It’s really fascinating how much resistance science faces in the human culture and in the human “consciousness” (so called), but it’s more fascinating how the theory of evolution in particular is facing too much resistance. We people don’t like the idea of being NOT in control of everything, so we don’t like to talk about the tyranny of nature we are living within… and how it’s absurd, blind and unfair. It’s kind of depressing to realize how we are manipulated by the laws of nature and it’s very humiliating to the egoistic narcissistic human animals to admit that they are just mortal animals after all like any other kind of animals… just apes like any other apes.
It’s also interesting to watch a conversation between one of the scientists or the well-educated people and one of the stupid religious fundamentalists, the first trys to explain the theory of evolution, remember the information it has got about the issue, talking too much about the fossils and their relevance, the human vestigiality and the similarities in the genetic codes of apes compared to the human ape… while the other narcissistic animal is playing deaf and dump (like it’s not really stupid), denying everything just because the information doesn’t suit its swollen ego! It’s absurd actually to try explaining something objective or rational to an egoistic animal all driven by its psychological needs to belief or disbelief… it won’t even listen to you, you are just boring it and trying to deny its reasons for arrogance.
But in another hand the explanation of the theory of evolution can go too detailed and complicated for the small minds to handle (we all have relatively small minds), the main concept escapes from them so they get lost in the theoretical mumbo jumbo… then you find them asking; how can I see evolution? Why can’t I watch a monkey transforming into human in my life time? Why there are still monkeys haven’t evolved yet? Why evolution has just stopped now?! Why are you taking it too seriously, Evolution is just a theory you know?!!
Compared to “let there be light”, “let there be sun “, “let there be animals” and creating a man by playing in the mud… you are giving the stupid guy a real hard time. So if you are explaining the theory of evolution to a child or to old people with childish mentality, you shall go simple and with the least details possible.
First of all, there are two forces shaping life as we know it, and probably as we don’t know it too… which are “Natural Selection” and “Sexual Selection”. Natural selection determines who dies and sexual selection determines who lives, they are opposite forces actually… so evolution happens as long as people die and people get born, and who can deny the existence of sex and birth or the existence of body failure and dying?! Yes, the religious animals do deny death, they say we have a secret ingredient called “soul” and this secret ingredient can cheat natural selection (the angel of death)! Ok explaining things don’t guarantee that people will understand, but we can actually do our part of the conversation to make it easier for those who really want to understand… the other guys don’t really matter (they won’t accept facts anyhow).
So as long as there is birth and death, there will be sexual selection and natural selection… so evolution. Evolution actually is about the gradual changes (mutations) that happen to all species (including the human apes of course) through generations, like the changes we may notice between our generation (in shape, size, behavior and else) and the generation earlier and the generation after, like the changes we may notice between us and our parents and their parents… us and our children and their children. Changes (genetic mutations) produced by the random production of sex (sexual selection) and driven by the necessities of reality or the requirements of the environment (natural selection) through generations is evolution. Gradual insignificant hard-to-notice changes between two generations multiplied by 1000 generation or 1000000 generations can do the magic of evolution… a very slow magic and with a lot of work but still.
Evolution is really a very simple system, it’s about inputs and outputs or garbage in and garbage out; and the strict laws of nature that control which garbage get out and which garbage go in… and how the quality of the garbage going through the system are changing after a certain number of operations. Actually any feedback system acts like that; in all our bodies also we have a very similar process we call “Metabolism”. Metabolism is the set of life-sustaining chemical transformations within the cells of living organisms. Metabolism is also divided into two categories; “Catabolism”, the breaking down of organic matter by way of cellular respiration… and “Anabolism”, the building up of components of cells such as proteins and nucleic acids.
Building up and breaking down to make place for another building up and breaking down and so on and on, until the breaking down begins to overcome the building up (the mighty entropy in every system) … so the body fails and decays. Anabolism & Catabolism, Building Up & Breaking Down, Sexual Selection & Natural Selection, Birth & Death, Garbage In & Garbage Out… it’s really how things work in such systems until they reach equilibrium when entropy beats the system. Either one body or one species or one life, and it’s very hard to deny that without being insane.
Although there are a lot of advances in the medical sciences have happened and is happening to delay death as possible for humans, now the human life span is reaching numbers it has never reached before. People now can hit the 80 years and the 90 years easily, and a lot are exceeding 100 years… apparently the garbage out is slowing down. But the garbage in is not slowing down in the same acceleration, also the advances in medical sciences have made giving birth easier and dead babies less.
The birth rate (births/population rate) is the total number of live births per 1,000 of a population in a year, the birth rate (along with mortality and migration rate) are used to calculate population growth… the crude birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 people per year. The death rate is the total number of deaths in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time (number of deaths per 1,000 individuals per year). In demographics, the rate of natural increase (RNI) is the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate of a population.
Better nutrition, greater access to medical care, improved sanitation and more widespread immunization have produced a rapid decline in death rates, but until recently there was no corresponding decline in birth rates. For every 1000 people, we are exceeding by (19.4-8.3) 11.1 other people every year. Global human population growth amounts to around 75 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7 billion in 2012. It is expected to keep growing, where estimates have put the total population at 8.4 billion by mid-2030, and 9.6 billion by mid-2050.
The transhumanist scientists and technicians are working on three main fields of advancement; Super Intelligence, Super Longevity and Super Well-Being. Super intelligence is awesome of course, also super well-being… but super longevity actually means that humans are not going to die by natural causes! These medical advances really are revolutionizing our lifestyle and our understanding of life, but let’s think about: what are the consequences of killing death or cheating death (natural selection)? If all people (not only the rich ones) are not going to die so we have to stop giving birth in a way or another, the human engine has to stop somehow or it would burst with humans. If we are going to live with the lifespans of “Bristlecone pine” (trees) we have to give birth in the same rates of these trees too, excelling in natural selection comes on the expense of sexual selection and the vice versa… so are we going to do that?!
Now let’s say we have slowed down giving birth just to match the slowing down in being dead, so the humans are around 10 billion people about 2060… we can notice how the genetic engine is slowing down. Few garbage are in and few garbage are out, until at some point humans will stop dying due to medical advances and will stop making babies just to match the death rates!
Can you imagine a world where we are living for centuries but with no new born humans, except for colonizing the ocean or the moon or Mars or Europa or another planets or so?! Maybe we shall accept living for only 200 years or 300 years then die in a good health eventually, all people in the same age (no inequality) … to make place for new born and better designed humans. Or maybe we shall stop seeking for longer lifespans and ignore finding any kind of meaning for these lives. More life, more life… what are you going to do with all this life anyway?! But maybe also beating the absurd evolutionary game of birth and death for the sake of better designed transhumanist game is a good thing after all, the only issue that it has to be smarter and more efficient than evolution and to has a meaning… not more stupid or absurd.
Scientific Socialism 