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I wish humans had more time to evolve a better spine before we effectively locked in our body structure through modern medicine

· 3 min read

Ever notice how every time you sit in front of a screen for eight hours, your back starts to scream like it’s auditioning for a horror movie? That’s the real tragedy of our evolutionary journey: we’re stuck in the same awkward “seated‑adult” body, while our great‑grandparents could only afford to be upright for a few hours a day before their spines gave out.

The original post imagines a world where humans had a few extra millennia to fine‑tune that lumbar lordosis, maybe even develop a built‑in ergonomic seat. Instead, we’ve been handed a prescription pad and a few pain‑killers. The OP laments: “I wish humans had more time to evolve a better spine before we effectively locked in our body structure through modern medicine.” Because, apparently, modern medicine is great at giving us back‑pain relief, but not at giving us a chance to evolve away from it.

Below, a quick recap of the funniest reactions from the comment section—no usernames, just pure meme‑level humor.

Comment Highlights​

  1. “Lol @ ‘we effectively locked in our body structure’”
    “Anatomically modern humans existed a million years ago. 100 years of antibiotics isn’t stopping evolution.”
    The commenter reminds us that while we’ve got antibiotics, we still haven’t got a new vertebra design. Evolution is still on the long‑term calendar.

  2. “I mean, selection pressure for small variations is essentially gone.”
    “That’s not true at all. Evolution does not stop. Certain traits are still being selected for.”
    A philosophical debate over whether sitting still is the new evolutionary pressure. Spoiler: it is.

  3. “We have great spines. I’m not sure what you’re on about.”
    “Unless you want evolution to have us adapt to sitting 8 hours a day. Back pain, knee pain, hip pain are all able to be long delayed into old age without the use of any medicine.”
    The commenter suggests we should just exercise our spines more instead of blaming the evolutionary clock.

  4. “You have to move and strengthen these components. Can’t sit 8 hours a day and blame evolution.”
    “My spine is still waiting for the next update that’s never coming.”
    A poetic lament: the spine’s software update is forever stuck on “beta.”

  5. “Lol @ ‘we effectively locked in our body structure’”
    “Anatomically modern humans existed a million years ago. 100 years of antibiotics isn’t stopping evolution.”
    A meta‑loop: the joke that evolution keeps going, but our spines are still stuck in the 20th‑century groove.

TL;DR​

Humans are still waiting for the spine 2.0 update, but all we’ve got are painkillers and a lot of sitting. Evolution’s still working on it—just not fast enough for our office‑chair lifestyle.