Survival Of The Fittest — Plants vs Humans
In this post I will try to explain my own take on evolution and how I arrived at the conclusion that ‘plant kingdom’ is on the winning side of evolution.
The concept of evolution was brought to light in mid-19th century. Charles Darwin, also known as the father of evolution, wrote, in great detail, on evolution and natural selection in his book “On The Origin Of Species”. Because of Darwin’s contributions, evolution is now accepted as a fact rather than just a theory.
Natural selection, the key mechanism for evolution, is something that has always peeked my curiousness. However, many people are unable to fathom the way natural selection works. It is not easy to imagine the vastness of the selection’s effect, the time period over it occurs also makes it difficult to imagine its extent. Therefore, before I delve into the second part of the post let me give you a fair idea of the time scale on which evolution works.
Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and the first cell was formed approximately 2 billion years ago. Natural selection has apparently been
working for 2 billion years, and it was not until after 1.7 billion years that the dinosaur came into being. So, it took approximately 1.7 billion years to reach the Mesozoic era. The dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic era which spans from about 252 million years ago to about 66 million years ago. The dinosaurs themselves lived for about 190 million years. Many people disregard evolution just because they are unable to see drastically different attributes among humans. They claim that if there were a tail, then at least at the moment some people should possess it. Humans, whose life span is approximately less than 100 years, can hardly complain about the lack of their observable data on natural selection. The distinguishable features in the life form can only be observed when taking into consideration hundreds of thousands of years if not more.
Forced selection, another form of selection that happens in much less of a time span when compared to natural selection, occurs when a particular species is forced to evolve/perish because of its external and environmental factors. Humans have long been the cause of forced selection for a number of species. The extinction of life forms that are not preferred/useful to humans and the excess of species that are more line with the human needs are few of the outcomes of forced selection. Even the species that haven’t been adversely affected by human’s forced selection often suffer from other trait alternations. Friendly dogs are preferred compared to wild ones, hence inhibiting the gene trait of the wild ones. Edible fishes, birds and crops flourish in the nature while their counterparts suffer from extinction. The extent of the forced selection is so drastic that estimated 10,000 species of life form are becoming extinct each year. Only in recent centuries have we began to notice and raise awareness against the effects of such forced selection.
Forced selection is merely a small event when compared to the vastness and the extent of natural selection. Natural selection occurs at a larger scale, with much larger time frame compared to forced selection, and is therefore much more difficult to observe within the short life span of human life.
It is undeniable that dinosaurs were a powerful creatures, one of the evolution’s greatest outputs. We now refer to them as a failed prototype of the test “Survival Of The Fittest”. The Mesozoic era is also merely an iteration in the whole game. The stronger the prototype the better the chances of its survival. In this test or game of survival, many different genes and DNAs compete with each other and the environment to pass on their genes to the next generations. Reproduction and evolution seem to be the sole purpose of life. Through the numerous years, we have been passing an improving the genetic traits for the seemingly never ending test.
Of all the traits passed on one trait that hugely differentiates the animal to the plant kingdom is the human brain(neurons). The ability to think or consciousness is an ambiguous genetic trait that has long been passed on to the animal kingdom. Also it is important to point out that there are several other lifeforms that lie between the two in the level of consciousness the animals and plants possess. Therefore, it can be said that each of species is competing in the game of survival with consciousness being one of the factors that distinguishes each of them.
Humans pride themselves on their intelligence and they believe themselves to be the best among all of the species. They impose their beliefs to their surroundings, often dislodging other species to their own benefits. But let’s step back for a second and analyze the whole scenario. We know that dinosaurs were also the dominant specifies 100 million years ago, they also possessed some level of consciousness that has been passed upon. But the plant kingdom around that time also existed and has been passing on their genes that are devoid of conscious control to the next generations. If this really is a game of survival the plants are also doing a really good job to continue their proliferation without much consciousness. One would rather extrapolate and say they are doing a much better job in this game of survival since they do not indulge in many self destructive habits that us conscious people involve in. Humans have long considered themselves to be superior because of the conscious control and intelligence they possess, but does the game of evolution requires such level of consciousness ? It could be possible that it is much better not have that amount of conscious control, dinosaurs might vouch for that since their particular traits and genes have almost been discarded by evolution.
It is understandable that one might say that what is the fun in having no conscious control, it is rather boring to just sit at one place and perform the same photosynthesis process every morning. Fun-passion-emotions-love is something that every human strives for, maybe our gene structure has been hard coded this way. But what if it is much better not have such emotions, what if it is much better to have a disciplined and non-destructive lifestyle, what if the way plants live is much more aligned towards what evolution has planned. The myth of passion is something that been discussed upon by many great philosophers. There are many studies that indicate that passion is not important to achieve greatness rather discipline is something that the top performers embrace.
“Only after truly embracing discipline can one achieve greatness”.
The above quote corresponds to a very important trait. A trait that has been mastered by the plant kingdom. The disciplined way of life is a hard coded genetic trait that each of the members of the plant kingdom possess. Their way of life is something that greatly distinguishes them to the animal kingdom. And maybe, there is a teeny tiny possibility that the plants, via their disciplined and boring lifestyle, will be able to pass on their genes and survive eternally.
It is quite interesting and counter intuitive when one starts to ponder upon this topic. However, it is important for humans to respect their surroundings and learn from it instead of exploiting the other forms of life. I would like to end by saying that I pretty much have taken a big leap from natural selection to plants actually winning the game of the survival, but this is something that I have been wondering upon for long. I welcome all kinds of arguments on the above topic, and in case you have some interesting insights, do write it up and share. Happy reading :)
