Manthropology

[nang]

This is the title of a new book by Peter McAllister. As I understand it, his thesis is that modern man is physically no match for even his recent ancestors. Our ancestors could run faster, jump higher and throw farther than even our best living athletes.

I came across an uncritical expression of interest in this book on another forum. I immediately thought that some of the issues would be great topics for Brian to talk about. It certainly set my ******** detector off.

[The Drain]

We can fly. I don't think our ancestors, pre-Montgolfier, could do that.



ETA: Welcome to the forum, Nang!

[PingOfPong]

Did you know that the first time Kim Jong Il played golf he scored all holes in one? I've heard about this book and it supposes that we should trust all these ancient accounts of athletic prowess.

[Ethan Thane Athen]

This has been covered before (extensively) on this forum. If I was more adept at finding old threads I'd post a link....:p

[cwalner]

Our ancestors could run faster, jump higher and throw farther than even our best living athletes.


This is the line that set off my BS detector. While I could buy into an argument that our average physical prowess has declined the claim above seems to be strectching credulity.

As an extreme example, look at Stephen Hawking. While none could doubt his contribution to modern society, his physical prowess is just as obviously lacking. Modern technology has allowed for the survival of humans that are far below the ideal in physicality (myself defenitely included). This brings the average down dramatically. However, the same technological advances have allowed to push the envelope on the upside as well, just not quite as dramatically.

As an example, take a peak athletic specimen and feed him/her the finest diet known to enhance performance, including chemicals that are banned by most competiteve athletics organizations and our ancestors should be no match.

[nang]

This has been covered before (extensively) on this forum. If I was more adept at finding old threads I'd post a link....:p

My apologies. I searched for "Manthropology" before posting but it returned nothing. This is my first foray on the forum so I have a bit to learn.

[The Drain]

Well I hadn't heard of manthropology before, so thank you for bringing it to my attention.

There's often a lot of repeat/similar threads here, so it's no big deal.

[fuelair]

This has been covered before (extensively) on this forum. If I was more adept at finding old threads I'd post a link....:p

Actually, within the last couple of weeks IIRC - though I'm not sure what it would be under since I read but didn't post in it. Do not remember this book mentioned in it though.:)

[fuelair]

It was, I just read only the thread part: http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=156904&highlight=Modern+weaker

[nang]

Thanks for the link. When searching for topics on this I only looked under the Skeptoid forum, not the whole JREF forum. The JREF forums look a bit daunting overall, I might restrict myself to a few places like this.
Anyway, it got most interesting as I followed through to find that the book's signature claim was debunked in another forum. The ancient sprinter's speeds were about half of what the book claimed, in fact they were only jogging.
I would be fascinated to here Brian take on this topic in a Skeptoid episode. Is this the best place to bring it to his attention?

[fuelair]

Hopefully, someone who knows more about where can help - I am very general so I just look at the New Post list and pop into any that look interesting...............