530 million years ago the very first creatures
emerged from the oceans to finally lay claim to the land, thanks to which
we now have the pleasure of walking on solid ground. But, like any joys in life, it may come to
an end sooner or later, as by the year 2100, ocean
levels will have risen by a little over two feet, or 66 cm. And as more time passes, even more land will
sink into the depths of the world’s seas and
oceans. Many people will simply
have to at least partially return to an aquatic way of life. So then, the
question is: Will this cause us evolve back into aquatic or semi-aquatic sea
creatures? Unfortunately for us, most of the inhabitants
of the oceans have seriously “jacked up their game” and improved their
aquatic skills while we were lazily puttering around on the land. The amphipods are a good example. Living at the bottom of our oceans, ,
these crustaceans can withstand - on each and every single square
centimeter of their bodies - the crushing deep sea pressure of 1125
kilograms! Man, of course, is unlikely to also want to
live in the deepest parts of our world ocean. But if we pick out randomly just about any
other point on the ocean floor, we find an average
ocean depth of 4,023 meters below sea level, and pressures at that depth
are still pretty harsh. A casual
stroll through such a terrain would find us with a devastating force pressing
down upon us equal to roughly 14 loaded cement trucks. It might seem at
first glance that such pressures would quickly turn one into a flattened
pancake, but as we ourselves are made mostly of water, we would die for
another reason: the gas in our blood and lungs would begin to condense
and compress, causing unbearable suffering... before, obviously, causing
our death. But if, somehow, you were to miraculously
survive such an indignity, upon swimming higher to escape the crushing pressures
below, you would find yourself finished off for sure by decompression
sickness, also known as The Bends! The nitrogen that we normally inhale as part
of the air we breathe will literally boil when the pressure
lessens. As a result, your blood
will become poisoned and deprived of oxygen, and - again - you will expire,
accompanied by truly excruciating pain. However, these are not our greatest problems. Perhaps the biggest
obstacle to the development of our underwater world will be the simple fact
that we cannot actually breathe under water! For one thing, the surface
area of our human lungs is just too darn small. And secondly, they do not
allow for the extraction of oxygen from any liquid that exists... except for
one: something called perfluorocarbon. This substance - which carries
oxygen and carbon dioxide - is 4 times richer in these gasses than our own
human blood. If you fill the human lungs with such a solution,
this will not only solve the problem of breathing liquids,
but also save us from even the strongest and most crushing deep-sea pressure. True, this technology is
not presently used for diving, but to provide astronauts with oxygen, and
also to help rehabilitate premature babies. So, in actuality, to create a
diving apparatus that uses perfluorocarbon, a great deal of scientific and
technological effort will need to be expended. However, in the future we can avoid such complications
altogether. It will
be enough to simply implant a special kind of crystal into a person’s lips,
which will itself extract oxygen directly from sea or fresh water. This miracle
invention was created in Denmark. Due to the presence of cobalt, this
almost magical crystal is able to extract oxygen from almost any liquid,
which will be quite useful in the case of the coming future global flood
situation. Along with this device there is another truly
mind-boggling and amazing invention: artificial gills
These are printed on a 3D printer by a Japanese inventor and designer by the name of Jun Kamei. This amazing novelty is - in its
functionality - similar to the aforementioned crystal, only with an improved
and fairly stylish design. Nevertheless, even such bold devices for underwater
breathing will not be able to make an Aquaman or Aquawoman out of everyone. And without such technology,
we will be completely powerless and at the mercy of the grand, Earth-
spanning world ocean. Ultimately, only those who can evolve will
survive... But remarkably, for some of us, that evolution
has already begun... Let’s take a look at the Bajaw people,
or, as they are also called, sea gypsies. These people have been living semi-aquatic
lives for centuries, and as a result their bodies have
undergone certain genetically inherited changes. In the first place, the Bajaw have a spleen
2 times larger than that of ordinary human beings. During a dive, a Bajaw spleen shrinks
and releases additional hemoglobin, resulting in their blood being saturated
with oxygen. As a result of this, the Bajaw people are
able to spend as much as an astounding 13 minutes under water
without any equipment! Using this long time underwater, the Bajaw
have become extraordinarily adept undersea hunters. They can catch valuable fish that others simply
can’t. Additionally, the Bajaw people can see perfectly
well even in muddy waters: their underwater vision being much
better developed than that of Europeans. These amazing people are also adapted perfectly
