I decided to engage with this thought experiment out of curiosity. I encourage anyone reading this to go ahead and actually read the essay.
I’m sharing my reflections for two reasons: I hope those with deeper expertise can challenge or expand my thinking. I wanted to approach the question from a humanities perspective, and to see how the lens of culture, behavior, and narrative might differ from the point of view of a science SME (something I am not).
The original conclusion asks: Did humans evolve and adapt? Did natural selection still apply?
The answer given is "yes" humans adapted, survived, and passed on their genes. Case closed.
But when I presented this to my imaginary alien, the response shifted. My alien would agree that humans are adaptable. But it would also point to other species, like tardigrades, which survive the vacuum of space, and the immortal jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii), which can revert to its juvenile state. These creatures don’t innovate. They endure. And eventually this will become a more influential conditional.
My alien would argue that culture only goes so far. That human intelligence, while impressive, may become a double-edged sword. We don’t mutate: when it gets cold, we manufacture coats from PET turned polyester, wasting water and releasing toxins and heat in the process. We solve problems by creating new ones. Eventually (my alien might predict), humans will distress the planet beyond repair. And when that happens, it won’t be the most intelligent species that survives. It’ll be the most physically pragmatic. The tardigrade. The smaller parasite outlasting the larger one.
We call it adaptation. My alien calls it survival of the fittest parasite.
PS: Kudos to roaches, rats and pigeons for their runner up placement. lol
It is a very interesting thought experiment is it not? At first the answer seems so obvious as you point out, but then when you really try to abstract away from our human perspective to an outsiders perspective your thinking (at least mine) changed a bit. I worry a lot about the seemingly popular opinion (popular among people who think about this stuff which is not very many) that evolution no longer applies to people. Or that it, if it does, it operates at such vast time scales that it really is not worth thinking about from a single human lifetime perspective because any effect would never be noticeable. I can have some sympathy for the later viewpoint but the first contention that humans have somehow escape the grasp of evolution through our clever use of science and technology is absolutely false and thinking that way can lead to some very dangerous hubris. Science, technology, everything and anything that living beings create are all part of evolution. It was evolution which pushed human being to consciousness and intelligence and those things pushed us to science and technology. Evolution was behind all of it. As I have said before, even though evolution has no ethics, if you believe life is valuable and good then evolution is the strongest force for good the universe has ever seen. https://open.substack.com/pub/everydayjunglist/p/evolution-has-no-ethics?r=1yf1hg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
And in regards to the "post evolution thought," we share the same opinion. Nature is like flightibg vs Mike Tyson: everybody has a plan until he punches you in the face 😅😂🤣😭🤣😂😅
I decided to engage with this thought experiment out of curiosity. I encourage anyone reading this to go ahead and actually read the essay.
I’m sharing my reflections for two reasons: I hope those with deeper expertise can challenge or expand my thinking. I wanted to approach the question from a humanities perspective, and to see how the lens of culture, behavior, and narrative might differ from the point of view of a science SME (something I am not).
The original conclusion asks: Did humans evolve and adapt? Did natural selection still apply?
The answer given is "yes" humans adapted, survived, and passed on their genes. Case closed.
But when I presented this to my imaginary alien, the response shifted. My alien would agree that humans are adaptable. But it would also point to other species, like tardigrades, which survive the vacuum of space, and the immortal jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii), which can revert to its juvenile state. These creatures don’t innovate. They endure. And eventually this will become a more influential conditional.
My alien would argue that culture only goes so far. That human intelligence, while impressive, may become a double-edged sword. We don’t mutate: when it gets cold, we manufacture coats from PET turned polyester, wasting water and releasing toxins and heat in the process. We solve problems by creating new ones. Eventually (my alien might predict), humans will distress the planet beyond repair. And when that happens, it won’t be the most intelligent species that survives. It’ll be the most physically pragmatic. The tardigrade. The smaller parasite outlasting the larger one.
We call it adaptation. My alien calls it survival of the fittest parasite.
PS: Kudos to roaches, rats and pigeons for their runner up placement. lol
Thoughts?
It is a very interesting thought experiment is it not? At first the answer seems so obvious as you point out, but then when you really try to abstract away from our human perspective to an outsiders perspective your thinking (at least mine) changed a bit. I worry a lot about the seemingly popular opinion (popular among people who think about this stuff which is not very many) that evolution no longer applies to people. Or that it, if it does, it operates at such vast time scales that it really is not worth thinking about from a single human lifetime perspective because any effect would never be noticeable. I can have some sympathy for the later viewpoint but the first contention that humans have somehow escape the grasp of evolution through our clever use of science and technology is absolutely false and thinking that way can lead to some very dangerous hubris. Science, technology, everything and anything that living beings create are all part of evolution. It was evolution which pushed human being to consciousness and intelligence and those things pushed us to science and technology. Evolution was behind all of it. As I have said before, even though evolution has no ethics, if you believe life is valuable and good then evolution is the strongest force for good the universe has ever seen. https://open.substack.com/pub/everydayjunglist/p/evolution-has-no-ethics?r=1yf1hg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
It is interesting.
And in regards to the "post evolution thought," we share the same opinion. Nature is like flightibg vs Mike Tyson: everybody has a plan until he punches you in the face 😅😂🤣😭🤣😂😅