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Anonymous A started this discussion 4 hours ago#137,673
I just watched a video on the evolution of skin color and you know I've never really thought about it but they brought up a very interesting point. Very dark skinned people and very light skinned people don't have much of an ability to tan because they evolved for the polar opposite extremes of sunlight where sun exposure is consistent whereas brown people can tan very effectively because they evolved for areas where sunlight can change drastically fairly quickly. I guess it's just interesting to think brown people are better adapted for the modern lifestyle in which we can fly to another continent with a completely different climate. So like your arabs, southeast asians, latinos, etc could be dropped anywhere in the world and be generally fine from a variable sun exposure perspective.
Anonymous A (OP) double-posted this 4 hours ago, 3 minutes later[^][v]#1,457,959
In case you're wondering, you don't want skin too light in really sunny environments because the sun's rays can damage your DNA without melanin to protect your skin and you don't want super dark skin in areas without much sun because then your body doesn't produce enough vitamin D. So the brown people I mentioned would essentially have the best of both worlds for these issues because when it's sunny their skin gets darker and when it's not sunny their skin gets lighter
> So like your arabs, southeast asians, latinos, etc could be dropped anywhere in the world and be generally fine from a variable sun exposure perspective.
My skin is dark enough that I’ve never gotten sunburned but also light enough I’ve never had any vitamin D problems.
Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 3 hours ago, 3 minutes later, 10 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,457,962
@previous (B)
You got the superpower my man congrats. I think one of the interesting side effects of this kind of thing is these brown people are more suited to long distance travel so I wonder if this affected which communities became primarily trade based societies. I immediately think of the silk road and how these ideas might be connected given it ran though the middle east
Anonymous B replied with this 3 hours ago, 14 minutes later, 25 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,457,963
@previous (A)
I guess one counter argument could be that the Middle East is between Europe, Asia, and Africa. Russia isn’t very easy to traverse and is underpopulated due to its colder climate.
Anonymous B double-posted this 3 hours ago, 5 minutes later, 30 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,457,965
On the topic of Russia though, people blame the failures of the Soviet economy on communism. I think there’s likely some truth to that, the authoritarian Soviet system was inefficient, but there isn’t really any period in history when Russia was wealthy. Under the tsar it was poor, under communism they had problems, and even now, I want to blame Putin’s corruption, I think that impacts it, but I do wonder if there’s some sort of geographic determinism going on there. China is a bit different because even though China was poorer than most African countries in the 1960s, prior to European influence, China and India were the most prosperous societies because they could support more people. Although it does change, for example, in the ancient world, Egypt would have been very wealthy compared to other regions, but now the Middle East and North Africa (apart from oil rich places like the UAE and Qatar) is less wealthy. So I think technology has some impact as well. Sometimes technology can change whether a climate is good or bad, and first mover advantage is sort of a myth. I mean, you can see it with societies, China invented guns, but Europe benefited from copying China more than China ever benefited from guns. Or with modern tech companies, Google wasn’t the first search engine. I guess it’s hard to say everything is overdetermined I think.
> In case you're wondering, you don't want skin too light in really sunny environments because the sun's rays can damage your DNA without melanin to protect your skin and you don't want super dark skin in areas without much sun because then your body doesn't produce enough vitamin D. So the brown people I mentioned would essentially have the best of both worlds for these issues because when it's sunny their skin gets darker and when it's not sunny their skin gets lighter
The vitamin D thing was a problem when dumb coaches have black athletes training in the mountains, in places like Denver. Then wonder why the athlete’s shin breaks while checking a kick.