The Evolution of Evolution

 The Evolution of Evolution

 

In most peoples’ minds, evolution means something very specific.  We are familiar with Charles Darwin, natural selection and the idea of ‘survival of the fittest’.  But do we really understand what evolution is or how it works?  One obstacle to understanding evolution is the idea that it only applies to biological organisms.  Certainly, the bulk of evolutionary research has centred on biological life and humanity.  To truly appreciate and embrace evolution, however, it is crucial to adopt a broader perspective that shows how evolution is not only part of the universe, but inherent to it.

 

To demonstrate the true breadth and scope of evolution, I have divided it into four separate lines, each applying to a particular sphere of existence.  These lines will be explained chronologically, as each new line emerges from the previous one, including and transcending it.  Although I have listed only four lines of evolution, it is possible (even likely) that more will emerge over time.  Until then, let us examine the four that we know.

 

The first, and most fundamental line of evolution is reactive-passive.  Reactive-passive evolution describes development in the physical/chemical sphere (physiosphere).  It is so called due to the passive way that objects with strictly physical/chemical properties react to their environment.  Such objects survive or are destroyed based on selective factors including pressure, temperature, gravity, momentum, and so on.  Objects that are ‘fit’ enough to sustain whatever factors they face in their particular corners of the universe remain, while the others are altered, assimilated or destroyed.  This was the first line of evolution that emerged at the beginning of the universe, and it remained the only one until the appearance of life.

 

With life came a new line of evolution – reactive-active.  While existence in the physiosphere is something akin to being a nerd at bully convention – helplessly being bumped around with no available recourse – life in the biosphere brings with it a new hope.  Living organisms possess sensors of varying types to help them detect relevant environmental stimuli and (actively) deal with them as appropriate.  Naturally, as life this simple cannot ‘know’ what is appropriate, early organisms reacted in different ways.  Those that reacted in ways that hindered survival existed briefly and disappeared, leaving those that reacted in ways that were neutral-to-positive to live long enough to try out another new skill that biological existence affords them – reproduction.  As one can imagine, anything that develops the habit of making more of itself is going to have more opportunities to survive the environment than something that doesn’t, so this development was a rather successful one, evolutionarily.  Existence in the biosphere isn’t all wine and roses, however. 

 

In order to make reproduction possible, organisms need energy.  Although a common source of energy for simpler organisms is sunlight (which is fairly abundant), when an organism is constantly making copies of itself (and the sun keeps making its daily journey across the sky), orientation can become an issue, especially in tight places.  It is from this that phototropism (an organism’s tendency to lean towards the sun) and locomotion (movement) appeared.  Since (contrary to proponents of “Intelligent Design”[1]) a flagellum is reasonably easy to come by, movement was a logical evolutionary step.  Of course, movement (as well as all other activities) requires additional energy as well.  So it would seem that each time we improve our ability to access energy, we increase our need for it, thereby making the ability to acquire energy an evolutionarily beneficial trait.  (And we wonder why people are always wanting more and more of everything – old habits are hard to break!).  Without getting into a comprehensive history of life on Earth, suffice it to say that organisms became increasingly complex, developing new traits and finding new sources of energy (enter the predator-prey relationship).  Eventually, selective pressures contributed to the development of a centralized processing centre for the senses (the brain) and consciousness was born.  With consciousness came a new line of evolution – proactive evolution.

 

As the name suggests, proactive evolution improves on its reactive predecessors by taking the important step of anticipating challenges before they arise. The major flaws in the previous forms of evolution is that sometimes an event that precipitates the need for adaptation is so severe and catastrophic that it wipes out one or many different species before adaptation can occur - the mass extinctions of Earth’s past are certainly a testament to this.  Additionally, previous modes of evolution were uninterested parties, plodding along through time, bringing with it anything that could keep up.  Proactive-other evolution is the first important step in avoiding, or at least, surviving these powerful events.  Thanks to the emergence of the mind (the psychological sphere) and its growing capacity to retain information for future use, organisms can learn to detect the patterns that exist in their environment (the other of proactive-other) and use that knowledge to their advantage.  An example of this kind of adaptation is the treatment of weather and the seasons.  Dealing with weather patterns can take the form of using knowledge of the seasons to establish migration patterns (to avoid hostile weather), or, for more the more sedentary lifestyle, it can result in the implementation of manufactured constructs for protection.  In more advanced forms of proactive-other (currently achieved exclusively by humans), the scope of an organism’s observation skills expands to include areas of the micro- and macroscopic levels.  Humanity uses knowledge of the microscopic to learn about the nature of diseases and how they can be treated, prevented or cured.  On the other end of the spectrum, we use our knowledge of the macroscopic realm to successfully send satellites and probes to the planets of our solar system in search of life beyond our own.  It is at the proactive-other stage where the notion of ‘man dominating nature’ arose.  Unfortunately, in our quest to better control our environment we forgot that we were still a part of it.  It is because of this incorrect dissociation with the environment that we find ourselves in a situation where we may on the road to making our world inhabitable to humanity[2].  Despite this error in judgment, I am confident that with continued exploration into the world around us and how it works, humanity can persevere.

 

To improve our chances of success, we will need to do more to address our environment than erecting buffer zones between it and us.  We need to pursue the next step in evolution, one that we have thus far been hesitant to embrace – proactive-self.

 

Proactive-self evolution consists of changing one’s self to become better adapted to the environment, either individually, as a species, or both (depending on the nature of the changes).  Whether the changes are in the physical/chemical, biological or psychological spheres, development is achieved through analyzing the traits that the organism developed over time, determining how effective they are in their roles and making improvements where possible.

 

As with proactive-other, proactive-self is a guided form of evolution.  Reactive evolution has no actual goal; it is dictated by the ever-changing parameters created by the universe, and things either remain or they don’t.  Nothing actually tries to survive or remain, it simply does or it doesn’t.  Proactive evolution transcends this process, because while organisms existing within the sphere of proactive evolution are still affected by the changing conditions over time, they are actively, consciously trying to remain in existence.

 

What remains to be seen is what people will decide upon as the criteria for ‘existing’.  Already, parts of our bodies, including limbs and organs (even the heart) are being replaced or supplemented by artificial means.  Additionally, when we make such changes, we still consider ourselves to be ‘ourselves’.  We don’t lose our sense of identity, just because our lungs aren’t the ones we were born with.  It seems, more and more, that the only thing that makes us who we are is our brain.  Despite our success at maintaining our sense of selves, I would hazard a guess that the idea of nigh invulnerable, physically efficient, disease-free robots traipsing around with human brains in them is still a little disconcerting.  As silly as such a scenario seems, what makes us who we are is an issue that we are going to need to consider, so the sooner we address it, then better off we will be and the better suited we will be to embark on whatever future evolution may yet arise.

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[1] A theory where there is, despite its title, surprisingly little that could be considered “intelligent”

[2] Such mistakes conspicuously betray the absence of an intelligent designer - especially one who would promote the idea of Man over Nature!