Perspective on time

CONSTRAINED BY OUR PAST : PERSPECTIVES ON TIME



history and biology do not just work on a single time scale.an evolutionary biologist think in terms of tens of thousands he not millions of years,an archaeologist in thousands of years,a geneticist might think of a few generations,a doctor or biographer in terms of a lifetime.the mismatch paradigm tells up that we cannot shake off our biological parts of evolution and development.it continually reminds up that the range of environments we evolved and developed to inhabit can be very different from those we actually live now.


The shaping of our genetic repertoire occurred as our species evolved and dispersed around the globe.our ancestors faced the challenges of diverse physical environments and also their own impact on these environments:these in turn affected their sources of food,their exposure to diseases,and the social grouping and structure within which they lived.the more recent part of our individual journey started when our mother was an embryo and the egg destined to make each of up formed in one of her developing ovaries while she was still inside our maternal grandmother's womb.ye have seen how the environment of that egg as it was fertilized and grew to be our mother,who in turn incubated each of up and created an environment in which we grew,has influenced up.after we were born other factors influenced our biology in many ways.there environmental messages from our pasts have set constrains on our current biology.

Although we might wish to,we all eventually come to realize that we cannot do everything we want to in our lives.we are bound by a wide variety of constraints.virtually everyone faces a significant financial constraint which limits their ability to indulge in their fantasies.e.g buying an island or buying a private jet.and there are social constraints on how we behave.our sexual moses and determined by the society we live in.our families,friends,jobs,and social structure create emotional and other constraints.cmd we have obvious but poorly undertood biological constraints which prevent up living forever.just as we inherit both financial and social oppourtunities and constraints,so it is that our various pasts-evolutionary and genetic,developmental and epigenetic,environmental,cultural-form long ago and form more recent times-create oppourtunities and constraints on how we can live healthily.while we might conveniently think of constraints separately,they are really interwined like the strands of a rope.