This Is Our Story

This is Our Story

Humanity United in Action,
Driven By Love and Compassion,
Informed by Science and Reason.

You are here: Home / Cycle-of-Life Season / 2 Sowing / Evolution

Evolution

Evolution, first biological then social

Evolution is a word for a process that applies to every dynamic system. It applies to biology, social systems (such as economics, politics and culture), and to our personal lives. To understand why and how things change, we must understand evolution.

Evolution is the process that governs change in all dynamic systems, from biology to politics, economics and popular culture. Put another way, it is the driving force behind every dynamic system – every system that is not static. In nature and in life, one thing leads to another. That is the essence of evolution. Without evolution, life could never have become more complex than a single cell. Not only humans but also cats, dogs, gnats and sponges would never have existed.

Darwin’s grand insight on evolution of species may be the single greatest discovery in intellectual history. It is the glue and organizing principle that holds modern biology together. One cannot understand biology or any other dynamic system without understanding evolution.

As with Copernicus’ and Galileo’s conclusions about the solar system, evolution of species is not what many people wanted to hear. However, evolution of species is among the most strongly supported theories in science. Darwin’s observations made this clear. Then the fossil record was compiled, the theory being tested at every turn. As data accumulated, confirmation grew stronger. Biologists and other scientists in related fields started applying the theory successfully, further confirming the theory’s validity, based on its stunning track record in generating correct predictions. In recent decades, genetic science was developed, giving evolutionary theory’s detractors an opportunity to disprove the theory conclusively; instead, the theory correctly predicted what the genetic record would show.

Evolution of species is a simpler process than most people realize. Monkeys do not turn into humans – that is not how it works. Instead, a genetic change is introduced into a population. The successful new genes are replicated, and spread within the population. Over time, many genetic changes may occur. A sexually reproducing species is defined by the ability of female and male species members to reproduce with each other. This ability depends on sufficiently similar genetic patterns in the mating pair. With enough genetic differences between the two, they can no longer reproduce. By definition, that is when a new species has emerged.

By understanding how evolution works, we can strip away the magical thinking that long dominated the subject matter. Why do nearly all mammals have nipples, including males? Evolutionary theory answers that question by applying reason to known facts. Understanding the step-by-step process is necessary to a comprehensive understanding of species.

Many people do not realize that evolution is not limited to biology. All dynamic systems evolve. Dick Fosbury was a high-jumper who went over the bar face-up instead of face-down, as had always been done. When other high jumpers saw that his strategy succeeded, nearly every high jumper adopted the successful strategy. Advertisers may be reluctant to use a controversial strategy – until someone does it successfully. In politics, successful candidates are defined as the ones who win elections. When a strategy succeeds, others will use it. If it succeeds generally, it will come to dominate the political population. Unsuccessful strategies will become extinct. These phenomena are manifestations of social evolution.

Biological and social evolution are not exactly the same. Humans can exert conscious control over social evolution, in ways that we cannot do in biological evolution – at least not historically. Human institutions such as cultures “radically (alter) the relationship between natural selection and cognition.”

Just as the mechanics of biological evolution bring understanding to that field, so do the dynamics of social evolution bring understanding to that field. For example, many people argue for term limits for elected officials. However, if the behavior of elected officials is being driven by campaign funding, and by who is likely to help them in post-political careers, then term limits are not likely to make any substantial difference in their behavior; sure enough, where term limits have been tried, they do not appear to have achieved their intended purpose of making governments less corrupt. That is because the system’s key dynamics have remained the same. To induce elected officials to behave less corruptly, we would have to enact enforceable laws that strike at the dynamics of why politicians behave corruptly now. All the slogans and promises will not make the slightest difference until that occurs. This is another illustration of why magical thinking must be replaced by scientific thinking – in this case, thinking that adequately accounts for the relevant behaviors, and the evolutionary processes surrounding them.

