theory of evolution is a widely accepted explantion for the diversity of life on Earth mainly due to natural selection, although there is some objections to this theory, i shall not go too much into details about that as they are slightly sensitive
however, i will still mention certain parts interesting about the debate
source of information came mainly from wikipedia with note that wikipedia may not be fully reliable, raise mainly views from America and seems to me, biased against anything against the theory
also, the book Sophie's World helps to understand the theory from a philosophical angle (its a philosophy book that deals with ideas that affect the world and mentioned much about how the theory shapes how people thinks)
Who are you? How did you came about? Why do you look this
these questions are in the minds of many people and theory of evolution came about to serves to answer a part of these questions
lets start with a little history of the theory
The theory of evolution by natural selection was first proposed by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and set out in detail in Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species
the full title is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, and it summarizes the theory pretty well
the book propose that life descends from a primitive lifeform by evolution and evolution is brought about due to natural selection
the idea of biological evolution came about as early as 1800s with the leading spokesman was a French zoologist Lamarck but it wasnt widely accepted due to the lack of acceptable explanation as to how evolution is brought forth
Darwin was influenced by idea of English biologist Sir Charles Lyell that present geology of the earth is the result of long and gradual evolution as small changes over large period of time can bring about huge geological upheaval
also, from this, it hints that the Earth is much much older than 6000 years old widely believed at that time
Darwin was recommaned by his friend John Steven Henslows to be a naturalist abroad the vessel HMS Beagle commissioned to survey the southern coasts of South America
the supposedly 2 years voyage was initially opposed by his parents but eventually persuaded to let Charles go and even finance it ( as you see, the financial side is conspiciously left blank in the invitation
basically he found out that many finches and lizards in the island chain are very similiar yet dissimilar enough to be seperate species
weird, he thought, surely theres an explanation for this?
he found a logical explanation for the phenonamen that the finches may descend from the same species of finches in long past and adapted to their environment and Voila!, evolution!
thats when he was convinced of biological evolution and yet thats a major obstacle still standing in his way, the one mentioned earlier
how does evolution worked?
Lamarck's explanation is the
imagine you are a farmer and which cows would you breed?
good milker or bad milker?
with cows domesticated a long long time ago, theres plenty of proof for that, artificial selection
next, remove humans out of the equation and replace with predators and nature
Voila! Natural Selection!
with hindsight, that seems pretty obvious but Charles isnt fully convinced yet until he read An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus who got that idea from Benjamin Franklin (in case you are wondering, Franklin is that
Franklin believes that if there is no limiting factors in nature, a single species of plants or animals would spread over the world but the numerous species of life keeps each other in balance
from this, Malthus proposed that since human procreate in a geometric progression whereas food production increase in arithmetic progression (that guy mentioned in the gp ap maths notes, woo, Maths!), humans will eventually had to fight for survival ove rthe dwindling food supply, struggle for survival
Darwin had yet to answer another question to though, that is how did the first cell came about?
“If (and O, what an if!) we could picture some hot little pool in which all manner of ammoniacal and phosphorous salts, light, heat, electricity and so forth were present, and that a protein compound were to be chemically formed in it, ready to undergo even more complicated changes...”
thats what he wrote
slightly off-topic interesting fact
dominant lifeform on Earth is aerobic and need Oxygen
most lifeform is vulnerable to cosmic radiation
life requires energy input to increase entrophy
and yet for life to begin, Oxygen has to be absent to prevent oxidation of pre-DNA molecule AND cosmic radiation to provide energy
yet life eventually creates oxygen gas
yet ultraviolet radiation forms ozone from oxygen gas that blocks radiation
life is self-organising and reduces entrophy
the world is thus changed from a reducing environment to oxidising environment
how intriguing that life itself changes the environment
to this, some propose the gaia hypothesis
it states that the Earth itself is evolving along with its lifeform
Evolution in a Macro-sense!
zoom in and you see your own body cells evolve to be immune to toxins by bacteria
zoom out a little and you see your descendants different from you
zoom out and see the human race is different from your generation
zoom out and you see all lifeforms different from the previous generation
then you see gaia changes
note that gaia arent actually alive in the sense of a hivemind, rather metaphorically and changes mainly due to homeostatic feedback
another concept to explore spiritually and philosophically is the idea of spirit of the world
we change and the world changes with us, we are 1 entity and as we bettered ourselves we better everything, the all-sparks of transformers, the origins, the various things, philosopher's stone, where copper eventually becomes life and gold
like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
and how eyeballs or brains evolved?
it seems simple concept of evolution cannot explain how such complex organs derived as whats the use of half a eyeball?
for your information, eyeball evolution now has an explanation and is pretty strong, with references to eyes of other animals, basically light sensitive organs slowly evolved to cup-shaped to focus light and transparent liquid slowly evolved to crystal or lens but yet more complex structures and responses like immuno-responses is yet to be explained
'As Faust dies and looks back on his life's work, he says in triumph:
Then to the moment could I say:
Linger you now, you are so fair!
Now records of my earthly day
No flights of aeons cam impair-
Foreknowledge comes, and fills me with such bliss,
I take my joy, my highest moment this.'
'But then it's the Devil's turn. As soon as Faust dies, he exclaims:
A foolish word, bygone.
How so then, gone?
Gone, to sheer Nothing, past with null made one!
What maters creative endless toil?
When, at a snatch, oblivion ends the coil?
"It is bygone"- How shall this riddle run?
As good as if things never had begun,
Yet circle back, existence to possess:
I'd rather have Eternal Emptiness.'
thats food for thought about the wonders of life
how odd life should evolve and you shall came about (and how i spent 2 hours blogging)
Objection to Evolution
there is plenty of objections
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution
but one i would like to focus on, the concept of altruism, human behaviour
its nice to know that animals also showed these characteristic, that dogs will adopt other baby animals like tiger cubs, cats
dophin would help other marine animals or even human divers in distress to surface to breath
altruism is thus not a human-only behaviour and thats an explanation for this seemingly irrational and noble act
game theory of prisoner's dilemma
the scenerio goes like this, 3 people are trapped in an enclosed room
1 is found dead later
there is evidence that the deceased is killed but nothing to point out which of the remaining 2 is the culprit
there is evidence that they did some other minor crimes
either 1 or both may be the killer
as you know, laws of certain countries protects the prosecuted and no questionable points must exist, thus effectively it means that if
both remain silent, that are charged with other crimes for 6 months jail
1 accuse the other of murder while other remain silent, accuser is set free while accused suffers 10 years jail
both accuse each other and both suffers 5 years jail
they may not contact each other in anyway
2 choices of each prisoner with 4 possible outcome
accuse---1)5years 2)scot-free
silent---1)10years 2)6months
thus naturally rational people would see accusing as a better way out
yet there exist 2 equilibrium, the rational choice doesnt give rise to the better equilibrium of 6months
so comes superrationality
a super-rational individuals will understand that remaining silent will have the better equilibrium for both of them and choose to risk it instead
super-rationality is not a rational decision but one that have the best benefit if one sees beyond their own good, in a way altruistic
out of this prison environment, one can communicate, that allows both to make choices better and thus fully logical for altruism to arise through communication and cooperate to obtain as much benefit mutually
its interesting to know how nylon-eating bacteria has been discovered with nylonase to breakdown a nearly synthesized compound or Radiotrophic fungus that use melanin to convert radiation from defunct nuclear reactor in Chernobyl into useful energy
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