What's the biological / evolutionary reason for laziness?

[Cort Haus]

It seems to be something we could do without. Of course there are degrees of laziness, and its possible to be busy in some areas while neglecting others. I suspect very few of us are perfectly industrious in all departments of life.

I imagine that a discussion of this subject would involve the phrase 'free will', but our free will does not stop us feeling hungry and thirsty, so why do we not always have a strong internal drive to get the things done that need doing?

[Proteus_MST]

Preservation of Energy.

Activity --> Consumption of Energy --> Need of eating/drinking more (or sooner)

Look für example the Sloth (Choloepus spec.), which even has Lazy in its german Name "Faultier" (lazy animal) because it is hanging on branches most of the day.
It is a good example for the evolutionary use of lazyness. As it doesn´t move much it has to eat/drink much less than more active animals of the same size/bodyweight (and it gives him even some degree of camouflage, as most predators can see (faster) moving objects better than stationary (or very slow moving) objects).

[Cort Haus]

Yes, I wondered whether preservation of energy might have something to do with it. Hopefully we can identify the 'sloth' gene in our DNA and do something about it.

Cats have this trait in abundance, too. It's a shame our bodies don't know what our minds know about the complex requirements of contemporary human existence.

[alva]

Every animal is lazy by nature and for good reason imo.

Nothing wrong with it anyway, why get rid of it. It's one of the best things we've got going for us.

I for one would be strongly opposed to getting rid of it, of course I'm to lazy to actually do something about it.

[Cort Haus]

I found one advantage to laziness - not being arsed to go shopping is a good way of saving money and seperating out the needs from the wants.

Apart from that it f*cks me up, though.

[Harovan]

I'm lazy as hell. "Do never today what can be done tomorrow" is one of my maxims. And it happens quite often, that it's rendered unnecessary overnight. Conservation of energy.

When I was a young officer and had duty overnight, one of the elder officers taught me the three nails rule: "Imagine, young yedi, there are three nails on the wall. If you get a problem during your shift, write it down and put it on the first nail. After several hours look again. If it is rendered obsolete, throw it away, if not, put it on the second nail and repeat. And only after you take it from the third nail and it still has not solved itself, you have to do something about it". I heeded his advice, and nearly never had to do a damn. My chief of staff was happy, too. He preferred to be reported "no problems" than to be bothered with a pile of bagatelles.

Good thing though, that nobody started a war, when I was on duty.

[Cort Haus]

When Douglas Adams was asked when he wrote he replied "Always tomorrow". His publishers actually had to hire someone full time whose job it was to try and coax him into writing something.

Good thing though, that nobody started a war, when I was on duty.

Mutually Assured Destruction.

[Solver]

How about there is no reason for laziness, only a reason for the absence of it? Laziness (or, rather, doing nothing) is the natural state of a human or any animal. However, there's an evolutionary/biological reason for not doing nothing and being lazy - the need for food, etc. The basic needs can only be satisfied if you're doing something...

[Lul Thyme]

Re: What's the biological / evolutionary reason for laziness?

Originally posted by Cort Haus
It seems to be something we could do without. Of course there are degrees of laziness, and its possible to be busy in some areas while neglecting others. I suspect very few of us are perfectly industrious in all departments of life.

I imagine that a discussion of this subject would involve the phrase 'free will', but our free will does not stop us feeling hungry and thirsty, so why do we not always have a strong internal drive to get the things done that need doing?

Going to answer without reading thread first, but I'm sure many have made the point.
Lazyness is trying to save energy.
When you use more energy then you can get from your environment (basically eating for most animals) then you die.
In the wild, this is actually a pretty tough requirement.
Lazyness are reflexes that force you to decide that something is actually worth the effort.
All animals are lazy btw.
For example, they will rest most of the time they have nothing to do, they will rarely run when not needed etc...

In fact, from a certain point of view, you could say that lazyness is just a form of efficiency.

[Cort Haus]

Re: Re: What's the biological / evolutionary reason for laziness?

Originally posted by Lul Thyme
In fact, from a certain point of view, you could say that lazyness is just a form of efficiency.

From a certain point of view - like from the perspective of one degree out of 360. In the real world for humans, where energy conservation is not really needed, lard-arsing it is as far away from efficiency as it's possible to get.

[Harovan]

Re: Re: Re: What's the biological / evolutionary reason for laziness?

Originally posted by Cort Haus
From a certain point of view - like from the perspective of one degree out of 360. In the real world for humans, where energy conservation is not really needed, lard-arsing it is as far away from efficiency as it's possible to get.

Many things in human behavior are beyond logic and reason, but pure instincts. Why do our hands sweat when we're in sudden danger? Because we've been monkeys not so long ago (and most of us still are ) and it's easier to swing from branch to branch with hands greased .

So it's meaningless if some behavior is illogical today, if it had a purpose a million years ago. Our genes change slowly.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Solver
How about there is no reason for laziness, only a reason for the absence of it? Laziness (or, rather, doing nothing) is the natural state of a human or any animal. However, there's an evolutionary/biological reason for not doing nothing and being lazy - the need for food, etc. The basic needs can only be satisfied if you're doing something...

I kind of agree with this. Not everything about human nature has an evolutionary point. Some animals are supposed to die. Natural selection, baby.

[Spiffor]

Re: Re: Re: What's the biological / evolutionary reason for laziness?

Originally posted by Cort Haus
From a certain point of view - like from the perspective of one degree out of 360. In the real world for humans, where energy conservation is not really needed, lard-arsing it is as far away from efficiency as it's possible to get.

This is unbelievably false.

It's because we are lazy that we invented all those tools and machines that make our lives much easier and more prosperous than in prehistory.

If we had always been willing to work our ass off, we'd be still carving caves with our nails right now.

[Cort Haus]

Re: Re: Re: Re: What's the biological / evolutionary reason for laziness?

Originally posted by Spiffor

This is unbelievably false.

It's because we are lazy that we invented all those tools and machines that make our lives much easier and more prosperous than in prehistory.

If we had always been willing to work our ass off, we'd be still carving caves with our nails right now.

Laziness is not the same as advancing the forces of production.

[Spiffor]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What's the biological / evolutionary reason for laziness?

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Laziness is not the same as advancing the forces of production.

It's one of the main reasons behind it, historically.

It's a fairly new development, in mankind, than the one who advances the forces of production isn't the one who does the work himself. And even then, today's tools are usually used to their full potential by lazy bums, rather than by their overachieving colleagues.