Here too, this is not what the people who dominate politics in the United States want to hear. The system works very well for them. Far better it is for them to keep the carrot dangling in front of the public, so that “the people” can have something to chase. We have many of our political troubles because far too few people understand the evolutionary process. Our departure from conventional thinking on this point is this: systems of human interaction, including social and political systems, and systems of laws, will never achieve desired ends for the people at large, until the people thoroughly understand the evolutionary principle and its central importance in and to every dynamic system.

The principle is simple. Behaviors that succeed are replicated, and become prevalent within the population. Behaviors that do not succeed die out. To design sound and effective systems of laws, this principle must be clearly understood, and kept firmly in mind; however, that alone is not enough. The centrality of evolution in driving dynamic systems must also be clearly understood, so that policy makers and the public are not distracted by bright shiny objects that bear no relation to the relevant behaviors; and people must be constantly on guard for pandering, because that has proved to be a successful political strategy far too often. Most likely, it will remain so until the people at large gain a clear of understanding of what evolution is, and how it works.

Real

True Narratives

Histories of biological evolutionary theory:

Histories of social evolution:

Technical and Analytical Readings

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

Interactive works, cladograms, and scholarly articles:

JOURNALS on BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

SOCIAL EVOLUTION

Game theory arises out of an understanding of evolutionary principles. Below are listed a few of the works in this field, with a representative example from each of several fields in which game theory is applied.

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Evolution, generally:

Abiogenesis:

Evolution of eukaryotes (multiple-celled organisms):

Evolution of fungi:

Evolution of plants:

Evolution of insects:

Evolution of invertebrates:

Evolution of vertebrates:

Evolution of animals:

Evolution of fish

Evolution of arthropods:

Evolution of tetrapods:

Evolution of reptiles:

Evolution of birds:

Evolution of mammals:

Evolution of primates:

 

 

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

From a purely literary point of view, few studies would prove more curious and fruitful than the study of slang. It is a whole language within a language, a sort of sickly excrescence, an unhealthy graft which has produced a vegetation, a parasite which has its roots in the old Gallic trunk, and whose sinister foliage crawls all over one side of the language. This is what may be called the first, the vulgar aspect of slang. But, for those who study the tongue as it should be studied, that is to say, as geologists study the earth, slang appears like a veritable alluvial deposit. According as one digs a longer or shorter distance into it, one finds in slang, below the old popular French, Provençal, Spanish, Italian, Levantine, that language of the Mediterranean ports, English and German, the Romance language in its three varieties, French, Italian, and Romance Romance, Latin, and finally Basque and Celtic. A profound and unique formation. A subterranean edifice erected in common by all the miserable. Each accursed race has deposited its layer, each suffering has dropped its stone there, each heart has contributed its pebble. A throng of evil, base, or irritated souls, who have traversed life and have vanished into eternity, linger there almost entirely visible still beneath the form of some monstrous word.  Do you want Spanish? The old Gothic slang abounded in it. Here is _boffete_, a box on the ear, which is derived from _bofeton; vantane_, window (later on _vanterne_), which comes from _vantana; gat_, cat, which comes from _gato; acite_, oil, which comes from _aceyte_. Do you want Italian? Here is _spade_, sword, which comes from _spada; carvel_, boat, which comes from _caravella_. Do you want English? Here is _bichot_, which comes from _bishop; raille_, spy, which comes from _rascal, rascalion; pilche_, a case, which comes from _pilcher_, a sheath. Do you want German? Here is the _caleur_, the waiter, _kellner_; the _hers_, the master, _herzog_ (duke). Do you want Latin? Here is _frangir_, to break, _frangere; affurer_, to steal, _fur; cadene_, chain, _catena_. There is one word which crops up in every language of the continent, with a sort of mysterious power and authority. It is the word _magnus_; the Scotchman makes of it his _mac_, which designates the chief of the clan; Mac-Farlane, Mac-Callumore, the great Farlane, the great Callumore41; slang turns it into _meck_ and later _le meg_, that is to say, God. Would you like Basque? Here is _gahisto_, the devil, which comes from _gaïztoa_, evil; _sorgabon_, good night, which comes from _gabon_, good evening. Do you want Celtic? Here is _blavin_, a handkerchief, which comes from _blavet_, gushing water; _ménesse_, a woman (in a bad sense), which comes from _meinec_, full of stones; _barant_, brook, from _baranton_, fountain; _goffeur_, locksmith, from _goff_, blacksmith; _guedouze_, death, which comes from _guenn-du_, black-white. Finally, would you like history? Slang calls crowns _les maltèses_, a souvenir of the coin in circulation on the galleys of Malta. [Victor Hugo, Les Miserables (1862), Volume IV – Saint-Denis; Book Seventh – Slang, Chapter II, “Roots”.]

