I was thinking about the design of the human body. Do you think it is perfect in design and if not, what could you do to improve upon it and why? Forget about it being disease prone but rather focus on it’s functionality.
I think this ties into philosophy in a biological sort of way. 
No, I think it’s a damn foolish design because I just dislocated my little toe for the third time. We have too many useless/fragile bits leftover from a bygone age of mud-crawling.
I had to have my appendix removed aged 12, otherwise I would have died. Something that has no function whatsoever nearly killed me. That is a lousy design. Although men’s nipples are useful for piercing.
Also, we have no natural body armour or weather-proofing.
I’d rather be an armadillo.
I’m a very sensual person and I couldn’t imagine giving you a hot oil body massage if you had the skin of an armadillo. On the other hand, it would come in quite handy if I went into battle where swords were the weapon of choice and the armor plating was made of stainless steels.
As far as weather proofing, we have the ability to make clothes so we don’t need fur.
Okay, let’s leave out the appendix on the next rev! 
You are much more attractive as a human than an armadillo. Subjective yes, but I’m sure most would agree.
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Not to another armadillo!
We didn’t always have the ability to make clothes, presumably we had tougher skin then though.
We de-volved to be the fragile things we are today. Thanks for nothing, antibiotics and Gor-tex!
I will not stand for your slanderous attacks on the sensuous and sexy armidillo!
If I knew what perfect was, I might be able to add something.
I think the design is great for making love. All other things, I could be a brain in a vat.
Don’t you think that it’s BECAUSE “we have no body armour or weather-proofing” that we are strong and vulnerable everywhere because we have a strong mind. Would you rather have a hard tortoise shell on you just because you are very vulnerable inside? Wouldn’t you like to be free, have the vulnerability and the strength with none a hindrance for the other. I think our body is just perfect, we’re actually luckier than most other animals or beings.
And why is this query a, “A question for the elite group of minds!?” Are there supposed to be distinctions here?
The way I look at it, anyone who hangs out on a Philosophy Forum could be considered “elite” or “insane”. I elected to go with the former!
j/k Don’t know why I titled this post what I did.
If it can be argued that the human body is perfect in design then doesn’t that support the premise that God exists? I guess this is the point I was trying make. I’ve often wondered, if I could design the human body what would I do, if anything, to improve upon it?
No, I don’t think so, as physical perfection is an entirely human construct. Plus, it’s not perfect in design, we are susceptible to disease and predators. It’s our minds that protect from these things.
So is the human brain perfect in design?
tkingdoll wrote:
I believe that the human mind was created to be capable of becoming perfect. It is the world we live in that decreases the chance of this occurence. When we communicate, such as we are now, most humans become affected by the intrusion of information subjectively and their response or following thoughts will then be in conjunction with the basis of the intrusion. When we are able to objectively take this information, merely as information, and formulate our own thoughts and opinions through logic based on our own premises, I believe we are a step closer to perfection. The concept of perfection is different for each person. Therefore in order to reach it, we must find it through ourselves. When we are able to completely control our thoughts I believe that our mind will then be perfect, therefore then creating our perfect body.
illativemindindeed has a interesting way of looking at it. Our brain is hindered by the fact it’s contained in a human body and is subject to it’s physical limitations. Perhaps if the mind (spirit) were outside the body it would not be incumbered and could therefore operate at 100% efficiency!
Nevertheless, the way the brain executes it’s instruction is nothing short of a miracle. I don’t think anyone would argue the fact it could use a little help when it comes to information recall or processing data. Small chemical imbalances can render a perfectly good brain into nothing more than a grey paper weight. However, it has the ability to put man on the moon, to replace a damaged heart, to cure deadly disease, to create the ability for us to communicate to each other through this electronic medium, to love. So even though the brain is far from perfect, it is an amazing organ and worth taking out every so often to exercise.
A new slogan could be “Have you hugged your brain today?”
Do you want a list? Cause here goes. most of these are courtesy of sceintific american:
our eyes have blind spots where the optic nerve passes through the retina. a better desing would be to have the nerves connect behind the retin instead of in front.
the ligament that supports the ballder is too small in some women leading to incontinece afgter a pregnancy or two.
the appendix, as mentioned
our bodies are not well evolved for walking on two legs, compared to the degree of evolution for quadrupeds. leavin gout bvoring tehcnical details here…
there are entirely too many fat people for the human body to be considered perfect just yet.
we have no idea what would be better, i mean we do kind of.
anyone here ever read animal farm by george orwell?
the animals were used to when the humans ruled, so all they knew their life to be was to do their jobs (cows milk, chicken eggs, etc)
until a pig started to revolt and so did them all, then they realized there are better things and realized they weren’t happy back then but they were now.
then, the pigs started to act like humans, and boss the animals around, the animals then, got back to their old ways and were used to it once more, and don’t know of anything better.
so… of course we could be better. i, for one, would be a mixture of all the animals, except coral.
but now that i think about it… this is kind of off topic… do any of you REALLY know what happened yesterday? do you know if you suddenly blacked out and then woke up, do you know if time stopped for a million years, do you know what you did?
let me use this as an example, last saturday morning i left to south africa for vacation for a week. i saw and did amazing things. now i’m back, a week later. i don’t know what i did anymore… this also relates to my memory theory… if you meditate for an hour, concentrating on something you would have really liked to have done that hour, and just concentrate really hard, and imagine yourself doing it, creating images in your mind. in 20 years, would you really know if you did it or not? how do we know we didn’t wake up this exact second, and all the past of our lives weren’t just pieces of thought??? 
First of all, not to be a thread nazi, but you should post ion the right forum.
And to answer your question, think of the probabiloty involved here.
COnsidering all the possible positions molecules of the universe, the probability that they magically formed in this way is very small. However, the best explanations of our existence such as the big bang theory, all specify that we decended from 1 possible molecular position, i.e. a singularity. again, if our theories are largely correct, then our presence here is not a chance at all…we are here now ebcause the universe unfolded in the way described by the cosmological evidence. SO, if i had to bet on it, i’d say that the traditional view of the past is far more likely.
No, it can likely never be proven, because of the limitations of conciousness. Hoever, if you live your life based on the assumption that any small possiobility can and will occur, then you will be broke and alone in short order. Casinos love people like that.
I was thinking more along the lines of the functionality of the human body as opposed to weaknesses. I know there are slight flaws but most of these are probably caused by the evolutionary process and somewhere along the lines something went SNAFU. And as far as fat people are concerned, it’s usually their own fault. Our society today is a poor example (physically speaking) of what we could be. A sign of the times and it will get worse before we wake up and do something about it.
See what I think about the human body is that it is a horribly designed body. First off, if you get the flu or nmemonia your lungs fill up with fluid and restrict breathing. One thing, I have asthma (another flaw) and if my lungs fill with fluid, I could die. Second off, We should have back up systems for survival if one system dies or have a regenitive body systems.
Yes we should. how they would work is quite another story.
Still, the best engineered automobile will still be a smoking rouin if you hit it with a missile. In the same way, our bodies are, well, not really designed, but they work very well under optimal conditions. Eukaryote biology is, unfortunately, fragile compared to bacteria and viruses, and ourcomplexity alone makes us vulnerable.
Everyone, remember this:
Perfection is merely the greatest thing one person is/can do by definition,
Conceptualy perfection is the greatest personal strive a person CAN force himself to reach, henceforth Perfection is subjective and can never be achieved.