One of my favorite proofs of Challenge Dividend theory is evolution of species. The survival of the fittest drives genetic diversity and improved adaptation to the environment. After eons of activity, simple, single-celled organism evolve into a being that can question its own existence. Challenge leads to improvement.
Scientists have recently discovered that the pace of evolution is quickening among human beings. By unraveling the history of genetic mutations, they found that our gene pool has made more changes in the past 5,000 years than the 25,000 years before. And the changes are leading to improvement; the rate of beneficial gene appearance - such as the ability of Europeans to digest milk or Africans to resist malaria - have increased by 100 times over the last 5,000 years as compared to any previous time in our history.
The reason for this surge in evolution is the rise of agriculture, and in turn a global population that has grown from a few million to 6.5 billion in the past 10,000 years. One could argue that success, not challenge, has led to improvement. But the reality is that our population explosion has simply multiplied the challenges we are exposed to. For example, disease is now more widespread; and pressure among societies has pushed populations into every possible niche of habitat.
Interestingly, I find the pattern similar to an event farther back in evolutionary time - the Cambrian Explosion. The Cambrian Explosion refers to a time in the fossil record when a massive, diverse group of much more complex life spread throughout the planet starting about 580 million years ago. While there is substantial debate about the cause and scale of the Cambrian Explosion, most theories suggest that some rapid improvement in the prospects for complex life triggered it. It may have been the end of a major ice age, an increase in the oxygen content of the atmosphere, or the evolution of homeotic genes that allow appendages to form. Whatever the cause, here again a population explosion triggered life, challenge and diversity.
These recent findings on the evolution of humans now suggests that we will become more, not less diverse in the millennia ahead. I believe that not only will natural evolution increase our diversity, but science will allow us to take our genes in our own hands as well. This choice may lead even further diversity and an explosion of improvement as we use the evolution of science and the challenge of death to strengthen our mortal coils.
It might be that the act of taking control of our genes will decrease our diversity.
I love the article.
Peter
Posted by: Peter | December 21, 2007 at 06:03 PM