Evolution, Part II

Once again, I wrote a lot but didn't say all I meant to say so here is some more on evolution.

Overall, you can think of evolution as life attempting to solve the survival equation. That is, how does a species make certain it will survive? The solution space is vast and it is quite possible to end up in suboptimal solutions. As well, there are many solutions possible and it is impossible for the organisms, either individually or as an entire species, to 'see' the solution space. All they can do is change and try it out, see if it is better or worse.

It is about energy efficiency and conservation. If you can be very lazy and survive then this is better than being very active whilst surviving.

The only way to survive those big cataclismic events is either to be EXTREMELY adaptable, EXTREMELY robust or to be able to control your environment. Bacteria are extremely robust, with many species able to survive as spores for long periods, perhaps thousands or millions of years while conditions are too harsh for active life. Many other animals are not so adaptable so they die quickly when changes occur too fast for them to change. Humans, able to control our environment and even leave our biosphere in limited capacity, represent perhaps the highest level of survivability, though we are also intelligent enough to create weapons of mass destruction. Those weapons could wipe us out (as could a large scale comet or minor planet impact) unless we colonize other planets but the lowly bacteria would survive both a nuclear war and have already survived multiple impacts. It has been postulated that bacteria are ejected into space during impacts, and could actually survive and travel through space, something we think of as the realm of humans alone.

So the answer to why there are still simple organisms around is: they represent another solution in the game of life. Which one is the optimal solution? Who knows? It is impossible to tell yet. We haven't out-competed them and probably never will.

Trapped, Part II

I wrote a lot about being trapped while missing some main points. Quickly, I also meant you get trapped in a career! You can't switch easily as your resume will be filled with jobs that have nothing to do with the one you want to enter. With bills to pay, you can't afford to take time off to get a new degree or certificate unless you want to break open your retirement 'savings'. Without those things holding you down, you could do it but those things trap you in your career unless you are very lucky, either wealthy enough to enter and leave the workforce and education at will or lucky enough to get a sideways-transfer at your current employer.

Evolution

Evolution is in the news a lot these days. Many people don't believe in it, which is OK if they at least understood what they claimed had never occured. For such a fundamental theory in biology, it is greatly misunderstood.

Being just a theory is fine too. That just means it is a model which can be refined, improved or even superceded if enough evidence comes to light. Just because it isn't a fact or a law doesn't mean it isn't the best explanation we have for why we see such a variety of creatures in the world today, and fossil evidence of others.

Evolution simply means things can change not just because of the will of humans (livestock breeding) or perhaps the will of a god (what intelligent design proponents insist) but on their own as a response to outside influences.

Many say that because all simple life forms haven't evolved, evolution can't have occured but this is just plain wrong. There are more bacteria, algae and insects than all vertebrates. In sheer numbers and biomass there are orders of magnitude more of them than those of us with backbones. If being a vertebrate is so great, why haven't they all evolved? And why when a species breaks off from another don't all the original ones die out? Isn't the new species better?

Evolution comes about because of competition. It turns out that being a bacteria or algae or an insect is a pretty successful life. That's why there are so many still here today. So why are there other life forms? Why bother? Because some bacteria, algae or other simple life forms became a little different than their neighbors and the only way for that difference in genetic code or whatever it has to store its 'plan' is for it to outcompete at least some of its neighbors. If the difference is only worse then it will need to adapt to an environment NOT inhabited by something else.

Cells alone had to do everything while cells together could divide up the work. This is great sometimes, but not as great at other times. Cells not gathering food still need to eat. If food is not abundant then they are a drain on a multicelled organism when they would merely be competition in a single celled world. After a while, the size of a multicelled animal became large enough that communication was a problem and nerves were necessary; those that developed them were quicker to react and did so in unison but for creatures in abundant food supplies it was probably enough to bumble around every which way and nerves would just take energy and food. Eventually this nervous system became specialized into a single large nerve bundle, the notochord because it was more efficient than an amorphous network. Once you have such an important bundle, it helps if you can protect it with cartelidge or bone; otherwise it is easily injured though in places where there is little danger it would be wasted energy to construct such armor so soft ones still exist. With internal support, the inflexible exoskeleton and difficult and dangerous molting (when the exoskeleton is soft for a period and the organism is vulnerable) is no longer required and many new advances are possible but the old exoskeleton has its uses too.

For the first fish to walk on land, life was good! There was no competition. But then fish on the shores became abundant and the ability to stray farther from water became more and more appealing. Amphibious creatures do a better job of this and arose from fish. With even drier environments, reptiles which don't need to live in water at all came about. When land animals became commonplace some reptiles returned to the sea; mammals repeated this later. Evolution is all about keeping your genetic code around for future generations. This means competing for space, food, water, resources in other words. Often this means only a small population will live but as long as a population does live, perhaps in some remote corner unclaimed by other species, its genetic code, its offspring will continue. That is the sole purpose of life: to continue itself.

