Are Mother Nature’s Time-proven Evolutionary Tactics Becoming, Slowly But Surly, Dispensed Of And/or Obsolete?
Start w/ a few basic genetic patterns, use rudimentary (but indispensable) tactics like the incessant quest for food & procreation/sex, and thrown in a few hundred million years or so worth of genetic mutations & whathaveyou’s, and mother nature manages to transform a simple life form into a Self-conscious Substance of The Universe (e.g. human beings). So it doesn’t come as news to any of us that the NEED for FOOD & SEX is inherent (i.e. another way of stating the Law of Conservation of Energy).Nowadays, with artificial insemination & genetic engineering dispensing w/ intercourse as the only means of procreation, and prepared/processed foods on supermarket shelves (or practically anywhere you look), the evolutionary priorities seem to be shifting towards an increasingly virtual set of incentives (e.g. the Internet, virtual relationships & consumerism, risk management, amassment of untold quantities of wealth, etc.)
Is it EVOLUTION itself that’s being molded/evolved by us, now?
March 1st, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Yes, I think natural selection may soon be obsolete, or at least radically changed due to human activity. Many of the types of things that nature used to select against (genetically transmitted diseases and weaknesses of various sorts) are no longer being naturally weeded out of the human gene pool, while other selection criteria are being introduced by human culture. Another consideration is that we are currently in the middle of a world-wide population explosion. Natural selection is most effective at making drastic changes when a species is under the pressure of limited resources. Unless modernization just naturally and peacefully leads people to stop having large families, we can expect some sort of limiting factors to get a grip on human population growth rates over the next few decades. Massive die-offs would not be much fun, but it is how nature keeps populations within the limits of the available resources. The question will then become: Who will live and who will die? You can be fairly certain that poor people will be on the front lines, but notice that economic class is mostly a cultural thing, not a genetic thing, so it seems we may have reached a point where even a massive die-off will not push the gene pool in any particular direction.
Technology is a major wild-card. Genetic engineering could radically change the human genome over time. Artificial intelligence and the increased automation of dangerous or dreary work will force radical changes in economics and class structures. What will life be like when your average $1,000 desktop PC has the processing capacity of a human brain? What happens when machines start designing and building machines? We are quickly approaching a time when the whole of human knowledge will be doubling within an average person’s lifetime. How will this affect the evolution of our species? Perhaps at some point we will virtually take over our own evolutionary process, and start designing ourselves. I sure hope we improve our social/political systems by then!
We have already reached a point where one generation can have no idea what the next generation will bring.
March 1st, 2010 at 5:07 pm
If we’re not careful, yes. And there will be many unforeseen consequences. It may lead to our extinction.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Old no more.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:20 pm
It certainly appears that we are modifying it, but probably this new ‘virtual’ reality is a matter of the continuing evolution of our brain’s capacity for abstraction (rather than the other way around). Pearce’s “Biology of Transcendence” provides some interesting insight into this higher ‘heart/mind’ function. You might also be interested in the new Scientific American MIND magazine covering latest research.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:36 pm
If we are alone in the universe, solitary, and shaped only by the whims of mother nature and survival of the fittest, then we the fit appearing surviving are the hand in molding the future of human life. Indeed, the materialism of entertainment and stimulation mentalities absorbed in wowing ourselves with evolving technology and mass interconnection is like a living thing to which we are attempting to perpetually bind ourselves.
Considering, however, the vastness of the universe, the likelihood of a greater sentient hand in the progression of self-awareness is no mere whim of fantastic imagination. Our millions of years could be as minutes to beings whose intelligence is beyond human comprehension. All of our molding that appears to be the consequence of a plateau in evolution could be shocked at any time by the thrust of the unexpected, whose cause would shatter the grand designs of the interconnected momentum of our current state. What of the Universe meets the eye, even through the most advanced technology of the day, is but an elementary particle compared to the infinite regions of the Universe that cannot be fathomed by so infinitesimal as human beings, whether the greatest genius mind, or thousands of the most learned attempting to produce an astronomical, ideal society.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Yes! I believe the Self-conscious Substance is actually *preventing* its own evolution.
The technology isn’t perfected, but we will soon be able to detect and prevent genetic mutation. As for natural selection, we’ve been preventing that for generations by creating medicines, feeding the poor, and caring for the infirm. Every act of human compassion counters evolution. (After all, *you* should have been picked off by an angry bear years ago, my Four-Eyed friend.)
[Disclaimer: Obviously, I support these humane acts. I'm speaking philosophically. Move your mouse away from the little flag, people.]
Now, having rejected evolution, we are free to pursue our own agenda, including the virtual incentives you listed.
My real fascination, however, lies in the fact that Humanity is so desperate to believe that it does *not* control its own fate. Mankind is its own greatest friend, and its own worst enemy. But instead of taking the reigns, we cower in our seats and cry to the heavens…
March 1st, 2010 at 7:00 pm
I believe Mother nature’s rules are still the same; only the playing field is different. Before, the playing field is good-old Nature, but now it is human society.
We can treat society as a colossal playing field of different ideologies and systems pitted against each other in an anthropocentric survival of the fittest. And if we look back in history, we see many of these died out only to be replaced by mutated ideologies and the hybrid offspring of two or more incompatible systems. These systems and ideas are all subject under powerful forces that shape their evolution–the law of supply and demand, the wisdom of the crowds, legal institutions, wars and natural calamities. Those that cannot adapt to change are sure to face ideological extinction. So everything still evolves, just as Mother Nature had planned, but only this time the incentives are different. However, the price at stake is still fundamentally the same–survival. After all, Mother nature cannot be easily outdone; she had managed to copy herself into our systems.
March 1st, 2010 at 7:04 pm
What you are missing is that technology seems to have become a negative adaptation reducing the opportunities for survival as a species in the fairly near future.
The same modalities still hold.
March 1st, 2010 at 7:39 pm
No The thought we control Mother Earth is assine! Our drive to survive changes us over time but the basics are the same, survival. Paradigm shifts such as Innovation, Excellence, and Anticipation are made up in our little minds. The bottom line is in 30 days of terror we could unevolve 500 years. Sorry