The human body just can’t keep pace with the rate at which modern technology progresses.
Evolutionary anthropologists Colin Shaw from the University of Zurich and Daniel Longman from Loughborough University published an analysis regarding how society is changing at lightning speed — and our biology isn’t keeping up.
They believe that many cases of chronic stress, fatigue and modern health problems stem from a basic disconnect between how humans evolved and the industrialized environments most of us live in today.
For most of human history, people lived as hunter-gatherers.
Life meant constant movement, bursts of physical exertion and daily interaction with nature.
So for example, a burst of physical output could involve chasing after prey to feed a hungry family.
It could also mean getting away from a predator — and this could involve leaping over boulders, dashing up hills and even climbing a tree.
And long walks were always a thing, including doing so while carrying babies and toddlers.
Our bodies were shaped around that lifestyle over hundreds of thousands of years.
But then industrialization arrived just a few centuries ago — basically an instant in evolutionary terms.
Think of the advent of industrialization as a single second on the 24-hour clock of Earth’s existence.
Suddenly we were surrounded by loud motors and machinery, fluorescent lighting, pollution, technology, synthetic chemicals, processed food, desk jobs and a pace of life our ancestors never had to deal with.
Why Our Bodies Still React Like There Are Predators Nearby
Shaw uses a simple image to explain the issue. In ancient environments, stress came from immediate threats like predators.
You either escaped or fought, and once the threat was gone, the stress response shut off.
Today we rarely face lions, but we do face traffic jams, work deadlines, social media drama, financial pressure and an endless stream of notifications.
The biological pathways reacting to those triggers are the same ones that once saved us from wild animals.
The body’s stress response doesn’t know the difference between a lion coming at you or fear over missing a house payment.
Longman points out that modern stress almost never ends. Instead of one lion, it’s like facing dozens every day.
The nervous system stays fired up, but without a recovery window.
You’re in a state of continuous “fight or flight” mode.
That constant activation is where chronic stress problems begin.
How Industrialization Is Affecting Fertility and Health
In their review, Shaw and Longman say that modern living might actually reduce human evolutionary success.
Survival and reproduction are the core of evolutionary fitness, and the authors suggest both have been negatively affected in industrial societies.
Fertility rates are dropping worldwide. At the same time, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases are becoming more common (driven by diets steeped in processed foods and lifestyles replete with excessive chair time).
Shaw calls it a strange paradox — we’ve built comfort, wealth and advanced healthcare, yet those same achievements may be harming our immune and reproductive systems.
Why We Need to Rethink How We Live
Evolution moves slowly, taking thousands of generations to make biological adjustments.
Shaw reminds us that waiting for our biology to adapt isn’t realistic. The mismatch won’t fix itself naturally.
Instead, the researchers argue that improving health requires intentional cultural and environmental changes.
That means designing living spaces that reduce harmful exposures and support how humans were originally built to function.
One solution is to treat nature as essential rather than optional. Restoring green spaces, protecting natural environments and encouraging time outdoors could help knock down stress and improve wellbeing.
City planning also matters. Shaw suggests rethinking urban design to make it more biologically friendly — less pollution, healthier food environments, more walkability and easier access to natural areas.
Their research aims to identify specific environmental factors that influence stress markers like heart rate, immune activity and blood pressure.
With that knowledge, Shaw hopes policymakers can shape healthier cities and reduce the biological strain created by modern life.
