My Opera
On evolution
Saturday, June 14, 2008 8:02:21 PM
I will present two examples and then I will draw a conclusion.
1. The other day I was watching a lecture on TED, where the speaker (Michael Pollan) made an interesting analogy; let's take a look at the bees. They are drawn to the flowers by their looks and smell. The flowers actually make them fly onto them and "forces them" to help them (flowers) procreate. The bee is actually fooled by the flower but gets honney in return!
2. Imagine species that are really good at surviving, like sharks or aligators (or humans?), which have been around since before the dinosaurs and have changed only a little during that time. They must be really perfectly built for their purpose of living. Now; wouldn't be just great for you if you could make a shark or an aligator depend on you? That would, in a way, make your survival a lot easier. Is like befriending powerful people. There actually are birds which clean aligators teeth and I imagine those birds are somehow in advantage over the other birds, for they have a really stable source of food and protection.
The conclusion: Are we (humans) any better any better than the bees? I believe not! We too are fooled by tomatoes, cows, pigs and some birds (chickens and turkeys) which now flourish as species. If you have problem imagining that, it is probably because you see tomatoes as "food" and not as a "plant" in the ecosystem (a couple of years living in a city and shopping in supermarkets will actually do that kind of damage to your brain). But that's what it really is! Tomatoes are just plants that grow around in some places! They produce very juicy and tasty fruits which fool us to plant them more and more. In terms of business: tomatoes (along with some other plants like potatoes...) made a risky but very profitable investment. As long as we are here, they have nothing to worry about.
The deal we have with cows, birds and pigs is even more perverse; yes, we do kill individual cows but we take a really good care for the population which has never been larger.
Perhaps this is not the most scientific way to look at the evolutin, but it sure is a lot of fun!
1. The other day I was watching a lecture on TED, where the speaker (Michael Pollan) made an interesting analogy; let's take a look at the bees. They are drawn to the flowers by their looks and smell. The flowers actually make them fly onto them and "forces them" to help them (flowers) procreate. The bee is actually fooled by the flower but gets honney in return!
2. Imagine species that are really good at surviving, like sharks or aligators (or humans?), which have been around since before the dinosaurs and have changed only a little during that time. They must be really perfectly built for their purpose of living. Now; wouldn't be just great for you if you could make a shark or an aligator depend on you? That would, in a way, make your survival a lot easier. Is like befriending powerful people. There actually are birds which clean aligators teeth and I imagine those birds are somehow in advantage over the other birds, for they have a really stable source of food and protection.
The conclusion: Are we (humans) any better any better than the bees? I believe not! We too are fooled by tomatoes, cows, pigs and some birds (chickens and turkeys) which now flourish as species. If you have problem imagining that, it is probably because you see tomatoes as "food" and not as a "plant" in the ecosystem (a couple of years living in a city and shopping in supermarkets will actually do that kind of damage to your brain). But that's what it really is! Tomatoes are just plants that grow around in some places! They produce very juicy and tasty fruits which fool us to plant them more and more. In terms of business: tomatoes (along with some other plants like potatoes...) made a risky but very profitable investment. As long as we are here, they have nothing to worry about.
The deal we have with cows, birds and pigs is even more perverse; yes, we do kill individual cows but we take a really good care for the population which has never been larger.
Perhaps this is not the most scientific way to look at the evolutin, but it sure is a lot of fun!
