Organisms change. They may be living or a business but they do change. The word "evolution" has a rocky history and is certainly not approved by all people. But I don't know of a better word which encapsulates the process of continuous change to fit the environment. So, evolution it is.
Since the period of time that Charles Darwin took his journey in the Beagle and Gregor Mendel worked with his peas (and others unrecognized before, and after, them), people have noticed that things change. Not just geological change with volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, and other changes to the earth -- but changes to life. Moths change color to adapt to pollution in the air. Birds change their migration paths due to changes in the Gulf Stream current or whether El Niño is in effect. Foxes start having white fur when their range is pushed up into colder, snowier, territories.
Changes in life take place at the genetic level. With the Human Genome Project, CRISPR, and other continued understanding, and manipulation, of the genetic code, exploring the mysteries gives us more answers. (Although, like almost every other area of knowledge, each answer generates multiple new questions.) One thing that has been found is that the genetic code has duplications, or redundancies, that appear to each facilitate the same growth process (often protein creation). Another thing found is that there are dormant sections that don't appear to do anything. How both of those work, and why they exist, are part of the continuing set of new questions.
We recognize change when it affects behavior, or appearance, or some other quality that we can notice. Before it reaches that stage there are probably changes to the genetic code that are NOT observable. The only thing we can really say about such changes is that they are not immediately fatal. If the changes were fatal, then they would not propagate to the next generations. Once these non-fatal changes accumulate to the point of being noticeable, then the next step of winnowing is how it affects survival in the environment.
Note that human technology has changed, and continues to change, how this survival mechanism works. We have more people needing glasses, or other physical aids, because we now have the technology that allows people to use their other attributes and still survive with their challenges of birth. Being severely myopic in the 16th century while living in the forest was likely soon fatal. It isn't a big thing in modern society.
Each change in the genetic code is an aspect of mutation -- having something appear which was not there before. We also have changes in the individual genetic pools due to haploid combinations -- receiving different genetic material from the female and from the male and combining the material.
When changes accumulated to start showing blue eyes rather than brown, they were noticeable. But sometimes the changes are VERY noticeable and these are leaps -- or quantum jumps in evolution. The changes were proceeding under the surface but now they surface. Although it is rarely (if ever) as dramatic as those presented within the "X-Men", once noticeable it can be considered a small change or a large leap.
As a parent of two children on the autistic spectrum, I have read a lot of the (often) contradictory information that exists. One thing that appears to be (often) true is a change in the neurological configuration of the brain. Some groups call this, and the behavioral challenges often associated with it, a "disease" but I don't look at it that way at all. It might be an evolutionary jump -- such as suggested in the books "Darwin's Radio" and "Darwin's Children" by Greg Bear. Certainly, advances pushed forward by people of history who are thought (perhaps erroneously) to be on the autistic spectrum lend weight to that theory. These are people such as Albert Einstein, Anthony Hopkins, Isaac Newton, and Nikola Tesla.
As for business. Changes can be deliberately encouraged or the result of smaller changes under the surface. Just as in genetics, smaller changes (which are non-fatal) can accumulate until something very different shows up.
No comments:
Post a Comment