Just got an audience with the creator, gave you an opportunity to choose one organ to enhance/reduce its functionality; Cause apparently the creator can “grant your wish”

  • what organ would you choose?
  • what functionalities would you add/deduct?
  • why such?
35 points

Option 1) An on/off switch for my uterus without medical intervention. Periods are bullshit.

Option 2) Night vision for my eyeballs so I can dodge dog toys during midnight bathroom ventures.

permalink
report
reply
5 points
*

Periods are bullshit.

Yeah… they are…

been wondering; why does it happen to humans only? I mean, I’ve never seen a cow or any mammal going through any of this…

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points

Well now you made me go and google it. Some snippets from the top results:

Evolution. Most female mammals have an estrous cycle, yet only ten primate species, four bat species, the elephant shrew, and one known species of spiny mouse have a menstrual cycle. As these groups are not closely related, it is likely that four distinct evolutionary events have caused menstruation to arise.

Also:

To understand why menstruation evolved, we have to think of it as a by-product of spontaneous decidualisation. In most mammals, decidualisation – the thickening of the uterine wall – is controlled by the embryo: it occurs in response to fertilisation rather than in preparation for it. In menstruating species like humans, spontaneous decidualisation is one way the parent tries to wrest back dominance of their uterus from an increasingly invasive embryo. The uterine lining now responds only to the parent’s hormones rather than the embryo’s, and the parent controls whether or not they get pregnant. They put their defences up preemptively, by sealing off the main blood supply from the endometrium before the embryo implants there. Not content with this, the embryo evolved to burrow through the endometrium until it reaches the arteries, where it tears through the wall and rewires the blood vessels so that it can bathe directly in the parent’s blood. The (arguably) ungrateful parasite pumps out hormones to make the arteries expand around it, and paralyses them to prevent the parent from cutting off its supply. It produces more hormones, which act directly on the parent to maintain pregnancy and increase the availability of nutrients. The parent defends themselves as best they can: their endometrium fights against the embryo’s invasive proteins, their immune system attacks the invading cells, and their own hormones try to counteract those of the embryo. The tug-of-war rages on.

Well that’s just metal af.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Can you provide some links?

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

“Elephant shrew” … I feel seen.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Holy crap, evolution is wild.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

There’s a nice SciShow vid on that

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Now that I think about it - cows do have uteruses. Do they get periods in some way too?

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

The tldr is not every species with a uterus menstruates.

Most animals’ bodies don’t convert into a child bearing state until they’re already pregnant. Dogs and cats for example don’t grow breasts (or line their uterus) until they’re pregnant. Humans (and a few other species) evolved to just be ready to raise a child at any time, which results in permanently developed breasts and a continuous refreshing of a uterine lining.

permalink
report
parent
reply
20 points

Without a doubt, the larynx/esophagus connection. It’s one of the biggest design flaws in the human body. Beyond the discomfort and coughing that occurs when food or drink “goes down the wrong pipe,” there’s the possibility of sudden, agonizing death at random when you’re just taking in sustenance. Eating and breathing through the same tube is for chumps.

permalink
report
reply
6 points

I have allergies and usually have sinus infections at least once or twice a year. Every time this is brought up, I wonder how many people would suffocate by not being able to breathe through their mouth. It has its drawbacks but only two small openings that are prone to extended blockages for breathing does too.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

I guess if you were fixing this situation as OP wanted and made an additional “pipe” you’d inevitably just have to add an additional opening somewhere. Maybe we could have blowholes.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

But evolution ended up giving us two external tubes to breathe. My conclusion is that its better to have redundancy in external tubes openings for air.

So, to avoid the efficiency of a branch that lets us eat and breathe from our mouths would you make it so we can’t breathe from our mouths and we still have 2 tubes to breathe as redundancy? If so, where would you place the extra tube opening? Head or further away? Toe or back would help act as a snorkel, I’d think.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Good question, I hadn’t really thought about it much. I’m just jealous of dogs, who can eat and breathe simultaneously. Evolution dropped our larynx down low so that we can talk, but evolution only does the best it can with what it has to work with, and a magical redesign could theoretically do better. I wouldn’t mind a blowhole, as it would make snorkeling a lot easier!

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Gimme dat blowhole mod

permalink
report
parent
reply
13 points

It would be nice if my pancreas actually worked all the way.
Other than that, i’d like to be able to fill my balls with helium so I could float around.

permalink
report
reply
9 points

to fill my balls with helium so I could float around.

LMAO

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

This is what I first thought of. Now I’m picturing someone floating in the air, limp, with two hotair balloon sized balls… Lovely.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

This

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

I hope you realize that floating objects generally orient themselves in such a way that the most buoyant parts are at the top. So while you could float around, you would be hanging by your balls the entire time…

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

You have to balance on top.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

My brain. Just let me fucking fall asleep.

permalink
report
reply
8 points

Probably my brain. If I could far surpass the most intelligent people in the world then I’m sure I could capitalize on that in tons of ways, probably even in financial ways by charging for shows of my intellect

permalink
report
reply
5 points

Or use the brain power to conjure up a prank of the century

permalink
report
parent
reply

Asklemmy

!asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Create post

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it’s welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Icon by @Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de

Community stats

  • 9.7K

    Monthly active users

  • 5.5K

    Posts

  • 302K

    Comments