Evolution

I’m not one to believe too much in the Darwinist iteration of evolution.  I mean, why do monkeys still exist if we’re evolved from monkeys?  I mean, they’re just as stupid as most humans, so I can see that bridge.  For the larger part, it seems that evolutionary theory is just that – a theory, and, it just seems nice on paper.

How does that explain more modern “evolutions?” Of recent note, micro-organisms that rapidly populate from the ocean to consume massive oil spills.  Or fungi that can devour petrochemical plastics without the need for oxygen, making them perfect for plastics in landfills.  I don’t think these are evolutions any more than the fire evolved into a toaster oven.

Mother Nature, Gaia, earth, life – whatever you want to call it – is pissed, and is simply learning to fight on the same level as its enemies.  It is not evolving: it is adapting.

Viruses – such as smallpox – have acted as an adaptation to booming populations.  Bubonic plague then popped up a few centuries later.  Rampant AIDS epidemics in central Africa.  The planet has reached its tolerable limits, and is devising new microorganisms on a daily basis to level the playing field.

There are means by which humans have helped the process.  Take tools and gunpowder as an adaptation.  Both useful in carving our own homes into the Earth, as well as burying fellow sapiens inside it.  We adapt to destroy our enemies just as efficiently - why should we be surprised that nature is doing the same?

Guerilla tactics were an adaptation to a battling in a foreign land.  The approach was modified to allow our soldiers to fight a campaign on foreign soil optimally, with weaponry we were already comfortable using.  While in the forests of a brave new world, we used guns; nature is using the same simple-celled microorganisms that have been at its disposal since day one.

I think adaptability is a better wording for the way people change over time.  We are hardy folks, having a build that hasn't evolved as much as adapted to the lifestyles we put our bones through.  We have not evolved with the technology.  Hell, I think people may be devolving judging by the fact we need legislation to prevent people from texting on their cellphones while driving – and they still do it. 

No, we have adapted to all the quirks and changes in day-to-day life.  My grandparents – parents of proud baby-boomers, and much like most of your eldest family members – were the last of an era that did not have to adapt so quickly.  They did not have new computers coming out every six months (let alone the internet), 75-mile-per-hour cars, infra-red cookers, or a pill for every mood of the week.  This was a joking stab at the future when they were just kids, and now we’ve adapted ourselves to it. 

If you think you’re done adapting, too, you’re just lying to yourself.  True, the baby-boomers are the grandparents now, and they love the tech and the toys as much as the kids.  I don’t mean that way, though - this all affects our personal growth.  Something – until I lost my last employment – I realized I was quite content forgoing.  See, I develop emotionally at an equal pacing, from day to day.  If I am pricked with a pin one day, I have already begun healing the next.  I'm even a little more resilient to the pain.

This, when you think about it, makes sense of why nature is constantly throwing more things at us, forcing us to adapt.  We become better suited to live in its world, and it helps weed out those that don’t want to grow with it.  If that’s just the natural order, it would be a great disservice to being alive if I was exactly the same person that I was a decade ago.