The Iterative Nature of Human Evolution
Back in March, my parents paid a visit to my new home in Charlotte, NC. We were walking through South End in the shadow of repurposed red-brick factories and modern steel and glass monsters. It was in this setting my dad posed an interesting question:
Knowing what you know now, if you could go back to any era and invent something, what era would you pick and what would you invent?
Take a second to think about it.
Our group of five gave some interesting answers — plumbing in the mid-1700’s and the smart phone in the 1980’s being the most notable. These answers made sense at first, but you don’t have to think for very long to see the flaws in their logic. Furthermore, these flaws illustrate an important lesson about human evolution.
The Logical Faults in Our Answers
To start, let’s begin by analyzing each answer. Plumbing would not have been smart to invent in the 1700’s for a few reasons. First, assuming “plumbing” referred to modern residential plumbing systems, PVC would need to be invented first — that didn’t happen until 1872.
Even if the assumption was the use of copper pipe which had been used since the Egyptians, the available manufacturing processes and supply chain would bottleneck its mass adoption. Another reason this invention would fail is the lack of municipal water treatment plants: the design of which wasn’t conceived until 1804.
If I’m honest, it helps my dad and I are engineers; although, I still had to look up the dates in that last paragraph. Let’s now analyze the smart phone answer.
Even if you’re not an engineer, the issues with inventing the smart phone in the 1980’s are obvious — limited battery technology, no internet, no touch screens, not enough cell towers. This isn’t to say people didn’t have the idea for smartphones in the 1980’s, because they did. In fact, Steve Jobs was one of these people. He described the device in a 1984 interview with Newsweek’s Access Magazine:
“I’ve always thought it would be really wonderful to have a little box, a sort of slate that you could carry along with you.”
The Problem with Human Evolution
With the issues with these two answers identified, would you answer my dad’s question the same way? Probably not. In many ways, it’s a trick question. The correct answer wouldn’t be based on what you know today, but what you knew about that era.
Said another way, if you were to invent something in a particular era, the best way would be to address issues with that era’s systems and technology. Here lies an important lesson about human evolution — it is iterative, not exponential.
Humans don’t evolve in quantum leaps but rather incremental steps. These steps are often small improvements to existing systems or technology summarized by the phrase “the next best thing.” That is why Steve Jobs chose not to act on his “slate” idea in 1984 but rather in the early 2000’s when it was technologically feasible.
Redefining Human Evolution
The intent of this lesson is not to stop us from generating ideas, quite the opposite. It is, however, intended to manage our expectations about the feasibility of them and to reinforce the importance of orientating towards our genuine interests. This concept of orientating towards our genuine interests is a steadfast theme of Becoming Polymathic.
Preparing Ourselves
If we apply this concept and iterative evolution in tandem, the result is we prepare ourselves to act effectively on our best ideas when the timing is appropriate. By orientating our lives towards these interests, what we are doing is giving ourselves the runway for iterative evolution to occur. This way, when our ideas become feasible, we’re prepared to act on them effectively.
Choosing our Life’s Orientation
Choosing your life’s orientation based on what you think will happen in the future is foolish. Humans are awful at predicting the future. However, we are good at knowing what interests us and even better at knowing what doesn’t.
We need to lean into this strength then be diligent in building ourselves using those interests as a guide. Substitute “building” with “iterating” or “evolving”, and you effectively contextualize the significance of my dad’s question.
Be More.
Become Polymathic.
Quote of the Week: “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” — Benjamin Franklin
