The Third Evolution: main characteristics (3/3)

Here we show how the Third Evolution shares many characteristics with the Second Evolution: the blindness, the randomness, the digital base, the unicity, the diversity, the role of the environment, the inheritance. Today we finish the grand tour with diversity, environment and inheritance.

Diversity and the role of the environment

Evolution happens as a gradual matching between the diversity which is present in the system and the environment.
 

The star formation rate in a galaxy (First Evolution) is likely linked with its immediate surroundings (made of other galaxies). Spiral galaxies are all over the Universe, but they are all different from each other. We do not stop marvelling at the various shapes of galaxies. There are no two identical galaxies. We know that interaction with the other galaxies is shaping the galaxies. The environment to that galaxy is specific to that galaxy.

M51 galaxy has been collided by another galaxy, NGC5195 (Blue blob at the top). That far infrared image by Herschel Telescope shows (in blue) sites of star formation, which has been triggered by the collision. Each galaxy has its own specific history of environmental influence.

 

Bacteria can be of exactly the same species, but yet they all show slightly different shapes and contents. Ultimately, the origin of species is the response by the (Second) Evolution to various environments. Bats are adapted to nocturnal vision. Fish are adapted to the sea, and so forth.

 
The brains can look the same, but we now know that the exact wiring has been produced as an interaction between the genetic code and the environment that people get all along their life. Hence, there are not two identical brains, even with twins with the same genetic code. The diversity of human cultures is staggering. But we see how the environment has been the main driving force. Olives are a central culinary piece in Greece, not in Greenland.

Inheritance

Evolution is about gradual changes. Spontaneous and instantaneous transitions do not happen. Each species comes from an ancestor, and this is true for the three evolutions. The tree of life seems to be a generic concept: galaxies are born from the agglomeration of smaller units. The genetic material of children comes from the parents. Ideas, concepts, memes, institutions can usually be traced historically to previous ideas.

The Third Evolution: main characteristics (2/3)

Here we show how the Third Evolution shares many characteristics with the Second Evolution: the blindness, the randomness, the digital base, the unicity, the diversity, the role of the environment, the inheritance. Today we deal with unicity.

The Unicity

The Universe (First Evolution) is unique. Wherever we observe the Universe, it looks statistically homogeneous. The laws of physics seem to apply everywhere: the transition levels of hydrogen are always the same, except for light propagation effects (whether gravitational like lensing or redshift, or electromagnetic). The physical constants apply to the whole Universe. For the time being, the best explanation we have got for this lies at the very beginning of the Universe, where a period of inflation has allowed all parts of the known Universe to be connected.

Life (Second Evolution) is unique. Every cell of living organisms uses the same replication DNA-based system. It might not have been the case at the beginning: probably an RNA-based system or even a simpler system may have existed. But this has disappeared, and only one form of life exists on Earth today.

The Third Evolution is carried by the human species. It is now established that Homo Sapiens (HS) is a unique species. Neanderthal species has disappeared... The human brain has emerged from the Second Evolution, but something different is now happening: problem-solving is not left to the slow-process that is life-based tinkering evolution. Artefacts and writings are now massively increasing, outside living organisms. They are only produced by one species: Homo Sapiens. Scientists have shown that HS is rather special, not on the brain mass, but on the ratio of brain mass to total mass.

 

On that measurement rod, mice fare as well as humans! An even better predictor of "intelligence" is now thought to be the forebrain neuron count.

The Third Evolution: main characteristics (1/3)

Richard Dawkins made a compelling case about the main characteristics of the Second Evolution. Here we show how the Third Evolution shares many characteristics with the Second Evolution: the blindness, the randomness, the digital base, the unicity, the diversity, the role of the environment, the inheritance. Today we deal with the first 3 characteristics.

The Blindness

There is no purpose in the evolution of life nor in the new evolution. This was shocking news for the religions in the 19th century, as they posited the existence of an omniscient superbeing controlling everything on Earth. But Darwin's Origin of Species made a big blow in the purpose-led explanations on everything on Earth. A bat is as useful as it is useless. It has no purpose. We think that the new Evolution too has no purpose. No human being, nor any superbeing, is controlling the Evolution carried by the human brain. 

This notion is counterintuitive, as we like to think ourselves "in control". But directions and adaptations that we see in the living bodies, or from human brains, "look like" to be with a purpose. 

Most of the cultural evolution has happened without any intent. This is what we are going to show in future posts.

The Randomness

The randomness is at the heart of each of the three evolutions:

In the Universe, the fluctuations of the matter-energy density are produced during the inflation as Gaussian from quantum inherent noise. They will then grow linearly during the expansion of the Universe and eventually collapse when the Universe becomes transparent, and produce the large-scale Universe as we observe it today. So the initial conditions are random and, consequently, there are no twin galaxies in the Universe.

Biological evolution too has no built-in intent. It is the constant, relentless workout of the trial and error of genetics that has made life as we observe it today. The primary source of fluctuations in genetics (the rare failures of perfect reproduction from one genome to the next one) is either cosmic rays or viruses. Cosmic rays in a way connect the randomness on Earth to space. Viruses are a special entity that biologists have trouble to classify. But they are clearly parasites with RNA, so they are part of the living “stuff”. The source of randomness here are several folds here: the environment in which the living organisms can evolve (basically on Earth) has a large degree of fluctuations - it is far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Other species influence a given species, they can make it thrive or die.

This is one of the main hypotheses of this essay: the source of new ideas is just some randomness in our brains. Surely what comes out has been filtered by our sense of reason and emotions, but at the source of ideas, what else could be on the table, but some random stroke of genius in isolated brains?

The digital base

Mendeleev periodic table contains a list of about a hundred different kinds of atoms that can exist in the Universe. Not more. Each atom has a given discrete number of electrons. Hydrogen one. Helium two. Lithium three. And so on.

The genetic information is coded in the DNA which is stored in the nucleus of almost all living cells. DNA is a long code made with only 4 letters.

Which is the basis of the Third Evolution. Clearly, the 6000 languages over the Earth are part of the coding of what is transmitted between human beings. Languages are all made of a finite number of letters or ideograms. The infinity of combinations that can ensue is wired into the simplicity of the building blocks.

The fundamental reason why evolution can only work through discrete coding systems is that it's the way to avoid the inexorable averaging process (with the Gaussian limit theorem lurking in the background).