ves·tig·i·al
/veˈstij(ē)əl/
Adjective
1. Forming a very small remnant of something that was once much larger or more noticeable: "he felt a vestigial flicker of anger".
2. (of an organ or part of the body) Degenerate, rudimentary, or atrophied, having become functionless in the course of evolution.
Evolution of species is pretty much all about the development of features and body parts that enable that species to grow and become more sophisticated. An example of this would be the opposable thumb which humans and some primates have developed and has been paramount in the development of the species as it has allowed us to hold tools and therefore to build.
Similarly, there are others that are no longer required during the evolution of the species. Evolution has also decided that a species shouldn't expend energy on parts of the body that are no long needed in which case, the body part of feature becomes less significant.
Scientists believe that at all mammals had tails and that as these species evolved their need for a tail was eliminated. Through countless generations, the tail shrank until now; it’s believed that all mammals have a remnant of it – just a nub at the base of the spine that is referred to as the Vestigial Tail.
Recently, I was out with a friend and we were talking about technology and how it impacts our lives. One of the things that I mentioned to her is that one of my concerns with technology sometimes is that it becomes difficult for us to do things on our own and in some cases, we never adapt skills that might be useful as technology does it force us and we’re never forced to learn.
I’ve never learned how to drive a manual transmission because I've never needed to. Here in Canada, I’ve never had a problem getting a car with an automatic transmission. I was stymied when I went to Cuba last year and I just didn’t bother renting a car as they were all manual transmissions. The other example that I was discussing was my concern with these self-parking vehicles. It’s great that they will automatically parallel park but for the novice driver, it makes them completely dependent on a self-parking car because they do not have the skills to do so on their own. Since technology provides this function, there’s no need to learn the fundamental skill. This in turn can inhibit the growth and development of basic skills.
There are many other aspects of our lives where the technology has clearly made our lives easier but by the same token, our lack of ability to perform a task manually will impede us. I made reference to this anecdote in an article a couple of years ago but it completely gets my point across. I was in a store a couple of years ago making a minor purchase, the cost was something like $4.72 so I handed her a $5 bill. The cashier, who was an adult, was perplexed as to what to do as the till was down. She looks at my $5 and the price tag and then the moment of brilliance crosses her mind and she whips out a solar powered calculator to figure out the change. I was stunned that an adult was incapable of such a basic math exercise.
As technology advances it does wonderful things for us. It calculates much more accurately and quickly than I ever could; I still remain concerned which of our skills may become akin to the vestigial tail as a direct result of technology.
I suppose that there would be those that argue and say that these skills are old school and not worth worrying about. Perhaps they’re right. I don’t know how to use an abacus and in all of my years, I can’t remember one time when I said to myself “gosh, I REALLY wish I knew how to flip these beads on this abacus!”.
That having been said, old school is old school, I suppose. I best be more concerned about being the dog that’s able to learn new tricks than to be overly concerned with any technological vestigial tales.
