What’s in the 1% DNA Difference From the Chimps?
Humanity can hope for a better future only if quality science-based education becomes available to all people
This is a follow-up of the previous story: Accuracy of Data Stored in Human Brains. As promised, in this article I will analyze and present functional diagrams of two most distinct types of society.
It has been well known recently that the Homo sapiens species share about 99% of their DNA with chimpanzees and (just a little less) with bonobos. The typical reaction to this fact mainly reduces to the conclusion that this small difference is actually a huge one considering the obvious superiority of the humans.
Thе small DNA difference is crucial rather than huge. The biological advantage of the humans (contained in the 1% DNA difference) is, by and large, their much more powerful brain. The ability to think logically, discover, test and verify the laws of nature, and build technologies based on scientific knowledge is the key advantage comparing to other animals.
The fact is, this (approximately) 1% difference has accumulated over time as the body of collective knowledge has steadily increased by human ancestors’ continuous discovering of the laws of nature. Over the last 5 million years, during which time the human ancestors have evolved separately from the chimpanzee ancestors, the cumulative advance of our species has become extremely greater than the small 1% difference in the DNA, as a result of the ever increasing cumulative knowledge of Homo sapiens.
Analogy to contemporary societies
Similarly, one can explain why certain contemporary civilizations are more advanced than others. The collective knowledge based on science is greater in the more advanced civilizations on the planet. The more one society is stuck in ignorance, religiosity, belief in pseudo-sciences, paranormal phenomena, superstition and other irrational concepts — the poorer and more suffering that society is. But, let’s see how that works.
In most under-developed societies (categorized as Society A type in the previous article), a self-sustainable societal flow of irrationality seems to have been established. Why such a flood of irrationality? Because the vast majority of the population has been poorly educated and continuously misinformed by biased media for a long time (for decades if not longer). Therefore, most of the people have distorted perceptions of reality for most of the time. The following causal loop diagram illustrates the general functioning of these societal systems:
Society A: Average education level = LOW; Biased media
On the contrary, in highly developed societies with strong welfare states (categorized as Society B type in the previous article), a self-sustainable societal flow of rationality has been going on. This is the ultimate result of a good educational system available to all people as well as objective informing of the citizens by unbiased media. The following causal loop diagram illustrates the general functioning of these societal systems:
Society B: Average education level = HIGH; Variance of the education level = LOW; Unbiased media.
The following general hypothesis integrates the hypothesis from the previous article with the supporting arguments in this article:
The ratio of the societal rationality traffic to the societal irrationality traffic is strongly correlated with the societal welfare.
This means that when science-based education is accessible to all citizens, more people continuously become more educated, so they get rid of the existing irrational beliefs and over time establish a wealthier, more democratic, more liberal, more egalitarian, and thus a happier society.
Otherwise, when most of the people are generally poorly educated and misinformed, they are prone to any kinds of irrational beliefs, which in turn decrease their chances for survival, i.e. they easily become preys of the human predators — the smart sociopaths/psychopaths. Moreover, the manipulable ignorant majority may grant political legitimacy to non-benevolent political leaders. In that unfortunate situation, the whole society becomes a prey of the egotistical rulers. The aim of the ruthless political and other leaders in such societies is not to improve the well-being of the population. Their aim is universal — more power and more money. Of course, by manipulating and exploiting the poorly educated, misinformed and also the economically poor majority.
It should be noted that many contemporary societies are not covered by these types. They reside on the continuous spectrum defined by these two extreme society types. Their functional diagram is more complex and will be analyzed in the further work.
To summarize, humanity can hope for a better future only if it relies on knowledge based on science and further advances in science. Also, quality education must be available to all people. Professional journalism and unbiased media are of paramount importance for objective informing of the citizens. Belief in dogmas (religions, pseudo-science, etc.) can only contribute in such a manner that the cumulative difference between us and chimpanzees is not increasing.
Feedback on the diagrams above and proposals on how to test this hypothesis are very welcome and appreciated. Thanks.
If you like this article and think it can contribute to making people more aware of the importance of science-based education, please recommend it. Thanks.
