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this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.
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You see the colors you do because —
Your eye was not "designed" to see red, but being able to see red is a good trick for an ape that sometimes eats red fruit or red meat.
The earth's atmosphere was not "designed" to be transparent to certain colors of light, but any chemical that isn't transparent to a frequency of light will absorb energy from it and thus tend to burn off.
The sun was not "designed" for us to see by, but using the available light to see is a great trick for animals of all kinds.
In other words:
This is how natural selection optimizes life traits. It takes hundreds of thousands of generations for profound effects to emerge. You’re currently at the bleeding edge of life tech. Enjoy the details!
Eyes have evolved in several separate animal lineages. You, a bee, an octopus, and a box-jellyfish all have eyes, but their most recent common ancestors did not have eyes. Your eyes are different in many ways from those other species', but they all have to make use of sunlight filtered through a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and water. So it's unsurprising that they end up with some similar "design" features.