On Evolution

So far, evolution has done a good job. Beautiful plants, funny animals (see below), mildly smart humans.

When we talk about wanting to save humanity, we talk about wanting to save an evolutionary outcome that is far from perfect. Or adequate for that matter. 

Our brains are subject of an endless amount of cognitive biases, like selection biases, confirmation biases, or the framing effect (full list of biases). Many of us are easy to become addicted. Psychopath exist. 

Our bodies get autoimmune diseases, heart failure, other disabilities. Die. Our bodies can‘t handle processed sugar very well. Pollution makes us sick. 

As humans, evolution made us ok. Not too bad.  

But also very far from perfect. 

We don‘t seem capable of adapting to our current environment. That means that we are unable to fulfill our core task as a species. Adapt or die. 

Either we ourselves make an evolutionary step forward or we make room for a possible other species that is more capable than us.

Some talk about an evolutionary leap in consciousness through ‚awakening‘ – to overcome our brain‘s misfunctions. 

Some talk about an evolutionary leap in health through technological advances – to overcome our body‘s misfunctions. 

Mostly we talk about changing the environment so we don‘t have to. Environmental protection. Saving the planet. Reducing CO2. 

Eventually  it‘s not an either or. We are not separate from the environment. It effects us as much as we effect it. 

As shown before, evolution can be creative. When life started to emerge, monera‘s (single celled organisms) almost killed everything because they produced too much of a poison‘s gas: oxygen. It killed most life. Just a few monera survived and invented enzymes which made the oxygen they produced harmless to themselves. They found all kinds of creative ways to make it work. Eventually, some learned how to use the waste oxygen they created for energy. 

Eventually, humans might be able to use Carbon Emissions. As for now, we have no way of predicting where evolution will take us. But we pretend to know and want to control where it is going. Can we? Or are we just subject to an overconfidence bias?