to cold water temperatures. Marine mammals keep quite warm due to their
extra layers of fat. But the Bajaw are incredibly slim, and in
excellent physical shape. Their bodies do not shiver due to hypothermia,
and their skin never gets too warm. This is because their bodies channel resources
into warming and oxygenating their internal organs. They also have no need for over-
developed musculature, as big muscles are an extra expense requiring
large amounts of precious oxygen. And still, when there is a deficit of O2,
Bajaw bodies are much better adapted to oxygen starvation. However, if nature has genetically awarded
some amazing abilities to these Bajaw sea gypsies, others they acquire themselves. Some Bajaw
intentionally rupture their eardrums when they are young in order to
improve their diving skills. As a result, many of the adults of these amazing
aquatic people are hard of hearing. This is one of the costs of becoming a
real human amphibian. It should be noted that the Bajaw are not
the only people whose bodies have adapted to life in
the water. There are also the
Moken, the Orang laut, and the Urak Lawoi - and no, I did not make
up those names - among many other tribes of real live existing on
Earth aquamen and aquawomen...or should I say aquapeople? Anyway, this gives us hope that
the evolution of the rest of humanity could also move in the direction of our
seas and oceans. Already, individual human divers can hold
their breath longer than a sea otter, dive deeper than a walrus, and swim
faster than a manatee. There is
actually a theory regarding human evolution that posits that humans are
descended from so-called water monkeys. This hypothesis - called the
Aquatic Ape Theory - was advanced by the marine biologist Alistair Hardy. The scientist noticed that many great apes
can walk upright, but they do it only when they are walking through water. Hardy believes that our human
straight posture and upright walking is the result of a - for a period of time -
semi-aquatic lifestyle that some of our ancestors adopted. Our general lack
of thick hair on our faces and bodies, and the extra fat under our skin
additionally could be the result of our species having adapted for living in water sometime in prehistory. Most scientists reject Hardy’s theory,
considering it to be pseudoscientific. But I am intrigued at the very least. What do you think? Be sure to leave your opinion in the comments
below! However, if the eminent English biologist
is wrong and early human ancestors didn’t return to the water for
some time, anthropologist Matthew Skinner from the University of Kent, believes
we will do so in the future. M In his opinion, global warming will turn
people into a something resembling seals! He suggests that the
volume of our lungs will decrease, our limbs will lengthen, and skin
membranes will appear between our fingers and toes, giving us webbed
hands and feet. This will help us move better along the streets,
avenues, and boulevards of our future flooded cities. He speculates that our human
eye will evolve into something that looks like cats eyes, so that we can see
better in the dark and muddy waters. And to preserve heat, he believes our
bodies will become covered with additional layers of fat. In general, in the
not too distant future, on our rocky shores there will be an opportunity to
see how packs of fur seals fight with seal-men for fish and territory. That is,
of course, if you believe Matthew Skinner... But even such a dramatic change in appearance
would not allow a person to lead a full-time underwater life. So that we could survive 100% in the
depths of the sea, the changes required would need to be even more
dramatic and all-encompassing. For breathing, it is desirable to have not
artificial gills, but real ones. Or at least to increase our lungs ability
to capture more oxygen from the air, to store
for later when we are underwater, as dolphins do. When inhaling, marine mammals absorb 80%
of the oxygen in a breath, humans - only 17%. The respiratory system of
humans must also necessarily be separated from our mouths, so that we
have the opportunity to eat underwater without drowning, which, by the
way, tends to dehydrate a person. Since our aqua-diets will be lacking in
vitamin C and D, our bodies will need to be restructured so as to dispense
with them. It will also be necessary to alter the structure
of the ear, in order to avoid the bursting of our eardrums, and
the nose - to minimize pressure on the skull. As we will be substantially lighter, we will
also need some kind of additional protective frame. It also wouldn’t hurt if we could acquire
the ability to arbitrarily control our own metabolisms,
and our heartrates, the better to move our bodies into various different
“working” modes for different activities. In short, getting down to the brass tacks
of the matter, we need something like a thousand years of evolution, which,
however much we might desire such a stretch of adaptation time, it will
not keep up with the rapid pace of global warming. Therefore, it probably would be better to
keep the land we have now, if we humans can possibly manage
such a thing. If you liked the video, put your thumb up,
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