Yesterday was the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Since then, our understanding of how evolution works has changed and expanded, and scientific discovery has advanced at an almost exponential rate because of it. The field of evolutionary biology has helped us learn about genetics and the science of aging, and has even provided the framework for nanotechnology.
Of course, evolution fails far more often than it succeeds, and that failure teaches us, too. Too much change, too quickly, and a species can’t pass on the necessary traits quickly enough to continue. The little mutants who struggle gamely on can’t reproduce swiftly enough to make generations of little mutants who thrive under the new conditions. For any species to reach its evolutionary potential and not snuff it at the first big challenge makes the process all the more incredible. That infinitesimal biological differences, compounded over time, have taken us from the cell to the brain that can study the cell is enough to blow the mind of this particular collection of cells.
Adapt or die. Change or become extinct. This concept is practically ubiquitous in humanity, isn’t it? It’s not just in our biology, but in our technology, our culture, our beliefs. Those who cling to the outdated perish, either literally or figuratively through a death of relevance. Those with the tiny differences, the small but significant ways of adapting, that genetic willingness to take a risk and strive towards the new, survive and pass those traits on in a stunning continuation of the evolution of the human mind and that thing we call the human spirit.
What is our evolutionary potential as human beings? How far will we go? Is that change that could spell our end out there, waiting to wipe away all but the traces we left on the world? What tiny mutations — currently undetected, inconvenient, or seemingly irrelevant — might spell the success of our species?
Happy Birthday, On the Origin of Species — you didn’t get it all right, but you opened a doorway in our minds through which we could travel towards understanding.