New species likely come about at first from a single individual with new traits. Fully sexual species will need this new individual to be able to breed with its own species still to pass on the trait but not all species are fully sexual. Some can reproduce asexually when necessary. Some only 'resort' to sex under dire circumstances. The evolution of sex is not well understood but some liken it to an arms race with parasites. The parasites would figure out a way to attack and the only defense was to change your characteristics, or those of your offspring slightly so that they wouldn't be as susceptable to the parasites. With exact copies but for random damage there would be no defense but a sexual reproduction would shuffle the deck.

So why wouldn't this new, more successful species completely take over? I'm sure it did sometimes, but not all the time especially when the new characteristics were only an improvement in some environments. If the new design is just a bit better then it won't take over soon, if ever. Remember that evolution affects species, not individuals. Since individuals don't evolve, those not involved in the new attributes will continue to live and reproduce, hoping to keep doing so forever. Only time will tell if they will survive.

Evolution can easily get trapped in local solutions to the problem of survival. It can take something radical to push it on to a more optimal solution. At many times through the long history there have been major upheavals due to the introduction of an oxygen atmosphere, cosmic radiation bombardments, volcanism, impacts of large rocks from space, ice ages, other climate shifts. At these times, the greatest advances are made when many species die out and competitions begin anew.

Large creatures put all their eggs in one basket but small creatures are limited. There is more than one solution to the game of life. Evolution happened, and continues to happen. Don't expect bacteria to go away any time soon, unfortunately.

I'm not sure this came out in much of an order but I wanted to get it down. I'll come back and revisit it later.

Trapped!

Trapped by what? Things! In some ways I swear I was at my happiest when I was a student in university and my possessions consisted of a computer, a tiny B&W TV, a used bass guitar, a used 12-speed bicycle and some old furniture. Lived in a rented apartment that I could leave pretty much any time, no fire or theft insurance because I lived above a bar and a dance club and no underwriter would stop giggling long enough to even send me a quote. If the place burned down I'd only be sad about my cat anyways. Didn't have much money but didn't need much. Worked co-op terms every other semester and was in school the rest. I said, and believed at the time, that I could do that for the rest of my life, becoming the living embodiment of the perpetual student. Universities probably wouldn't let me do it, after all you can only drag your masters on for so long (I know, I was there) and PHd's only last so long. They only give you so many postdocs before you have to 'join the club' and become a professor, the sort of part II of the perpetual student life.

But that wasn't for me. After wishing for that I got sick of school during a long M.Sc. programme and started wanting things. I wanted a car and a house. First I got the car, a brand spanking new Geo Metro! Purple, 3-cylinders. Years later at Yuk-Yuks a comedian (I forget your name, apologies) told a joke about a gay superhero in a purple Turbo Sprint, the Chevy version of my car only with a Turbo so it wasn't quite as laughable. It was good on gas and it was mine, dammit. A car is freedom as they say, but then you have something to care about. Where to park the damn thing. It's not like someone is going to steal a Geo Metro but I still cared.

Then the renting thing started to get old. The place above the dance bar got to us after a while and then we lived above a Dr.'s office which sounds cool and it was a nice place but eventually you get sick of being told how to park, where you friends can park, when the heat and AC can be used (because they were included) and so on. Off to buy a house then so no one can tell me what to do!

But houses are even more worrying with things to fix all the time. And your car parked outside. And now all of your furniture inside.

Then you have kids! And you love them and they're great but you worry about them more than anything. They get into trouble but you can't tell them what to do and do it for them all the time. They have to learn on their own. And often they wreck your stuff, like I wrecked my parents stuff.

So now I worry about my kids, my house, my car, my stuff, my job, my health. I swear all this worrying is going to be the end of me but it is hard to let go, very hard. I just said bad habits can be broken right now, didn't I? Hmm, guess I'll start right... uh... not as easy as it looks. Because I'm trapped. And not all the worries can just be sent away.

You can't stop worrying about the job because then how do you pay for the house, the car, the kids and the stuff? You can't just get rid of the cars as you have to get to work, the kids have to get to school, etc. You can't get rid of the house, well I suppose you could move back to an apartment but I really don't see it.

There are kids books written about it, moving to the city from the country into a little apartment and no matter how they try to sugar coat it, I think even a 4-year old sees right through it. To me at least, there is nothing like a house with a yard, gardens to explore, plants to watch grow, animals to see and hear. But you do worry about it all.

In some ways a man with nothing must be happiest of all. Not in other ways I'm sure, and I hope I don't find out but in some ways it is nice not to worry about these things. Let it go... They're just things... just things... things...

It's never too late...

...to drop a bad habit. It may be too late to avoid the consequences of said bad habit but it's never too late to actually change it. I didn't say it was easy! It isn't! But today, right this minute is in fact a good time to start. Not tomorrow or next week but today! It is funny how procrastination really plays into the habit thing. Can't I have just a little bit more of the bad habit? Just a smidge? Just say no...