In our last blog, i raised a question of how seemingly impossible is the idea of a super complex human being evolving from a single cell of a replicator bacteria over a period of 4.6 billion years.
In this post, i shall explain the key idea of evolution which is called
Natural selection that resulted in creation of the impossible.
Let us take the watch example that we discussed earlier. We said that it is simply impossible for broken pieces of a watch to assemble itself by pure chance no matter how many times we shake the box. This is absolutely true.
Had the process of evolution been dependent purely on chance or accident, no creatures would have ever evolved. Evolution has little to do with chance and more to do with process of natural selection.
To understand it, firstly one should get an idea of how the Natural world operates. Its an animal world out there. There is no rules in the forest. The Might is right and the powerful can do all he pleases. Every creature has to protect itself from predators of various types and also from the destructive forces of nature like rain, wind etc. Each creature has to find its food and survive. The goal of each animal is survival and the finishing line for its ultimate success is reproduction of its species. Any creature that survives the onslaught of natural world and reproduces is a successful creature. In other words the fittest of the lot. Others who are unable to adapt themselves to the natural world with all its cruelties and struggle lose the race and become extinct. The process by which the creatures adapt themselves by altering their physical and genetic form is through natural selection. Ie selection of best qualities of survival and reproduction for protection in the natural world. The struggles in the natural world is the invisible hand that has shaped evolution process and has created most powerful creatures of today. This process is what we call natural selection. This is very different from accident or chance, this is a purposive development.
Let us take an example to understand the difference between natural selection and chance based selection.
Suppose your friend hides a gift in one of the trees in the forest and you are required to find it. But he wont tell you where it is. Now there are many many trees in the forest so if you started out by chance alone, its very unlikely that you will find it. But if your friend agrees to say hot hot hot when you near the tree and cold cold cold when you go farther the game becomes easier. Or your friend could also say, if you move towards the right direction of the tree, i will give you a chocolate and if you move towards wrong one a whack with a stick on your back. Now the game is simple as your friend is actually guiding you, your selection of path to the tree is guided not randomly but by purposive action. This is the crux of natural selection process. The complexities present in every creature is guided by pressing needs and rewards of the natural world. The struggle inside the natural world acts as a guide to help and tell the evolving creature what features it should add and what it should not in the process of evolution, this way many complexities can be added. if it does it right the gift is survival and reproduction, the hallmark of success, if it goes wrong, then the failure called extinction into oblivion.
Let us try to understand this by a direct example say during evolution some fishes arrive on the shores of sea, if they have to survive on the shore they have to develop air respiration system, if the fish has to develop into a new animal, then it needs legs to move around to increase probability of finding food. So the creature already knows what it needs to have at each stage of evolution, the creature slowly adapts itself by developing the organs needed at each stage.
The genetic and physical structure of the animal is slowly and imperceptibly modified towards a purposive and predetermined goal and needs of the natural world. This happens over a million years of time, if it succeeds it is rewarded by survival.
To come back to the broken watch example, firstly it is ill suited and not at all related to how evolution actually takes place. The watch examples explains impossibility of randomness which is unrelated to evolution. But my feeling is that had there been an invisible hand inside the box which guided the parts of the watch to its right destination and helped them to move towards the right area. Over a long period of time, it is possible that the full watch can emerge completely.
Some of us may still have doubts as to how transmutation of species is possible and if so why cant we find intermittent creatures in that case? Like a mix of fish and a fox or human and monkey.
The reason is because the intermittent creatures which are in the transitional stage do not survive the onslaught of natural world and become extinct. We know transmutation is a fact because the building blocks of one creature (dna) is found in other and highest resemblance are found in the closest animal cousins.
We human beings are animals of the highest order, the best and possibly the brightest products of evolution process that lasted over 4.6 billion years on planet earth. Each complex organ that we have like eyes, nose, ears have been shaped slowly and imperceptibly by the same process.
Natural selection over such a long period has finally discovered that brain is the most powerful organ that is required for conquering the challenges of Natural world.
Therefore we exist and now we even disown the very natural world that created us by saying we are a different species unrelated to animals.
surprisingly with our intelligence we have now modified and slowed the very process of natural selection that created us. For eg survival is a goal of the natural world, so a creature that finds a food and is hungry, would jump at it and devour it but we have social manners to wait for guest to serve no matter how hungry we are. Mating and Intercourse as a means of reproduction of species has been hard wired in our genes for nearly 4.6 billion years but we now use contraceptives and also follow moral, social and ethical behaviour of the society and prevent/ curtail these natural urges. The forest life had taught us that survival of fittest is the rule and creatures don't care for the weak and its genes should perish as punishment. But we care for the sick, the downtrodden and the poor people and in effect completely destroyed the path of natural selection and made it artificial selection. The genes that survive today in humans not necessarily the strongest or the fittest ones.
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