Poetry

Be glad your nose is on your face, / not pasted on some other place, / for if it were where it is not, / you might dislike your nose a lot.

Imagine if your precious nose / were sandwiched in between your toes, / that clearly would not be a treat, / for you’d be forced to smell your feet.

Your nose would be a source of dread / were it attached atop your head, / it soon would drive you to despair, / forever tickled by your hair.

Within your ear, your nose would be / an absolute catastrophe, / for when you were obliged to sneeze, / your brain would rattle from the breeze.

Your nose, instead, through thick and thin, / remains between your eyes and chin, / not pasted on some other place— / be glad your nose is on your face!

[Jack Prelutsky, “Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face” (1984)]

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Music is a product of evolution in practically every way. Birdsongs, mating calls, warning calls and other forms of music in non-humans serve evolutionary functions. Human music is a product of our genetic development, which allows us to create more sophisticated music, in greater variety, than in any other species.

Music also undergoes social evolution. The Billboard top-100 list is a product of willing and able creators (the equivalent of a genetic pool) and eager recipients (the environment in which the music thrives, reproduces and multiplies). Every kind of music, in every part of the world, at every point in history, reflects the social evolution that led to its creation and its resilience as an art form. When people lose their taste for a kind of music, it quickly disappears from the environment – becomes extinct. Like all dynamic systems, music evolves.

The processes of musical evolution are remarkably similar to those of biological evolution; the core difference is that the musical idea replaces the gene, and as a result musical evolution can be directed. A musical form develops, then a new idea is introduced. As that idea is developed, the musical form changes in character. Eventually, a new form may begin to take shape. We will explore just a few examples of evolution in music.

The blues, with its distinctive form, began in the American South and could be seen as comfort music for troubled souls in troubled circumstances. As African-Americans migrated into the cities, so did the blues, taking root, most notably, in Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Detroit, Memphis, Mississippi/Delta, and New York; each of these branches took on its own character, each spawning its own offspring, in Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Detroit, Memphis, Mississippi/Delta, and New York.

Some blues singers, such as Olive Brown, “Empress of the Blues”, transcended any one blues tradition, probably because her roots were in several of them. An excellent compilation tracing the developmental history of the Blues is available. Excellent written histories of blues music are also available.

Jazz could be said to begin in New Orleans with Dixieland music but it also has much of its root system in the blues. Its developments have included hot, swing, cool, be-bop, funk, straight-ahead, free, avant-garde, modal and fusion. 

Though the string quartet has an evolutionary history before Haydn, he developed the form as we now recognize it. Follow its evolutionary progression from a prototype through representative works from various composers. If you listen, you can hear it.

The symphony has an equally rich evolutionary history and development, owing to the large number of voices available to the composer: for example, a string quartet cannot employ a mallet and a wooden box to strike a tragic blow, else it would no longer be a string quartet. This richness allows the composer, as Mahler put it, to “embrace everything” much as the human mind draws on its rich evolutionary history to think symbolically, imagine everything and begin to understand nature. Two composers stand out for their advancement of the symphonic form: Beethoven vastly expanded and enriched it, and Mahler deepened it and extended its reach.

Albums:

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Film and Stage