When viewed through the lens of current technological and medical advances, it is easy to be optimistic about the future of human well-being. Dig deeper and it soon becomes clear that our success as a species is not guaranteed. A new study led by a team at Stockholm University in Sweden identifies 14 different “evolutionary traps” in which our global population could potentially decline, ultimately leading to our demise.

Part of the problem, according to the team behind the research, is that we do too much good for ourselves; Our dominance and success lead to dangerous consequences. We are currently going through a period called polycrisis, where multiple threats, from climate change to global pandemics, threaten to bring the Anthropocene era to an end sooner or later.

“Humans are incredibly creative as a species,” says Peter Sogaard Jørgensen, an anthropologist at Stockholm University. “We can innovate and adapt to many situations and collaborate on a surprisingly large scale. But these opportunities have unintended consequences.”

Five of the 14 possible evolutionary dead ends for humanity are labeled globally: simplification (systems become too specialized to adapt, such as monoculture agriculture), growth for growth’s sake (relentless pursuit of growth that undermines prosperity), excess (using more than the Earth can provide), division (international conflict) and transmission (e.g. infectious diseases).

Five more are identified as technological traps. These are dependence on infrastructure (as with fossil fuels), chemical pollution, existential technologies (such as nuclear weapons), technological autonomy (including artificial intelligence), and disinformation.

The remaining four researchers call structural traps. These; short-termism, overconsumption, disconnection from the biosphere and loss of local social capital where an increasingly digital world cuts off social interaction and potentially contributes to further fragmentation.

At most 12 of them are considered to be in advanced condition. Only the loss of technological autonomy and local social capital have not yet become serious problems. What’s even more troubling is that these deadlocks are mutually reinforcing, meaning we can get stuck in more than one deadlock.

“Evolutionary traps are a well-known concept in the animal world,” says Sohor Jorgensen.

“Just as many insects in today’s world gravitate towards light, an evolutionary reflex that could kill them, humanity also runs the risk of reacting to new phenomena in harmful ways.”

It’s a pretty bleak picture, but researchers aren’t giving up yet. According to the team, what is needed now is an active transformation; not just an acknowledgment that we need to stay with the flow, but also a focused effort in a different direction. As a species, we may be myopic and destructive, but we are also creative, innovative and collaborative, researchers say. It means there is hope that our fate has not been written yet.

“One very simple thing anyone can do is to become more involved with nature and society and learn about the global consequences, both positive and negative, of our own local actions,” says Jorgensen. “There is nothing better than exposing yourself to something that needs protection.” Source