Blog | Are Humans Domesticated? 🫵

Modern Life

Modern life has protected us from hunger, hardship and nature. But what is all that comfort doing to the human animal?

The question that became Beyond Domestication began in an unlikely place: a one-bedroom flat in Camden Town, London.

The inside air was filtered. Double-glazed windows kept the weather at bay. At the touch of a screen, I could order food and almost anything else I wanted. Countless technologies worked quietly around me, removing effort, discomfort and uncertainty from my day.

Compared with the conditions in which humans lived for the vast majority of our evolution, my environment was unrecognisable.

If our hunter-gatherer ancestors were wolves – alert, adaptable and exposed to the consequences of the natural world – then we are the pug.

The comparison may sound ridiculous. But a pug is not responsible for being a pug. It has adapted, over generations, to an environment created and controlled by humans. It depends upon that environment.

So what happens when the animal controlling the environment is also the animal being changed by it?

Homo domesticus

Domestication is usually something humans do to another species. We control their environment, influence which characteristics are rewarded and gradually produce an animal or plant better suited to serve us.

Dogs descend from ancient grey wolf populations. Over many generations, selection changed their behaviour, appearance and relationship with humans. Later breeding pushed some dogs towards increasingly specialised forms, including the pug.

The problem with domestication, when compared to evolution, is that it comes at us fast.

In the Russian domesticated fox experiment, researchers selectively bred foxes according to their responses to humans. Across mere years and only a few generations, the selected population became markedly tamer, accompanied by physiological and behavioural changes.

One study found overlaps between genes in modern humans and genes associated with domestication in several other mammals. Reviews of the evidence describe human self-domestication as a plausible hypothesis.

That debate concerns evolutionary change across generations. But it raises another, more immediate question.

What happens within our own lives when the environment we live in stops giving us the feedback that once shaped our wild human ancestors?

Life Without Feedback

Nature is not simply a pleasant view. It is a feedback system.

Go outside in pouring rain and you quickly discover whether your clothing works, whether you can maintain your body temperature and whether your mood collapses when conditions refuse to cooperate.

Spend time beneath a hot sun and the feedback changes. Same stressors, different temperature. The human animals requires that we modulate to these extreme environments, regulating effort, finding shade, carrying water and adjust our lifestyle.

Nature does not care about your confidence, your job title or the image you have of yourself. It responds only to what you do. Its feedback is direct, physical and an important part of what it is to be a Homo sapien.

Modern environments interrupt much of this. If we are cold, we adjust the heating. If we are hot, we switch on a fan. If it rains, we cancel the walk, take the car or remain inside. Food appears without us seeing the soil, weather, death or labour behind it.

None of these conveniences is inherently harmful. Many represent extraordinary human achievements. The problem begins when a controlled environment becomes our only environment.

Without regular feedback, dependence becomes invisible. Discomfort starts to feel unnecessary. Physical challenges lessen and nature becomes somewhere we visit rather than something we live within.

Slowly, the wild human – that evolved sustainably for 300,000 years – becomes unable to function beyond the protection of our society.

The Quiet Loss of Resilience

Resilience is often discussed as a personality trait. But resilience can be developed through experience in nature.

This does not mean that everyone must disappear into the wilderness or manufacture unnecessary suffering. Extreme exposure to nature without knowledge can injure or kill. Nor should we romanticise the past. Our ancestors experienced disease, hunger, violence and cruelty on a scale we still do not truly understand.

The point is not that hardship is good. It is that a life without meaningful challenge will leave part of the human animal untested.

Think about your exposure to nature. When did you last spend time outside in the biting cold? The oppressive heat? When did you last stay in the rain long past you wished it had stopped?

Use nature as a tool to build your resilience, letting you create a stronger, empowered version of yourself.

Our controlled environments protect people from cold, infection, injury and hunger. Technology allows us to survive conditions that would once have killed us.

We have gained safety, comfort and remarkable power.

We can operate complex devices without any practical knowledge of the land around us. We can communicate instantly across continents while being unaware of the species living outside our windows. We can control the temperature of a room to half a degree while never unwilling feeling too cold or wet.

Where is This Journey Taking Us?

The real choice is not between civilisation and the wilderness. The future of humanity will not and should not abandon modern medicine, heating, cities or technology.

The more difficult question is how can we retain the benefits of modern life without surrendering the feedback that develops from spending time in nature.

Can we use comfort without becoming dependent upon constant comfort? Can we enter nature as participants rather than spectators? Can we support our human animal to be tested without waiting for a crisis to test it for us?

That is the journey at the heart of Beyond Domestication. It begins with a question that is easy to laugh at, harder to dismiss and increasingly uncomfortable to ask.

Are humans domesticated?