Ive spent the vast majority of the last couple of months pondering evolution. It is ironic but very fitting that it just happens to be the 150th anniversary of Darwin's "Origins of Species". It is a shame there is no public holiday recognizing such a pioneering achievement in the history of Mankind, yet the findings of a man who's obsession with understanding "where we came from" began in his early 20's, have shaped our understanding of life to this day.
A recent article in the March issue of Discover showed some new findings regarding evolution that have now been possible with current technology. It is easy, when looking into the history books, to assume that mankind hasn't really changed much in the last few thousand years. We look the same, repeat the same historical mistakes, and have the same needs. In fact, until now, it has widely been believed that human evolution came to a stand still 50,000 years ago when the first carriers of our DNA emerged from Africa to parts of Europe and the orient. But recent comparisons of DNA samples has shown that we are in fact still evolving, at a much faster rate than ever before.
But of course, this should come to no surprise in the face of singularity. As everything in our culture from technology to the arts has been growing and evolving exponentially, so has the human population at an alarming rate. Consider the fact that our human population is now at 6.8 billion. (http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop) I remember only 6 years ago, learning in school that the worlds population was 4.6. And like many others, I didn't give it a second thought that this number is growing exponentially out of our control. (http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/02/70238)
Darwin's primary requirements for evolution were 1) a large herd for mutation to occur and 2) an environment that calls for adaptation. Our world is a constantly evolving environment. It evolves at such a rate that the previous generation can barely keep up with today's technology. Combined with the exponential growth of our herd, scientists have found that we are evolving faster than we ever have in history. Granted, our DNA varies only 1 to 2 percent from apes, and DNA variations between human beings is miniscule, there are still stark physiological and psychological differences between peoples around the world. Take for example, noone had blue eyes 10,000 years ago. Today, Europeans tend to have eye sockets that are shaped like aviator glasses, cheekbones that slant backwards and high nose bridges. Asians have cheekbones facing more forward, very round eye sockets and low nose bridges. Every generation is evolving ever so slightly from the previous.
So who cares? What does this mean to us?
Our species is not going to stop growing. We will one day either starve this planet, or find other inhabitable worlds in the galaxy. But for the first time, I am beginning to realise that my dream of a unified human species may be far from reality. Rather than realising our similarities and responsibility for one another as a species, we may one day become far more divided than we can even imagine, by the hand of evolution.
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Today's interesting link:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/07/28/the-black-hole-war/
----------UPDATE-------------
A UK Ad agency namely "Blast" developed a campaign for the British Humanist Association for the education and promotion of a new international holiday "Darwin Day".
Would you Adam & Eve It?
www.humanism.org.uk
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