 they were wearing panda mask remember that it was it 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.440 was kind of like like, these animals are okay, but 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:17.800 it would be even better if they look like pandas 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:19.440 put a panda mask on them and maybe we'll get 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.960 people excited. And there was this guy, oh, come on, yeah, yeah, 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.280 it was really demeaning. I have to say it was 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.480 effective in getting your attention there, right, yes, it was. 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.120 So it's an effective at campaign. And and but then 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.200 the thing about Pandas, and we could probably do a 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.720 whole podcast on this, they're actually far more interesting than 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.120 they give them credit. And one of those that those 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:40.280 things is that they have this false thumb pseudo digit, right, yes, 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.400 and it's basically a remodeled wrist bone and uh and 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:45.840 moles have it as well, so it's not a true digit, 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:48.480 and that it's sprouting out from the wrist bone is 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.040 part of the wrist bone. But this is a case 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.240 though that that it actually helps us an adaptive mutation 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.880 because if they're they're grasping a bamboo, So it's not 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:00.680 just some sort of random mutation that came a long right, 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:02.680 And it's not like the hemming wats cats where they 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:07.320 really have no reason to extra maybe not back of whiskey, 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:09.920 yeah yeah, or you shoot a lion on safari, that 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.199 kind of thing. Yeah, um so yeah, touch apolo. They 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.639 rarely maintain a polydactus six digit because it would have 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.320 limited evolutionary use unless it was formed for a distinct 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.520 purpose like the pandas and their pseudo digit. Right. So again, 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:25.840 that's why we're seeing this, this culling back of digits 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.360 to five, because it really does seem to be the perfect, 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.000 at least for us right now, in this day and age, 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:36.560 way to get about, which begs the question, you know, 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:38.040 what are we what are we going to look like? 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:39.720 Because we are you know, in the future, because we 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.440 already know that tool use has shaped the way that 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.600 our hands are modern hands work today. Right. Yeah, you're 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.639 throwing things, you're you know, like the basic the movement 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:51.520 that you make when you when you throw it dart, 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.320 like that's utilizing a lot of the what's going on. 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:56.960 It's really important in your wrist and a lot of 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.840 the evolution that's taking place to get us, uh, you know, 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.800 to where we have hands like luck we do today. Yeah. 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:06.080 And actually this is from the Journal of Anatomy. It's 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.520 an article by Professor Richard W. Young who called Evolution 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:11.840 of the Human Hand. Excuse me. The article is called 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.360 Evolution of the Human Hand, the role of throwing and clubbing, 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:17.600 and he posits that had our male and female hominid 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.760 ancestors would have been more apt to survive if they 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.840 were successfully wielding a club against their adversaries. Uh, if 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:28.199 they and that would allow them to dominate other hominids 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:32.360 and essentially ensure that their club happy DNA were passed 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.960 on club happy DNA. Yeah, and hence this this more 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:41.200 perfected wrist motion right or grasping two of clubs. He says, quote, 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.280 the fossil record indicates the adaptation for throwing and clubbing 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.399 to influence hands structure at or very near the origin 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:52.080 of the hominid lineage continued for millions of the years thereafter. 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:55.880 And then just to go give a little bit ahead 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:58.080 of this quote, he says, two unique hand grips were 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.119 thereby produced called the power in Prison grips. So we know, 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:04.840 you know that obviously we were not done evolving. It 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:09.520 continues to tinker. We've we've got our handy little um 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:13.720 risks and fingers so adept partly because we could use 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.720 tools and we could club other people and things. It 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:19.920 makes it instantly I think of baseball where you go. 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.080 I mean, we're the main centerpiece. There is the throwing 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:25.480 and the swinging, throwing of a ball and the swinging 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.920 of basically a large club. Yeah yeah, yeah there. I 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.360 mean that's how the club evolved, right, Which is nice 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.280 to quit clubbing people and start make it into a 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.280 sport involving balls instead of heads um. But it did 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:39.640 make me think, like, what are we gonna look like? Oh, 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:41.760 I don't know a thousand years from now. I mean 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.080 obviously that the iPad has a great influence server us 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:46.520 right now, and the iPhone does, and if it were 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.239 to continue with us for a thousand years, you know, 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.120 would our current hand structures changed so that we were 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.880 have like stylist pen like little pendages at the at 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:58.600 the I guess our fingers because when you first mentioned 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.400 to me, I instantly I was thinking keep board because 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.000 I guess, you know, I've just been using a keyboard, 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:03.480 so I'm like, oh, I guess we'll have more fingers 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:05.960 so we can we can type more. But but yeah, 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.280 with the with things like the iPad, we're already getting 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:11.199 into situations where where you don't need all those fingers 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:14.120 to operate an iPad. And and uh, and we've talked 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:17.680 before about the more that we the more we develop 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.280 a human machine in our actions, we're getting into a 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:23.480 situation where we're fingers and limb limbs won't even be necessary. 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:27.760 Um so right, and and and specifically we're talking about 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.399 like brain computer interfaces, right, so you know, eventually one 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:33.160 day we'll be able to Google in our brain without 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:35.879 even having to enter anything with our fingers. And then 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:38.679 we'll have our handy dandy Exo skeleton arms that are 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:42.280 super strong lifting things just for fun. Well, why would 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:44.360 we lift things? We have the robots bring us, right, 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:47.400