Evolutionary Psychology

          One thing from the previous class that struck me was Clark's criticism of Evolutionary Psychology in relation to humans being natural-born cyborgs. Although he criticizes the field, I feel that in reality it supports his point. It seems evident to me that we have evolved to seek out the use of tools to improve our quality of life. First we created ways to sustain life using tools to kill or gather food, build shelter, and protect ourselves from the elements. After our survival needs were met we continued to search for and create ways to use technology to make our lives easier or better—otherwise we would still be living as cave people.

We do seem to be naturally inclined toward extending ourselves through non-biological means, and this is evident in our everyday lives. We use cell phones, computers, spatulas, shovels, pens, cars, and millions of other tools every day to extend our abilities beyond our bodily limits. And as a species, we humans seem to be pretty keen to continue on that track: gadgets are getting more advanced, people are replacing books with Kindles (a travesty in my opinion), and scientists are racing to create machines that can slow the process of death. I think it’s all part of some internal human desire to improve our current state of being. And I don’t think we’ll ever stop.